External IP Address
Google charges for external IP addresses by the hour — and charges more for a reserved address sitting idle than for one attached to a running instance. That inversion is deliberate: it is a nudge to release addresses you are hoarding.
Billed: Per address-hour. Reserved addresses that are NOT attached to a running resource are charged at a higher rate than attached ones.
What triggers this charge
- Static addresses reserved for a service that has since been deleted or migrated.
- Ephemeral addresses on running instances, billed at the attached rate.
- A pool of addresses reserved "in case we need them", which is exactly the case the higher idle rate is designed to discourage.
How to reduce it
Release unattached static addresses
Small per address, and there are usually more than anyone expects. It is one of the shortest paths from a billing report to a fixed problem.
Use Cloud NAT for outbound-only workloads
Instances that only need to reach out do not need their own external address. Weigh this against NAT data-processing charges for high-volume egress.
Share one load balancer address across services
Host- and path-based routing lets many services share a single address rather than reserving one each.
Rates
Related charges
Now find out how much of this you are actually paying.
Finitizer breaks your Google Cloud bill down to the SKU, shows how each one has moved since last week, and separates rate changes from usage changes — so you know whether to talk to engineering or to procurement.