Create a free trial instance

This page guides you through the process of creating and managing a Cloud SQL free trial instance.

For more information on how Cloud SQL free trial instances work and its features and inclusions, see Cloud SQL free trial instance overview.

Before you begin

  1. Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

  2. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

    Roles required to select or create a project

    • Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
    • Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator role (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

    Go to project selector

  3. Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

  4. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

    Roles required to select or create a project

    • Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
    • Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator role (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

    Go to project selector

  5. Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

You are not charged for the free trial instance and instance resources, but you are charged for data transfer costs for connections outside the region, through the public internet, and for taking and storing your final backup. For more information, see Trial inclusions and conditions.

Create a free trial instance

To create a free trial instance, do the following:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud SQL Get Started page.

    Go to Cloud SQL Get Started

  2. In the Experience Cloud SQL at no cost for 30 days section, complete the following:

    • In the Database Engine field, select the database engine for your free trial instance.
    • In the Instance ID field, enter a name for your instance. The instance ID must start with a letter, and only use lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens.
    • In the Password field, enter a password you'd like. This password is used to connect to the default database.
    • In the Region field, select your instance's region.

  3. Click Create free instance.

    After you create the free trial instance, you're redirected to the Overview page. You can view your instance configurations, edit your instance, and the days left in your trial on this page.

Check free trial instance time

To check your free trial instance's remaining time, do the following:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud SQL Instances page.

    Go to Cloud SQL Instances

  2. Click your free trial instance name.
  3. In the Overview page, your trial's remaining time is shown at the top of the page.

Upgrade a free trial instance

To upgrade your free trial instance, complete the following steps:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud SQL Instances page.

    Go to Cloud SQL Instances

  2. Click your free trial instance name.
  3. In the Overview page, click Upgrade now in the Days left on trial banner.

  4. In the Upgrade your Cloud SQL free instance page, click Upgrade now.

    After the upgrade completes, the Overview page no longer shows the days left on trial information, and any limitations that apply to the free trial instance are removed.

    You can change your instance machine size and other settings after upgrading your instance.

Delete a free trial instance

To delete your free trial instance, complete the following steps:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud SQL Instances page.

    Go to Cloud SQL Instances

  2. Click your free trial instance name.
  3. In the Instance overview page, click Delete.

  4. In the Delete instance window, complete the following:

    1. In the text field, confirm that you want to delete your free trial instance by typing your instance's ID in the Instance ID field.

    2. If you want to take a final backup of the instance, select the Take a final backup checkbox. Expand the Retention options menu, then enter the number of days to retain the final backup in the Retain for field. The default value is 30 days, but you can specify from 1 to 365 days. You are charged for taking and storing the final backup.

    3. In the Describe this backup field, you can optionally provide a description of the backup.

    4. Click Delete.

      Your free trial instance is scheduled for deletion.

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