Add a credit card to your project's billing account if you haven't done so to continue using Google App Engine Standard.

Hello Google App Engine Customer,

We're writing to remind you that after November 30, 2019, App Engine Standard will use Google Cloud Build during deployments to build your code into a container before running it on our platform.

Cloud Build requires all projects to be linked to a billing instrument (for example, a credit card), so please ensure your projects containing App Engine applications are linked to a billing account with a valid billing instrument. Applications without billing instruments will be unable to deploy after November 30, 2019. If your projects are already linked to billing accounts with a valid billing instrument, you can stop reading now.

What do I need to know?

After November 30, 2019, App Engine will use Google Cloud Build to build Python 2.7, Java 8, and PHP 5.5 code into a container during the deployment process. This change is completely transparent, and will have no effect on your deployment workflow. Using Cloud Build provides the following benefits over the current process:

  • More detailed build output including verbose warnings and errors.
  • The ability to view build history in the Cloud Build section of the Cloud Console.
  • [Coming soon] The ability to include any dependency/library in your code compared to the predefined set available in App Engine 1st generation runtimes.

Cloud Build has a generous free tier where only usage above 120 build-minutes per day will be charged. We estimate that the vast majority of users will fall within the free tier and won't be charged for the Cloud Build portion of App Engine deployments. The table below summarizes current pricing, see Cloud Build pricing for more information.

Machine Type Virtual CPUs Free minutes / day Price / Build-minute
n1-standard-1 1 120 $0.003

As Cloud Build requires a billing instrument, after November 30, 2019, you will be unable to deploy your application if your project is not linked to a billing account with a valid billing instrument (for example, a credit card). Please also note that adding a billing instrument will result in charges for App Engine usage above the free tier, where previously your application had been shut down.

What do I need to do?

If you do not have a credit card or other billing instrument associated with your App Engine application, to avoid any disruption, please take the steps below to add one before November 30, 2019:

  1. Create a billing account (if you do not already have one).
  2. Add your credit card or other billing instrument as a Payment Method.
  3. Link your project(s) to the billing account.

If you are currently relying on the free tier as a cost control mechanism, you will need to make a configuration change to maintain the current behavior. You must set a Cloud Budget Alert and manually shut off your app, or set the max_instances setting to 1 in app.yaml to never go above the free tier.

The following projects have App Engine applications which may be affected by this change:

If you have any questions or require assistance, please contact Google Cloud Billing Support.

Thank you for being a valued App Engine customer.


Was this information helpful?
YES   NO
Sincerely,
The Google App Engine Team