Choose an AlloyDB machine type

Choosing the right machine shape for your AlloyDB for PostgreSQL cluster is critical for getting the best performance and cost efficiency for your database workload. This document helps you choose the right machine type by describing the AlloyDB machine series, their intended use cases, and how Google determines where to launch the machine series.

Having a diverse set of machine types lets you customize your AlloyDB instance for your use case, whether you have a massive dataset that benefits from a huge cache, or you have a high-concurrency transactional workload that benefits from the highest number of cores. This flexibility ensures that AlloyDB can support everything from massive, very large database workloads to standard, mission-critical applications.

Machine series overview

AlloyDB offers the following machine series, each built on a different underlying Google Cloud compute platform and optimized for specific performance characteristics.


Machine series
Core platform and CPU
Primary workload focus
Key performance differentiator

N2
3rd Generation Intel x86 (Ice Lake)
Legacy, general purpose
Available in all regions.

C4A
Google Axion ARM
Price performance, high throughput
Provides the best transaction throughput for cache-fitting workloads.

Machine series availability for AlloyDB clusters

You can choose one of the following machine series:

  • N2: this machine series provides a balanced price-to-performance ratio for a variety of AlloyDB workloads.
  • C4A Axion-based: this machine series provides optimized price-performance and delivers predictable high performance for high demand AlloyDB workloads.

N2 machine types

The following machine types are available for instances for the N2 machine series. For more information, see N2 machine series.


Machine type
vCPUs
Memory (GB)
n2-highmem-2
2
16 GB RAM
n2-highmem-4
4
32 GB RAM
n2-highmem-8
8
64 GB RAM
n2-highmem-16
16
128 GB RAM
n2-highmem-32
32
256 GB RAM
n2-highmem-64
64
512 GB RAM
n2-highmem-96
96
768 GB RAM
n2-highmem-128
128
864 GB RAM

C4A Axion-based machine types

The following machine types are available for instances for the C4A Axion-based machine series. For more information, see C4A machine series.


Machine type
vCPUs
Memory (GB)
c4a-highmem-1
2
16 GB RAM
c4a-highmem-4-lssd
4
32 GB RAM
c4a-highmem-8-lssd
8
64 GB RAM
c4a-highmem-16-lssd
16
128 GB RAM
c4a-highmem-32-lssd
32
256 GB RAM
c4a-highmem-48-lssd
48
384 GB RAM
c4a-highmem-64-lssd
64
512 GB RAM
c4a-highmem-72-lssd
72
576 GB RAM

Regional availability methodology

AlloyDB helps you deploy and scale high-availability database solutions wherever you need them.

AlloyDB requires high availability (HA) to protect your mission-critical data. This means that to launch any machine series in a given Google Cloud region, the underlying Compute Engine platform supporting that machine series must be available in all three zones within that region. This requirement ensures that when you choose a region for your AlloyDB cluster, the necessary infrastructure is redundant and geographically distributed in that area, which provides the failover capabilities that you need.

Machine series regional deployments

Use the following table to learn where you can find AlloyDB platforms. N2 offers General Availability, and C4A Axion-based offers the widest modern coverage.


Region
Machine series
N2 C4A
africa-south1
✅
–
asia-east1
✅
✅
asia-east2
✅
–
asia-northeast1
✅
–
asia-northeast2
✅
–
asia-northeast3
✅
–
asia-south1
✅
–
asia-south2
✅
–
asia-southeast1
✅
✅
asia-southeast2
✅
–
asia-southeast3
✅
–
australia-southeast1
✅
–
australia-southeast2
✅
–
europe-central2
✅
–
europe-southwest1
✅
–
europe-north1
✅
–
europe-north2
✅
–
europe-west1
✅
✅
europe-west2
✅
✅
europe-west3
✅
✅
europe-west4
✅
✅
europe-west6
✅
–
europe-west8
✅
–
europe-west9
✅
–
europe-west10
✅
–
europe-west12
✅
–
me-central1
✅
–
me-central2
✅
–
me-west1
✅
–
northamerica-northeast1
✅
–
northamerica-northeast2
✅
–
northamerica-south1
✅
–
southamerica-east1
✅
–
southamerica-west1
✅
–
us-central1
✅
✅
us-east1
✅
✅
us-east4
✅
✅
us-east5
✅
–
us-east7
✅
–
us-south1
✅
–
us-west1
✅
–
us-west2
✅
–
us-west3
✅
–
us-west4
✅
–

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