…and ultimately, that “someone” is going to send you a real invoice for actual money. In my case, I’m running poketto.me almost entirely on Google Cloud. While it’s not terribly expensive right now, it is a cost I had to factor into my pricing strategy.
But here’s the good news: Google offers various programs to support early-stage startups! Check out https://cloud.google.com/startup?hl=en for details.
Today, I’m happy to share that poketto.me made it into the “START” tier of that program, which means: no Google Cloud bills in my mailbox for the foreseeable future!
Of course, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, so here are the caveats:
👉 The application process is truly Kafkaesque—so much so that getting your app into the Play Store (see TIL #99) feels like a walk in the park by comparison. I won’t go into details, but trust me, it can be nerve-wracking.
👉 The big bucks don’t flow freely. For poketto.me, being in the smallest tier, we’re talking about $2,000 for general services and about $800 for the mysterious “GenAI Builder” (whatever that actually is 😅).
👉 Finally—and this is why Google offers this in the first place—you’re inevitably locking yourself into GCP. Architectural decisions I’m facing now (which tech stack to use for full-text search, whether to migrate to a proper database system, how to handle TTS, whether to keep using DeepSeek AI or switch to Gemini…) are now influenced by the fact that “If I use Google’s solution, it’s free—for now.” And as soon as my usage grows, Google will, of course, get their money back 🙃.
Nevertheless, I’m excited about this—and maybe just a little bit proud that poketto.me has grown into something even Google recognizes as a startup!