{"rid":"compute/google-cloud-shell","card":{"rid":"compute/google-cloud-shell","eid":"google","topic":"compute","slug":"google-cloud-shell","provider":"Google Cloud Shell","url":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/limitations","domain":"google.com","category":"shared shell","tier":"free with a Google account","verdict":"qualifies-with-caveat","vorder":1,"grp":"usable","confidence":"documented","binding":"volume-quota","identity_kind":"email","identity_basis":"stated","needs_card":0,"needs_phone":0,"needs_id":0,"needs_institution":0,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":"ssh","egress_metered":0,"per_object_bytes":null,"retention_days":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-24T01:52:00.000Z","verified_basis":"live","checked_on":"2026-10-25","stale_on":"2026-11-24","n_evidence":11,"usd_month":0,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"50 hours a week of Cloud Shell, a 12-hour session cap, non-interactive sessions ended after 40 minutes, and 5 GB of persistent disk mounted as $HOME","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":0},"record":{"topic":"compute","per_object_cap":{"stated":"not applicable: the unit is a session, not an object"},"interface":["ssh"],"interface_detail":"the browser terminal, or the gcloud CLI over a tunnel; no inbound port","tooling":"a full shell with gcloud, git, docker and language runtimes","chaining":"a 5 GB home directory that outlives the VM, and nothing else","limits":[{"kind":"volume-quota","value":"50 hours a week, resetting weekly","source":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/quotas-limits"},{"kind":"volume-quota","value":"40 minutes for a non-interactive session; 12 hours maximum","source":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/quotas-limits"},{"kind":"per-object-cap","value":"5 GB of persistent $HOME","source":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/quotas-limits"}],"limits_note":"the 12-hour cap and the 40-minute non-interactive timeout are two different clocks and both bind","reliability_note":"the backing VM is not dedicated and terminates after 40 minutes of inactivity, so a background process does not survive the tab","confidence":"documented","verified_at":"2026-10-24T01:52:00.000Z","price_per_tb_month":null,"notes":"RAM and CPU are not on the quotas page read today, so the shape is unverified. The 40-minute non-interactive rule is the decisive sentence for a daemon, and it is quoted verbatim.","slug":"google-cloud-shell","provider":"Google Cloud Shell","url":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/limitations","category":"shared shell","free_tier":{"stated":"50 hours a week of Cloud Shell, a 12-hour session cap, non-interactive sessions ended after 40 minutes, and 5 GB of persistent disk mounted as $HOME","unit":"hours","metered_on":"wall-clock","source_url":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/quotas-limits","notes":"The 50 hours is weekly, not monthly, which makes it the largest published hour budget.","read_on":"2026-10-24"},"retention":{"stated":"5 GB of $HOME persists between sessions and counts towards the 5 GB limit; anything outside $HOME is lost when the instance terminates","days":null,"source_url":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/quotas-limits"},"egress":{"terms":"no separate egress allowance published for Cloud Shell itself","metered":false,"free_allowance":null,"source_url":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/quotas-limits"},"identity_cost":{"kind":"email","detail":"a Google account; no card, and no Cloud project is needed to open Cloud Shell itself","country":null},"evidence":[{"url":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/limitations","date":"2026-10-06","proved":"'Non-interactive sessions are ended automatically after 40 minutes. Cloud Shell sessions are capped at 12 hours'"},{"url":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/limitations","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"read live: 12-hour session cap and 40-minute non-interactive timeout"},{"url":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/quotas-limits","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'The default weekly Cloud Shell quota is 50 hours.'"},{"url":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/quotas-limits","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'Cloud Shell provisions 5 GB of free persistent disk storage mounted as your $HOME directory'"},{"url":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/quotas-limits","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'terminates if your session is inactive for 40 minutes. After the instance is terminated, any modifications that you made outside your $HOME directory are lost.'"},{"url":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/quotas-limits","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'Cloud Shell sessions are capped at 12 hours, after which sessions automatically terminate.'"},{"url":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/quotas-limits","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'To prevent your $HOME directory from being deleted due to inactivity for 120 days, start a session.'"},{"url":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/quotas-limits","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'Cloud Shell is intended for interactive use only. Non-interactive sessions are ended automatically after 40 minutes. Cloud Shell sessions are capped at 12 hours, after which sessions automatically terminate.'"},{"url":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/quotas-limits","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted, with a link and code span in the original: 'Cloud Shell provisions 5 GB of free [persistent disk storage](https://docs.cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/persistent-disks) mounted as your `$HOME` directory on the virtual machine instance.'"},{"url":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/quotas-limits","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted, with the code span preserved: 'terminates if your session is inactive for 40 minutes. After the instance is terminated, any modifications that you made outside your `$HOME` directory are lost.'"},{"url":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/quotas-limits","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'If you reach your quota, you'll need to wait until the date and time specified before you can use Cloud Shell again'"}],"verdict":"qualifies-with-caveat","extras":{"shape":{"vcpu":null,"ram_gib":null,"disk_gib":5,"gpu_class":null,"gpu_count":null,"note":"the quotas page does not state vCPU or RAM; the ephemeral VM shape is unverified"},"billing_model":"free","session_cap":{"wall_clock_min":720,"idle_reap_s":2400,"restart_required":true,"note":"12 h maximum; 40 min non-interactive cut; 50 h/week"},"keep_rate":{"value":0,"basis":"the VM is ephemeral and free","source":"https://cloud.google.com/shell/docs/limitations"},"persistent_storage":{"included_gib":5,"price_gib_month":"free","durability":"$HOME only","survives_stop":true,"survives_destroy":false,"max_retention":"while the account exists"},"network_out":{"allow_outbound":true,"allow_inbound_listen":false,"ports":"outbound; inbound only through the web preview proxy","static_ip":false,"ipv6":false,"per_session_bytes":null},"free_tier_kind":"free-forever-with-quota","census_rows":["google-cloud-shell"],"shape_note":"Google does not publish the vCPU or RAM of the Cloud Shell VM on the quotas page; only the 5 GB $HOME is stated. Both are null rather than guessed.","term":"none","m10h_usd":0,"m24h_usd":0,"price_arithmetic":"USD 0.00 for the weekly allowance","unattended":false,"unattended_mechanism":"none: 'Non-interactive sessions are ended automatically after 40 minutes'","units":"RAM and disk are quoted in the vendor's own decimal GB, not GiB. The ram_gib and disk_gib keys carry the vendor's number unconverted, so where a vendor writes 30 GB the key holds 30 and the true value is about 27.9 GiB. No conversion was performed."},"confidence_note":"quota, session caps and disk are quoted from Google's quotas-and-limits page today. The page I first tried, /shell/docs/quotas, is a 404; the live path is /shell/docs/quotas-limits.","tier":"free with a Google account","binding":"volume-quota","binding_note":"the 40-minute non-interactive cut is what kills a daemon; the 50-hour week is generous but unrunnable unattended"},"claims":[{"path":"$.extras.m10h_usd","kind":"price","num":0,"unit":null,"per":"month","currency":"USD","usd":0,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.extras.m24h_usd","kind":"price","num":0,"unit":null,"per":"month","currency":"USD","usd":0,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":50,"unit":"hours","per":"week","currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:volume-quota","num":50,"unit":"hours","per":"week","currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[1].value","kind":"limit:volume-quota","num":40,"unit":"minutes","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[2].value","kind":"limit:per-object-cap","num":5,"unit":"GB","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"}],"unknown":[],"history":[],"drift":[]}