# Google Compute Engine (Windows Server)

Official pricing: https://cloud.google.com/compute/disks-image-pricing#windows_server_pricing  
Category: windows · Isolation: vm

## Pricing regimes (raw)

- **E2 custom machine + Windows Server licence (us-central1)** (resource): $0.02290217/vCPU-h, $0.003069707/GiB-h
- **E2 predefined machine types + Windows licence (us-central1)** (sizes): e2-highcpu-2 2 vCPU/2 GiB $0.04947024/h; e2-standard-2 2 vCPU/8 GiB $0.06701142/h; e2-highmem-2 2 vCPU/16 GiB $0.09039966/h; e2-highcpu-4 4 vCPU/4 GiB $0.09894048/h; e2-standard-4 4 vCPU/16 GiB $0.13402284/h; e2-highcpu-8 8 vCPU/8 GiB $0.19788096/h
- **E2 custom + Windows licence (europe-west1)** (resource): $0.02519304/vCPU-h, $0.003376895/GiB-h
- **E2 shared-core + Windows licence (us-central1)** (sizes): e2-small 2 vCPU/2 GiB $0.016752855/h; e2-medium 2 vCPU/4 GiB $0.03350571/h [burstable]

## Features

Yes: snapshots, pause/resume, persistent disk, volumes, ≥24 h sessions, custom image (Docker or snapshot), start from your own snapshot, full VM (own kernel), Docker inside, root, browser, desktop GUI, SSH, public IPv4, custom domains, raw TCP inbound, egress allowlist, open internet, static egress IP, private networking, SOC 2, HIPAA, SSO, GPU, arm64, Windows, HTTP method/path egress rules, audit logs, EU data residency, snapshots on demand, gVisor or VM (no shared kernel), inbound access rules, firewall inside (nftables), extra volumes, shared volumes

No: memory snapshots, fork/clone, idle auto-stop, your own Docker/OCI image, nested virtualization, systemd, computer-use API, code interpreter, browser + desktop control, anti-bot stealth, CAPTCHA solving, residential IPs, preinstalled agents, HTTPS preview URLs, self-hosting, BYOC, open source, macOS, Python, Node.js, wake on request, live resize, live fork (no pause), memory fork, webhooks, spend limits, MCP server, automatic snapshots, agent harness API, hosted agent API (their own agent), secret proxy, secret proxy for any API

Unknown: everything else. Evidence (source + quote) per feature: https://battleships.dev/data/providers/gcp-windows.json → feature_evidence

## Caveats

- Licence: 'All other machine types: $0.046 USD/hour per visible vCPU'; f1-micro/g1-small $0.023/h flat. Sustained/committed-use discounts and Spot do not discount the licence.
- Disk: balanced PD $0.000136986/GiB-h (~$0.10/GiB-month); standard snapshots $0.000068493/GiB-h (~$0.05/GiB-month), billed on compressed incremental size.
- Egress: Premium Tier to North America/Europe: first 1 GiB free, then $0.12/GiB up to 1 TiB, $0.11 to 10 TiB. Standard Tier has 200 GiB/month free but is not the default.
- External IPv4 $0.005/h for in-use addresses (NAT pricing example on the network pricing page); unassigned static IPs cost more (not encoded).
- $300 new-customer credit (Windows licences not covered by Always Free); 90-day expiry not modelled.
- Base machine price for other families (N2/N4/C3) not encoded; E2 is the cheapest general-purpose family.
- Free Trial: while the billing account is a non-billable Free Trial account you cannot create Windows Server VMs; you must upgrade to a Paid billing account first, and the $300 credit still expires 90 days after sign-up. Amortising the $300 over 12 months overstates the benefit for Windows.
- Suspend (pause_resume) is not free: suspended instance memory and device state is billed at $0.000232877/GiB-hour (~$0.17/GiB-month, us-central1) plus disks and static IPs.
- A static external IPv4 attached to a stopped VM is still 'in use' and billed $0.005/h; unassigned static IPv4 $0.01/h. Ephemeral IPs are released on stop.
- Windows Server allows only two concurrent RDP sessions without purchasing RDS CALs.
- E2 gets no sustained-use discount (SUD table lists N1/N2/N2D/C2/M1/M2 only); 1-yr/3-yr Flex/Resource CUDs cut E2 by ~28%/46%/37%/55% but never the Windows licence.

## How this provider charges


A Windows VM on GCE costs the machine price **plus a Windows Server image licence of $0.046 per visible vCPU-hour** (f1-micro / g1-small: $0.023/h flat). The licence has a 1-minute minimum, then per-second billing. Machine prices below come from the official general-purpose pricing page, rendered in Chrome on 2026-09-28 (dump: `raw/cloud_google_com_products_compute_pricing_general_purpose.txt`).

## Regime table

| # | Regime | When it applies | How billed | Numbers (us-central1) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | E2 custom + Windows licence | Custom shape | Per second after 1 min | vCPU $0.02290217/h, memory $0.003069707/GiB-h, + $0.046/vCPU-h licence. **4 vCPU/8 GiB = $0.1162 + $0.184 = $0.3002/h** | https://cloud.google.com/products/compute/pricing/general-purpose, https://cloud.google.com/compute/disks-image-pricing |
| 2 | E2 predefined + licence | Predefined type | Same | e2-highcpu-2 $0.04947; e2-standard-2 $0.06701; e2-highmem-2 $0.09040; e2-highcpu-4 $0.09894; e2-standard-4 $0.13402; e2-highcpu-8 $0.19788; e2-standard-8 $0.26805 (+ $0.046/vCPU-h) | same |
| 3 | Licence rule | Every Windows Server image | Per visible vCPU. Sustained-use, committed-use and Spot discounts do **not** apply to the licence | $0.046/vCPU-h ($0.184/h for 4 vCPU) | https://cloud.google.com/compute/disks-image-pricing |
| 4 | Persistent disk | Boot + data | Per GiB-hour provisioned, also while stopped | Balanced PD $0.000136986/GiB-h (~$0.10/GiB-month); SSD PD ~$0.17 | same |
| 5 | Snapshots | Standard snapshots | Compressed incremental GiB-hours | $0.000068493/GiB-h (~$0.05/GiB-month) | same |
| 6 | Egress (Premium Tier, default) | Internet | Tiered per GiB | 0-1 GiB free, then $0.12/GiB to 1 TiB, $0.11 to 10 TiB (NA/EU). Standard Tier: 200 GiB/month free | https://cloud.google.com/vpc/network-pricing |
| 7 | External IPv4 | In-use address | Per hour | $0.005/h | same |
| 8 | Free trial | New customer | $300 credit (Windows licences are not in Always Free) | | https://cloud.google.com/free |
| 9 | BYOL | Sole-tenant nodes | Your own licences (including Windows client) | not encoded | https://docs.cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/windows/ms-licensing |

## Gotchas

1. The licence ($0.184/h for 4 vCPU) costs **more than the E2 machine itself** ($0.116/h).
2. Committed-use and sustained-use discounts don't reduce the licence.
3. Premium-tier egress at $0.12/GiB is the priciest of the three hyperscalers. Standard Tier is cheaper but must be selected explicitly.
4. Windows client (10/11) is only available BYOL on sole-tenant nodes.

## Worked example

Workload: 4 vCPU / 8 GiB, 50 concurrent × 8 h/day × 22 days (8,800 h), 30% CPU, 50 GiB snapshots, 100 GiB egress.

Assumptions: 50 GiB balanced boot disk per VM (Windows images need ~50 GB, unverified), kept all month; ephemeral IPv4 while running.

| Regime | Compute + licence | Disks | Snapshots | Egress (99 GiB × $0.12) | IPv4 | **Monthly** |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E2 custom 4/8 ($0.30017/h) | $2,641.46 | $250.00 | $2.50 | $11.88 | $44.00 | **$2,949.84** |
| e2-standard-4 4/16 ($0.31802/h) | $2,798.60 | $250.00 | $2.50 | $11.88 | $44.00 | $3,106.98 |

The licence alone is 8,800 × $0.184 = **$1,619.20** (identical to AWS and Azure).

Sources: https://cloud.google.com/compute/disks-image-pricing · https://cloud.google.com/products/compute/pricing/general-purpose · https://cloud.google.com/vpc/network-pricing · https://docs.cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/windows/ms-licensing