About licenses

Linux Windows

Alicense is a usage agreement between you and a software vendor. To uselicensed software provided by Google Cloud, you must have a license. Forexample, if you are running a licensed operating system (OS) on a Compute Engine virtual machine (VM) instance, you must have a license for thatOS.

Alicense string is a resource that associates a usage agreement with alicensed OS, OS upgrade, or additional software. For a list of the licensestrings that are associated with each OS that is supported by Compute Engine,seeOperating system details.To learn how to view and manage license strings, seeManage licenses.

License types and pricing

Licenses on Compute Engine are one of the following types. Forinformation about which license types apply to each OS version, see thelicense section of theOperating system details page.

Free licenses
No charge for usage.
On-demand/Pay-as-you-go (PAYG)

Google Cloud charges for usage. Cost varies depending on the OS. Formore information, seepricing for premium images.

The Google-provided image contains enhancements that might not be included if you bring your ownOS image.

Bring your own license (BYOL)/Bring your own subscription (BYOS)

Google Cloud does not charge you because you have a previous agreementwith the original OS vendor. If you have BYOL licenses for server or clientversions of Windows, you must usesole-tenant nodes.

License strings for BYOL and BYOS end withbyol orbyos. If the licensestring does not end withbyol orbyos, the license is a free oron-demand/PAYG license.

For more information about using BYOS and BYOL licenses on Compute Engine,review the following:

Upgrade from Ubuntu to Ubuntu Pro

The following Ubuntu versions have reached the end of maintenance:

  • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS - April 21, 2021
  • Ubuntu 18.04 LTS - May 31, 2023

If you need further updates for these versions, you must upgrade and appenda user license for Ubuntu Pro. For information about how to upgrade and appenda user license,seeUpgrade from Ubuntu to Ubuntu Pro.

Use SQL Server on Linux

You can install SQL Server on Linux VMs and use PAYG licenses. For moreinformation, seeAdd a SQL Server license to an existing Linux server.

What's next

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under theCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under theApache 2.0 License. For details, see theGoogle Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated 2026-02-19 UTC.