{"rid":"egress/gcp-passthrough-nlb","card":{"rid":"egress/gcp-passthrough-nlb","eid":"google","topic":"egress","slug":"gcp-passthrough-nlb","provider":"Google Cloud external passthrough Network Load Balancer","url":"https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/network","domain":"google.com","category":"L4 passthrough load balancer (regional)","tier":"payg","verdict":"paid-only","vorder":3,"grp":"paid","confidence":"documented","binding":"write-gated","identity_kind":"card","identity_basis":"stated","needs_card":1,"needs_phone":0,"needs_id":0,"needs_institution":0,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":"rest,cli","egress_metered":0,"per_object_bytes":null,"retention_days":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-23T00:00:00.000Z","verified_basis":"live","checked_on":"2026-10-23","stale_on":"2026-11-22","n_evidence":2,"usd_month":null,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"No free tier is stated for the load balancer. Backends must be instance groups or NEGs: These backends must be in the same region and project.","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":2},"record":{"topic":"egress","slug":"gcp-passthrough-nlb","provider":"Google Cloud external passthrough Network Load Balancer","url":"https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/network","category":"L4 passthrough load balancer (regional)","tier":"payg","free_tier":{"stated":"No free tier is stated for the load balancer. Backends must be instance groups or NEGs: These backends must be in the same region and project.","unit":"none","metered_on":"none","source_url":"https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/network","read_on":"2026-10-23","notes":""},"per_object_cap":{"stated":"not applicable","bytes":null,"source_url":"https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/network","notes":""},"retention":{"stated":"not applicable","days":null,"source_url":"https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/network","notes":""},"egress":{"terms":"No byte allowance: a forwarding rule is billed hourly and the traffic is billed at Cloud egress rates. The price page could not be read - its extraction returned an unrelated domain-price table.; ingress: tcp+udp","metered":false,"free_allowance":"none published","price_per_tb":null,"source_url":"https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/network"},"interface":["rest","cli"],"interface_detail":"a forwarding rule selects address, protocol and ports and points at one regional backend service","tooling":"gcloud, the API or the console; a forwarding rule plus a backend service and health check","chaining":"only with a GCP backend, so it chains with a free GCP e2-micro but that VM already has a public IP","limits":[{"kind":"write-gated","value":"backends must be instance groups or zonal NEGs in the same region and project as the load balancer","source":"https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/network"}],"limits_note":"","binding":"write-gated","binding_note":"At 1 TiB/month the first thing that stops the client is not a byte count but the backend requirement: the service must already run in the same GCP project and region, which means the origin already has a public address of its own.","identity_cost":{"kind":"card","detail":"A Google Cloud project with billing enabled; the free trial credit is a credit, not a free tier for this product.","country":"None"},"reliability_note":"none recorded","confidence":"documented","confidence_note":"The protocol list and the backend constraint are quoted from the page read today. The price is unverified because the pricing page extraction failed, so the record cannot support a cost claim.","evidence":[{"url":"https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/network","date":"2026-10-23","proved":"Backend service-based regional external passthrough Network Load Balancers can load-balance TCP, UDP, ESP, GRE, ICMP, and ICMPv6 traffic."},{"url":"https://cloud.google.com/load-balancing/docs/network","date":"2026-10-23","proved":"These backends must be in the same region and project but can be in different VPC networks."}],"verdict":"paid-only","verified_at":"2026-10-23T00:00:00.000Z","price_per_tb_month":"unverified","notes":"UDP is documented and the address can be Premium Tier, which is anycast to the nearest region. It still adds no reachability a GCP VM's own external IP does not already provide, and it is regional rather than global for L4. Hybrid NEGs can point at on-premises hosts through Cloud VPN or Interconnect, which is a route but not a cheap one.","extras":{"wg_path":"inside-udp","wg_detail":"The backend service forwards TCP, UDP, ESP, GRE, ICMP and ICMPv6, so a WireGuard datagram reaches a GCE backend on the forwarding rule's port.","ingress":"tcp+udp","volume_tib_month":null,"volume_stated":"No byte allowance: a forwarding rule is billed hourly and the traffic is billed at Cloud egress rates. The price page could not be read - its extraction returned an unrelated domain-price table.","bytes_transit":"yes","transit_note":"Google's network carries the bytes to the backend"}},"claims":[{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:write-gated","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"},{"path":"$.price_per_tb_month","kind":"price-per-tb","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"}],"unknown":[["$.per_object_cap.stated","not-applicable"],["$.retention.stated","not-applicable"]],"history":[],"drift":[]}