This page helps you find the right place to get started learning the fundamentals you need to use GKE, whether you're an experienced Kubernetes user or a complete beginner.
New to Google Cloud?
GKE relies on and can be used with many other Google Cloud services, from IAM for access control to Cloud Billing for managing your costs. To get started with Google Cloud basics, see the following:
- Google Cloud overview
- Compare AWS and Azure services with Google Cloud: If you're familiar with other public cloud providers, this guide can help you understand how Google Cloud services and features map to theirs.
- Google Cloud CLI: Learn about the Google Cloud CLI command line tool for creating and managing Google Cloud resources.
- Cloud Quotas: Learn how Google Cloud uses quotas to monitor and manage your Google Cloud resource usage, including when using GKE.
New to containers?
GKE is based on Kubernetes, and Kubernetes is a container orchestration platform. If you're completely new to the world of containerized applications, start here!
- Kubernetes comic
- What are containers?
- Tutorial: Introducing containers: Learn about containers and container orchestration with a simple example application deployed on GKE
New to Kubernetes?
A lot of the documentation on this site assumes that you're already familiar with basic Kubernetes concepts and terminology. If you're not, the following resources can help you get started:
- Start learning about Kubernetes: A quick overview of Kubernetes fundamentals, with links to recommended reading.
- Kubernetes comic
- Kubernetes.io: The official Kubernetes website, with tutorials, how-tos, reference docs, and more.
- Video playlist: Learn Kubernetes with Google
New to GKE?
If you're already familiar with containers and Kubernetes (for example, if you're familiar with another Kubernetes implementation), the following can help you get started with GKE, including learning about key features, options, and benefits.
- GKE overview
- See GKE in action with a simple example in one of our
quickstarts:
- Create a cluster in the Google Cloud console: The simplest way to see our "hello world" example.
- Create a cluster with Terraform: A "hello world" example for users who prefer to use Terraform.
- GKE and Cloud Run: GKE isn't Google Cloud's only way to run containerized applications. Learn about our serverless option Cloud Run and when it's a good idea to use GKE, Cloud Run, or both together.
- GKE modes of operation: Learn about GKE's Autopilot and Standard modes.
- GKE editions: Choose GKE's standard tier of core functionality, or add advanced features with the enterprise tier.
- Video playlist: GKE essentials
Want to explore GKE further?
Even if you're already familiar with GKE basics, you might want to learn more about some of its more specialized features, as described in the following guides:
- About security in GKE: Learn about GKE's security features.
- Network overview: Learn about GKE's networking features
- Fleet management: Learn about managing multiple GKE clusters together with fleets.
- Team management: For administrators, learn about managing teams of GKE users and their access to Google Cloud resources.
- Deploy AI/ML workloads: Learn about running AI/ML workloads on GKE with specialized hardware.
See also Explore GKE documentation for a guide to where to find all the documentation for GKE features and products.
What's next
- If you'd like to deploy and explore a more complex application than our quickstart, follow our Learning path: Scalable applications. This multi-part tutorial lets you learn about and explore core GKE features with a sample online bank application.
- When you're ready to start using GKE in real projects, see our Cluster lifecycle guide and the other pages in our Get started section for all you need to know to start planning, creating, managing, and working with clusters.
- To deploy and explore more examples that use GKE with other Google Cloud services and get ideas for your own applications, try our Jump Start Solutions: