Creating a Google Cloud Billing Account

Google Cloud Billing Accounts allow you to configure payment and track spending in GCP.

Note that you may not need a Google Cloud Billing Account if someone else, e.g., a colleague, a lab, or cloud credits program, will be managing and paying for your compute costs.

Check with your institutional procurement office for a preferred method to set up your Google Cloud Account, such as using a third-party reseller or an existing account.

Prerequisites

Before setting up your Google Cloud Billing Account:

Decide what email address to use. The email you choose must be associated with a Google ID (see Obtaining a Google ID) and must be the email you will use to log in to Terra.
Decide what payment method (credit card, debit card, PayPal, or bank account) you will use.
Determine if you will set up as an individual or business. If you are setting up an account for a company, organization, lab, or institution, select "Business." If you are setting up as yourself, choose "Individual."

Setup Guide

To create your first Google Cloud Billing Account:

Sign in to the Manage billing accounts page in the Google Cloud Console. If this is your first time logging into GCP, you will be asked to agree to the terms of service. Sign in to GCP Manage Billing Accounts
Login with, or switch to, the correct Google ID (email).
Select your organization from the Select your lab from the "Select an organization" if the dropdown is available.
If you are not already on the "MY BILLING ACCOUNTS" tab, select it.
Select "ADD BILLING ACCOUNT".
On the next screen, select your country and optionally currency if applicable.
Select "CONTINUE" and follow the instructions to attach or create a Google Payments Profile to fund the new Google Billing Account.
Select "START MY FREE TRIAL".

If this is the first Google Billing Account created for your lab’s new GCP Account, you will now have $300 in cloud cost credits that you can use for 90 days. See Google Cloud Free Program to understand more about Google’s 90-day, $300 free trial and free tier.

Note that you will not be "auto charged" on the free trial ends. You won’t be charged unless you manually upgrade to a paid account.

Viewing your new GCP Billing Account

The first time a GCP Billing Account is created it is named "My Billing Account" by default.

To view and modify this billing account:

Select billing in the "Navigation" menu.
Select the "MY BILLING ACCOUNTS" tab.

For more information on creating billing accounts, see Create, modify, or close your Cloud Billing account.

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