I am here in the US using a e2-micro for a OpenVPN setup, but before I want to continue I have to make sure its absolutely free. I heard that network egress is charged so I am not sure if this solution would work? Does OpenVPN require whatever network egress is? If so, what is the limit of data I can send/recieve between my VM?
I heard that network egress is charged
Yes it is.
Pricing: https://cloud.google.com/vpc/network-pricing
As long as you pay there should be no limit on transfer (excluding TBs of data ofc)
Please be careful here, as you can end up with a very, very hefty GCP bill. For example, 1 TB of data, excluding free tiers, is ~120 dollars a month.
Also consider that a VPN has to send data twice: your request data to the remote service, and the data back to your computer. This leads to charges for both ways the data travels.
If you configure it correctly, which is not always easy, as you have to use some non-default values, you can have 1 free Google VPS which can be used as a VPS server, but the data used by the VPN can be expensive, as they start charging you after the first Gbyte. I now use Oracle’s free tier as my VPN server as they allow 10TB of free data transfer per month, and I use my free Google VPS for other tasks.
With Google, if you goof-up your usage or configuration, your free server can cost you big bucks! So be careful. With Oracle, if you do not upgrade from the Oracle always free tier, Oracle will never charge you, and they will just prevent you from using services that cost money.
Piggybacking here. I am trying to set up GCP so it automatically shuts down instead of charging money.
Am I right in deducing that this is very complicated and not guaranteed, even with the budgets and alerts option?
Can I sign up for GCP with a Visa Gift Card or something to protect me?