Stay organized with collections
Save and categorize content based on your preferences.
Google Cloud TPUs are custom-designed AI accelerators created by Google that are
optimized for training and using of large AI models. They are designed to
scale cost-efficiently for a wide range of AI workloads and provide versatility
to accelerate inference workloads on AI frameworks, including PyTorch, JAX, and
TensorFlow. For more details about TPUs, see Introduction to
Google Cloud TPU.
Prerequisites for using TPUs in Dataflow
Your Google Cloud projects must be approved to use this GA offering.
Limitations
This offering is subject to the following limitations:
Only single-host TPU accelerators are supported: The
Dataflow TPU offering supports only single-host TPU
configurations where each Dataflow worker manages one or many
TPU devices that are not interconnected with TPUs managed by other workers.
Only homogenous TPU worker pools are supported: Features like
Dataflow right fitting and Dataflow Prime
don't support TPU workloads.
Pricing
Dataflow jobs that use TPUs are billed for worker TPU chip-hours
consumed and are not billed for worker CPU and memory. For more information, see
the Dataflow pricing page.
Availability
The following TPU accelerators and processing regions are available.
Supported TPU accelerators
The supported TPU accelerator combinations are identified by the tuple (TPU
type, TPU topology).
TPU type refers to the model of the TPU device.
TPU topology refers to the number and physical arrangement of the TPU
chips in a slice.
To configure the type and topology of TPUs for Dataflow workers,
use the worker_accelerator pipeline
option formatted as
type:TPU_TYPE;topology:TPU_TOPOLOGY.
The following TPU configurations are supported with Dataflow:
TPU type
Topology
Required worker_machine_type
tpu-v5-lite-podslice
1x1
ct5lp-hightpu-1t
tpu-v5-lite-podslice
2x2
ct5lp-hightpu-4t
tpu-v5-lite-podslice
2x4
ct5lp-hightpu-8t
tpu-v6e-slice
1x1
ct6e-standard-1t
tpu-v6e-slice
2x2
ct6e-standard-4t
tpu-v6e-slice
2x4
ct6e-standard-8t
tpu-v5p-slice
2x2x1
ct5p-hightpu-4t
Regions
For information about available regions and zones for TPUs, see TPU regions and
zones in the Cloud TPU documentation.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-27 UTC."],[],[],null,["| **Note:** The Dataflow TPU offering is generally available with an allowlist. To get access to this feature, reach out to your account team.\n\nGoogle Cloud TPUs are custom-designed AI accelerators created by Google that are\noptimized for training and using of large AI models. They are designed to\nscale cost-efficiently for a wide range of AI workloads and provide versatility\nto accelerate inference workloads on AI frameworks, including PyTorch, JAX, and\nTensorFlow. For more details about TPUs, see [Introduction to\nGoogle Cloud TPU](/tpu/docs/intro-to-tpu).\n\nPrerequisites for using TPUs in Dataflow\n\n- Your Google Cloud projects must be approved to use this GA offering.\n\nLimitations\n\nThis offering is subject to the following limitations:\n\n- **Only single-host TPU accelerators are supported**: The Dataflow TPU offering supports only single-host TPU configurations where each Dataflow worker manages one or many TPU devices that are not interconnected with TPUs managed by other workers.\n- **Only homogenous TPU worker pools are supported**: Features like Dataflow right fitting and Dataflow Prime don't support TPU workloads.\n\nPricing\n\nDataflow jobs that use TPUs are billed for worker TPU chip-hours\nconsumed and are not billed for worker CPU and memory. For more information, see\nthe Dataflow [pricing page](/dataflow/pricing).\n\nAvailability\n\nThe following TPU accelerators and processing regions are available.\n\nSupported TPU accelerators\n\nThe supported TPU accelerator combinations are identified by the tuple (TPU\ntype, TPU topology).\n\n- **TPU type** refers to the model of the TPU device.\n- **TPU topology** refers to the number and physical arrangement of the TPU chips in a slice.\n\nTo configure the type and topology of TPUs for Dataflow workers,\nuse the [`worker_accelerator` pipeline\noption](/dataflow/docs/reference/service-options) formatted as\n`type:TPU_TYPE;topology:TPU_TOPOLOGY`.\n\nThe following TPU configurations are supported with Dataflow:\n\n| TPU type | Topology | Required `worker_machine_type` |\n|----------------------|----------|--------------------------------|\n| tpu-v5-lite-podslice | 1x1 | ct5lp-hightpu-1t |\n| tpu-v5-lite-podslice | 2x2 | ct5lp-hightpu-4t |\n| tpu-v5-lite-podslice | 2x4 | ct5lp-hightpu-8t |\n| tpu-v6e-slice | 1x1 | ct6e-standard-1t |\n| tpu-v6e-slice | 2x2 | ct6e-standard-4t |\n| tpu-v6e-slice | 2x4 | ct6e-standard-8t |\n| tpu-v5p-slice | 2x2x1 | ct5p-hightpu-4t |\n\nRegions\n\nFor information about available regions and zones for TPUs, see [TPU regions and\nzones](/tpu/docs/regions-zones) in the Cloud TPU documentation.\n\nWhat's next\n\n- Learn how to [run an Apache Beam pipeline on Dataflow with\n TPUs](/dataflow/docs/tpu/use-tpus).\n- Learn how to [troubleshoot your Dataflow TPU\n job](/dataflow/docs/tpu/troubleshoot-tpus)."]]
