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Preemptible and Spot VMs offer deep discounts (60-91% off on-demand prices) in exchange for the possibility that Google Cloud may terminate (preempt) the instance when it needs the capacity back. Understanding how they work, their limitations, and how to design fault-tolerant architectures around them is key to significant cost savings.
Spot VMs are the current recommended type of discounted, preemptible compute on Google Cloud. They replaced the legacy "Preemptible VMs" and offer the same deep discounts with additional features.
| Feature | Spot VMs | Preemptible VMs (Legacy) |
|---|---|---|
| Discount | 60-91% off on-demand | 60-91% off on-demand |
| Max lifetime | No maximum (can run indefinitely if not preempted) | 24-hour maximum |
| Availability | Based on spare capacity in the zone | Based on spare capacity in the zone |
| Preemption notice | 30-second warning via ACPI signal | 30-second warning via ACPI signal |
| Recommended | Yes — use for all new workloads | No — legacy, use Spot VMs instead |
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