Free tier VMs in cloud services like Oracle Cloud and Google Cloud do come with performance limitations. Here are some key points to consider:
- Oracle Cloud Free Tier: The free tier includes specific limits on compute resources, such as 3,000 OCPU hours and 18,000 GB hours per month. For VMs, you can create up to four instances, with specific configurations like 2x VM.Standard.E2.1.Micro for x86 and 24GB RAM, 4 OCPU for ARM. Idle instances may be reclaimed if they don't meet certain utilization thresholds[2][4][7].
- Disk Performance: Oracle Cloud allows adjusting disk performance without triggering a "limit reached" warning, even at the maximum setting. However, actual performance benefits may vary depending on the instance type and volume size[1].
- Google Cloud Free Tier: Google's free tier for Compute Engine is time-based, not instance-based. You can use e2-micro instances for free until you reach a monthly usage limit. External IP addresses are included in the free tier, but GPUs and TPUs are not[6].
Overall, while free tier VMs offer significant resources, they are designed for small projects or testing and have limitations to prevent overuse.
Citations:
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/oraclecloud/comments/1dvxjry/vpu_disk_performance_free_in_free_tier/
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/oraclecloud/comments/16ls9kv/can_i_create_three_vms_being_free_tier/
[3] https://dev.to/dkechag/cloud-provider-comparison-2024-vm-performance-price-3h4l
[4] https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/175155/how-many-vms-can-i-create-using-oracle-cloud-free-tier
[5] https://albertlacasta.com/free-virtual-machine-oracle-cloud/
[6] https://cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features
[7] https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/
[8] https://www.oracle.com/pk/cloud/free/