This document describes the machine families, machine series, and machine typesthat you can choose from to create a virtual machine (VM) instance or bare metalinstance with the resources that you need. When you create a compute instance,you select a machine type from a machine family that determines the resourcesavailable to that instance.

There are several machine families you can choose from. Each machine family isfurther organized into machine series and predefined machine types within eachseries. For example, within the N2 machine series in the general-purposemachine family, you can select then2-standard-4 machine type.

For information about machine series that supportSpot VMs (and preemptible VMs), seeCompute Engine instances provisioning models.

Compute Engine terminology

This documentation uses the following terms:

• Machine family: A curated set of processor and hardware configurationsoptimized for specific workloads, for example, General-purpose,Accelerator-optimized, or Memory-optimized.

• Machine series: Machine families are further classified by series,generation, and processor type.

  • Each series focuses on a different aspect of computing power orperformance. For example, the E series offers efficient VMs at a low cost,while the C series offer better performance.

  • The generation is denoted by an ascending number. For example, the N1 serieswithin the general-purpose machine family is the older version of the N2series.A higher generation or series number usually indicates newer underlyingCPU platforms or technologies. For example, the M3 series, which runs onIntel Xeon Scalable Processor 3rd Generation (Ice Lake), is a newergeneration than the M2 series, which runs on Intel Xeon Scalable Processor2nd Generation (Cascade Lake).

    Generation	Intel	AMD	Arm
    4th generation machine series	N4, C4, X4, M4, A4	C4D	C4A, A4X
    3rd generation machine series	C3, H3, Z3, M3, A3	C3D	N/A
    2nd generation machine series	N2, E2, C2, M2, A2, G2	N2D, C2D, T2D, E2	T2A

• Machine type: Every machine series offers at least one machine type. Eachmachine type provides a set of resources for your compute instance, such asvCPUs, memory, disks, and GPUs. If a predefined machine type does not meetyour needs, you can also create acustom machine type forsome machine series.

The following sections describe the different machine types.

Predefined machine types

Predefined machine types come with a non-configurable amount of memory andvCPUs. Predefined machine types use a variety of vCPU to memory ratios:

• highcpu — from 1 to 3 GB memory per vCPU; typically,2 GB memory per vCPU.
• standard — from 3 to 7 GB memory per vCPU; typically,4 GB memory per vCPU.
• highmem — from 7 to 14 GB memory per vCPU; typically,8 GB memory per vCPU.
• megamem — from 14 to 19 GB memory per vCPU
• hypermem — from 19 to 24 GB memory per vCPU; typically,21 GB memory per vCPU
• ultramem — from 24 to 31 GB memory per vCPU

For example, ac3-standard-22 machine type has 22 vCPUs, and as astandard machine type, it also has 88 GB of memory.

Local SSD machine types

Local SSD machine types are special predefined machine types. The machine typenames includelssd. When you create a compute instance using one of thefollowing machine types,Titanium SSD or Local SSD disksare automatically attached to the instance:

• -lssd: Available with the C4, C4A, C4D, C3, and C3D machine series, these machinetypes attach apredetermined number of 375 GiB Local SSD disks to the instance. Examplesof this machine type includec4a-standard-4-lssd,c3-standard-88-lssd, andc3d-highmem-360-lssd.
• -standardlssd: Available with the storage-optimized Z3 machine series, thesemachine types provide up to 350 GiB of Titanium SSD disk capacity pervCPU. These machine types are recommended for high performance search and data analysis formedium sized data sets. An example of this machine type isz3-highmem-22-standardlssd.
• -highlssd: Available with the Z3 machine series, these machine types providebetween of 350 GiB and 600 GiB of Titanium SSD diskcapacity per vCPU. These machine types offer high performance and are recommended for storageintensivestreaming and data analysis for large sized data sets. An example of thismachine type isz3-highmem-88-highlssd.

Other machine series also support Local SSD disks but don't use a machine typename that includeslssd. For a list of all the machine types that youcan use with Titanium SSD or Local SSD disks, seeChoose a valid number of Local SSD disks.

Bare metal machine types

Bare metal machine types are a special predefined machine type. The machine typename ends in-metal. When you create a compute instance using one of thesemachine types, there is no hypervisor installed on the instance. You can attachdisks to a bare metal instance, just as you would with a VMinstance. Bare metal instances can be used in VPC networks and subnetworks inthe same way as VM instances.

These machine types are available with theC4 (Preview), C4D (Preview), C3, and X4machine series.

Custom machine types

If none of the predefined machine types match your workload needs, you cancreate a VM instance with a custom machine type for theN and E machine seriesin the general-purpose machine family. .

Custom machine types cost slightly more to use compared to an equivalentpredefined machine type. Also, there are limitations in the amount of memory andvCPUs that you can select for a custom machine type. The on-demand prices forcustom machine types include a 5% premium over the on-demand and commitmentprices for predefined machine types.

When creating a custom machine type, you can use the extended memory feature.Instead of using the default memory size based on the number of vCPUs youselect, you can specify an amount of memory, up to the limit for the machineseries.

For more information, seeCreate a VM with a custom machine type.

Shared-core machine types

The E2 and N1 series contain shared-core machine types.These machine types timeshare a physical core which can be acost-effective method for running small, non-resource intensive apps.

• E2: offerse2-micro,e2-small, ande2-medium shared-core machine types with 2 vCPUs for short periods of bursting.

• N1: offersf1-micro andg1-small shared-core machine types which have up to 1 vCPU available for short periods of bursting.

For more information, seeCPU bursting.

Machine family and series recommendations

The following tables provide recommendations for different workloads.

After you create a compute instance, you can userightsizing recommendationsto optimize resource utilization based on your workload. For more information,seeApplying machine type recommendations for VMs.

General-purpose machine family guide

Thegeneral-purpose machine familyoffers several machine series with the best price-performance ratio for avariety of workloads.

Compute Engine offers general-purpose machine series that run oneither x86 or Arm architecture.

x86

• The C4 machine series is available on the Intel Emerald Rapids and Granite Rapids CPU platformsand powered byTitanium. C4 machine types are optimized to deliverconsistently high performance and scale up to 288 vCPUs at 1.5 TB ofDDR5 memory. C4 is available inhighcpu (2 GB per vCPU),standard(3.75 GB per vCPU), andhighmem (7.75 GB per vCPU) configurations.
• The C4D machine series is available on the AMD EPYC Turin CPU platform andpowered byTitanium. C4D has a greater max boost frequency ascompared with C3D, with improved Instructions Per Clock (IPC) for fasterdatabase transactions. By leveraging Hyperdisk storage and Titaniumnetworking, C4D demonstrates up to 55% higher queries per second on MySQLand 35% better performance on Redis workloads as compared to C3D. C4Dinstances are available with up to 384 vCPUs and 3 TB of DDR5 memory.C4D is available inhighcpu (1.875 GB per vCPU),standard(3.875 GB per vCPU), andhighmem (7.875 GB per vCPU)configurations.
• The N4 machine series isavailable on the Intel Emerald Rapids CPU platform and powered byTitanium. N4 machine types areoptimized for flexibility and cost with both predefined and custom shapes and canscale up to 80 vCPUs at 640 GB of DDR5 memory. N4 is available inhighcpu (2 GB per vCPU),standard (4 GB per vCPU), andhighmem (8 GB per vCPU) configurations.
• The N2 machine series has up to 128 vCPUs, 8 GB of memory per vCPU, and isavailable on the Intel Ice Lake and Intel Cascade Lake CPU platforms.
• The N2D machine series has up to 224 vCPUs, 8 GB of memory per vCPU, and isavailable on second generation AMD EPYC Rome and third generation AMD EPYCMilan platforms.
• The C3 machine series offers up to 176 vCPUs and 2, 4, or 8 GB ofmemory per vCPU on the Intel Sapphire Rapids CPU platform andTitanium. C3 instances are alignedwith the underlying NUMA architecture to offer optimal, reliable, andconsistent performance.
• The C3D machine series offers up to 360 vCPUs and 2, 4, or 8 GB ofmemory per vCPU on the AMD EPYC Genoa CPU platform andTitanium. C3D instances are alignedwith the underlying NUMA architecture to offer optimal, reliable, andconsistent performance.
• The E2 machine series has up to 32 virtual cores (vCPUs) with up to128 GB of memory with a maximum of 8 GB per vCPU, and the lowestcost of all machine series. The E2 machine series has a predefined CPUplatform, running either an Intel processor or the second generation AMDEPYC™ Rome processor. The processor is selected for you when youcreate the instance. This machine series provides a variety of computeresources for the lowest price on Compute Engine, especially when pairedwithcommitted-use discounts.
• The Tau T2D machine series provides an optimized feature set for scaling out.Each VM instance can have up to 60 vCPUs, 4 GB of memory per vCPU,and is available on third generation AMD EPYC Milan processors. The Tau T2Dmachine series doesn't use cluster-threading, so a vCPU isequivalent to an entire core.
• The N1 machine series VMs can have up to 96 vCPUs, up to 6.5 GB ofmemory per vCPU, and are available on Intel Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge,Haswell, Broadwell, and Skylake CPU platforms.

Arm

• The C4A machine series is the second machine series in Google Cloudto run on Arm processors and the first to run on Google Axion Processors,which support the Arm V9 architecture. C4A instances are powered by theTitanium IPU with disk and network offloads; thisimproves instance performance by reducing on-host processing.

  C4A instances provide up to 72 vCPUs with up to 8 GB of memory per vCPUin a single UMA domain. C4A offers-lssd machine types that come withup to 6 TiB ofTitanium SSD capacity.C4A instances don't use simultaneous multithreading (SMT). A vCPU in aC4A instance is equivalent to an entire physical core.

• The Tau T2A machine series is the first machine series in Google Cloudto run on Arm processors. Tau T2A machines are optimized to delivercompelling price for performance. Each VM can have up to 48 vCPUs with 4 GBof memory per vCPU. The Tau T2A machine series runs on a 64 core AmpereAltra processor with an Arm instruction set and an all-core frequency of3 GHz. Tau T2A machine types support a single NUMA node and a vCPU isequivalent to an entire core.

Storage-optimized machine family guide

Thestorage-optimized machine familyis best suited for high-performance and flash-optimized workloads such as SQL,NoSQL, and vector databases, scale-out data analytics, data warehouses andsearch, and distributed file systems that need fast access to large amounts ofdata stored in local storage. The storage-optimized machine family is designedto provide high local storage throughput and IOPS at sub-millisecond latency.

• Z3standardlssd instances can have up to 176 vCPUs,1,408 GB of memory, and 36 TiB of Titanium SSD.
• Z3highlssd instances can have up to 88 vCPUs, 704 GB of memory,and 36 TiB of Titanium SSD.
• Z3 bare metal instances(Preview) have 192 vCPUs,1,536 GB of memory, and 72 TiB of local Titanium SSD.

Z3 runs on the Intel Xeon Scalable processor (code name Sapphire Rapids) withDDR5 memory andTitanium offload processors. Z3 brings together compute, networking, andstorage innovations into one platform. Z3 instances are aligned with theunderlying NUMA architecture to offer optimal, reliable, and consistentperformance.

Compute-optimized machine family guide

Thecompute-optimized machine familyis optimized for running compute-bound applications by providing the highestperformance per core.

• H3 instances offer 88 vCPUs and 352 GB of DDR5 memory. H3 instances runon the Intel Sapphire Rapids CPU platform and Titanium offload processors.H3 instances are aligned with the underlying NUMA architecture to offeroptimal, reliable, and consistent performance. H3 delivers performanceimprovements for a wide variety of HPC workloads such as molecular dynamics,computational geoscience, financial risk analysis, weather modeling,frontend and backend EDA, and computational fluid dynamics.
• C2 instances offer up to 60 vCPUs, 4 GB of memory per vCPU, and areavailable on the Intel Cascade Lake CPU platform.
• C2D instances offer up to 112 vCPUs, up to 8 GB of memory per vCPU, andare available on the third generation AMD EPYC Milan platform.

Memory-optimized machine family guide

Thememory-optimized machine familyhas machine series that are ideal for OLAP and OLTP SAP workloads, genomicmodeling, electronic design automation, and memory intensive HPCworkloads. This family offers more memory per core thanany other machine family, with up to 32 TB of memory.

• X4 bare metal instances offer up to 1,920 vCPUs, with 17 GB of memoryper vCPU. X4 has machine types with 16, 24, and 32 TB of memory, andis available on the Intel Sapphire Rapids CPU platform.
• M4 instances offer up to 224 vCPUs, with up to 26.5 GB of memory pervCPU, and are available on the Intel Emerald Rapids CPU platform.
• M3 instances offer up to 128 vCPUs, with up to 30.5 GB of memory per vCPU,and are available on the Intel Ice Lake CPU platform.
• M2 instances are available as 6 TB, 9 TB, and 12 TB machinetypes, and are available on the Intel Cascade Lake CPU platform.
• M1 instances offer up to 160 vCPUs, 14.9 GB to 24 GB of memory per vCPU, andare available on the Intel Skylake and Broadwell CPU platforms.

Accelerator-optimized machine family guide

Theaccelerator-optimized machinefamily is ideal formassivelyparallelized Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) computeworkloads, such as machine learning(ML) and high performance computing (HPC). This machine family is the optimalchoice for workloads that require GPUs.

Google also offers AI Hypercomputer for creating clusters ofaccelerator-optimized VMs with inter-GPU communication, which are designed forrunning very intensive AI and ML workloads. For more information, seeAI Hypercomputer overview.

Arm

• A4X instances offer up to 140 vCPUs and up to 884 GB of memory. Each A4X machine type has 4 NVIDIA B200 GPUs attached to 2 NVIDIA Grace CPUs. A4X instances have a maximum network bandwidth of up to 2,000 GBps.

x86

• A4 instances offer up to 224 vCPUs and up to 3,968 GB of memory. Each A4 machine type has 8 NVIDIA B200 GPUs attached. A4 instances have a maximum network bandwidth of up to 3,600 Gbps and are available on the Intel Emerald Rapids CPU platform.
• A3 instances offer up to 224 vCPUs and up to 2,952 GB of memory. Each A3 machine type has either 1, 2, 4, or 8 NVIDIA H100 or 8 H200 GPUs attached. A3 instances have a maximum network bandwidth of up to 3,200 Gbps and are available on the following CPU platforms:
  • Intel Emerald Rapids - A3 Ultra
  • Intel Sapphire Rapids - A3 Mega, High, and Edge
• A2 instances offer 12 to 96 vCPUs, and up to 1,360 GB of memory. Each A2 machine type has either 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 NVIDIA A100 GPUs attached. A2 instances have a maximum network bandwidth of up to 100 Gbps and are available on the Intel Cascade Lake CPU platform.
• G2 instances offer 4 to 96 vCPUs and up to 432 GB of memory. Each G2 machine type has either 1, 2, 4, or 8 NVIDIA L4 GPUs attached. G2 instances have a maximum network bandwidth of up to 100 Gbps and are available on the Intel Cascade Lake CPU platform.

Machine series comparison

Use the following table to compare each machine family and determinewhich one is appropriate for your workload. If, after reviewing this section,you are still unsure which family is best for your workload, start with thegeneral-purpose machine family. For details about all supportedprocessors, seeCPU platforms.

To learn how your selection affects the performance of disk volumesattached to your compute instances, see:

• Persistent Disk:Disk performance by machine type and vCPU count
• Google Cloud Hyperdisk:Hyperdisk performance limits

GPUs and compute instances

GPUs are used to accelerate workloads, and are supported for A4X, A4, A3, A2,G2, and N1 instances. For instances that use A4X, A4, A3, A2, or G2 machinetypes, the GPUs are automatically attached when you create the instance. Forinstances that use N1 machine types, you can attach GPUs to the instanceduring or after instance creation. GPUs can't be used with any other machineseries.

Instances with fewer GPUs attached are limited to a maximum number ofvCPUs. In general, a higher number of GPUs lets you create instances with ahigher number of vCPUs and memory. For more information, seeGPUs on Compute Engine.

What's next

• Learn how tocreate and start a VM
• Learn how tocreate a VM with a custom machine type.
• Complete theQuickstart using a Linux VM
• Complete theQuickstart using a Windows VM
• Learn more about attachingblock storage to your VMs