When using TPUs in Google Cloud, there are additional fees associated with data transfer. These fees primarily relate to network usage, which includes both ingress (data sent to Google Cloud) and egress (data sent from Google Cloud). Inbound data transfer to Google Cloud is generally free, but there may be charges for resources that process the data. Outbound data transfer, however, incurs costs, typically at a rate of $0.12 per GB of data transferred out of Google Cloud to the internet[2][8].
For TPUs specifically, the cost is primarily associated with the TPU usage itself, billed per chip-hour, and does not directly include data transfer costs. However, if you are transferring data to or from TPUs, you will incur these network-related charges[5]. Additionally, Google Cloud Storage, which might be used in conjunction with TPUs for storing and retrieving data, also charges for data storage and network usage[3].
In summary, while TPU usage itself does not include data transfer fees, any data movement into or out of Google Cloud resources, including TPUs, may incur additional network transfer costs.
Citations:[1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67063455/google-cloud-storage-for-google-colab-tpu-pricing
[2] https://cloud.google.com/vpc/network-pricing
[3] https://www.syntio.net/en/labs-musings/machine-learning-on-gcp-cloud-tpu-vs-cloud-functions/
[4] https://www.wevolver.com/article/tpu-vs-gpu-in-ai-a-comprehensive-guide-to-their-roles-and-impact-on-artificial-intelligence
[5] https://www.googlecloudcommunity.com/gc/AI-ML/Cost-of-training-GenAI/m-p/642526/highlight/true
[6] https://towardsdatascience.com/a-comprehensive-guide-to-training-cnns-on-tpu-1beac4b0eb1c/
[7] https://futurumgroup.com/insights/google-cloud-drops-data-transfer-fees/
[8] https://www.googlecloudcommunity.com/gc/Infrastructure-Compute-Storage/quot-Network-Internet-Data-Transfer-Out-from-Americas-to/m-p/728768