GCP L4 Pricing Options
All available L4 instance types on GCP, sorted by lowest hourly rate.
| Region | Instance | Type | Price/hr | GPUs | vCPUs | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| us-central1 | g2-standard-4 | On-Demand | $0.7081/hr Cheapest | 1× GPU | 4 vCPU | 16 GB |
| us-central1 | g2-standard-8 | On-Demand | $1.1163/hr | 1× GPU | 8 vCPU | 32 GB |
| us-central1 | g2-standard-16 | On-Demand | $1.9328/hr | 1× GPU | 16 vCPU | 64 GB |
| us-central1 | g2-standard-32 | On-Demand | $3.5659/hr | 2× GPU | 32 vCPU | 128 GB |
| us-central1 | g2-standard-48 | On-Demand | $6.1322/hr | 4× GPU | 48 vCPU | 192 GB |
| us-central1 | g2-standard-96 | On-Demand | $10.6648/hr | 8× GPU | 96 vCPU | 384 GB |
About GCP L4 Cloud Pricing
Google Cloud Platform offers GPU compute through its A2, A3, and G2 machine series, with deep integration into Vertex AI, TPU pods, and Google's proprietary ML infrastructure.
Why Choose GCP for L4
- TPU v5p available alongside GPU options for specific workloads
- Vertex AI for managed ML pipelines
- Sustained use discounts (automatic, no commitment needed)
- Preemptible VMs for up to 60–91% savings on batch jobs
Best suited for: Teams using TensorFlow/JAX who want access to both GPU and TPU hardware, plus managed ML services via Vertex AI.
L4 Technical Overview
The L4 is a low-power (72W TDP) inference GPU designed for dense deployment. It provides strong INT8 and FP8 throughput relative to its power consumption and cost.
Pricing Analysis
GCP's cheapest L4 option starts at $0.7081/hr, which is 48% below the market average of $1.3641/hr. GCP currently offers on-demand pricing only for L4. This means no commitment required, but you won't access the deeper discounts available from reserved or spot pricing.
Note: GCP's sustained use discounts provide automatic savings without commitments, but their GPU availability can be more constrained than AWS in certain regions.
Market context: The L4 is one of the most cost-efficient GPUs for inference at scale. Multiple L4s often outperform a single expensive GPU on throughput-per-dollar for inference workloads.
Top Alternatives to GCP for L4
Side-by-side cost comparison vs the cheapest GCP L4 rate ($0.7081/hr).
| Provider | Price/hr | Type | vs GCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vast.ai | $0.3356/hr | Spot | -53% cheaper vs GCP |
| RunPod | $0.4400/hr | On-Demand | -38% cheaper vs GCP |
| Google Cloud | $0.7000/hr | On-Demand | -1% cheaper vs GCP |
| AWS | $0.8048/hr | On-Demand | +14% more vs GCP |
| OVHcloud | $0.9500/hr | On-Demand | +34% more vs GCP |
Calculate Your Exact L4 Cost
Enter your hours, job type, and GPU count. Our calculator compares GCP against all 32 providers instantly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not sure which GPU configuration fits your budget?
Get a personalized recommendation based on your monthly budget, workload, and real pricing data from all 58 providers.
Is a reserved contract worth it here?
Get the break-even math for GCP L4 — calculated from real 90-day pricing data, not an LLM.