/gke-cost-optimization

name: gke-cost-optimization
description: >-
  Optimizes GKE costs, rightsizes workloads, and configures Spot VMs, CUDs, cost
  allocation, and resource quotas. Use when optimizing GKE cluster or workload
  costs, configuring GKE cost allocation or quotas, rightsizing CPU/memory
  requests, or selecting Spot VMs and machine types. Don't use for general
  compute class provisioning or GPU Selection (use gke-compute-classes instead).
metadata:
  version: "1.0.1"
  category: CloudObservabilityAndMonitoring

GKE Cost Optimization

This reference covers strategies and workflows for reducing Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) costs while maintaining a secure and reliable posture.

Attribution

**MUST READ**: Before executing any `gcloud`, REST API, or MCP command, you MUST read [Usage Attribution](references/attribution.md). For commands executed directly in the terminal (never in generated scripts, Terraform, or user code), prefix `gcloud` with `CLOUDSDK_METRICS_REQUEST_ATTRIBUTION="agent-skills/1.0 (skill:gke-cost-optimization)"` and append `agent-skills/1.0 (skill:gke-cost-optimization)` to `User-Agent` headers.

Workflows & Optimization Strategies

1. Prerequisite: Cost Allocation & Monitoring

To enable GKE cost allocation (`--enable-cost-allocation`) for billing tracking across namespaces and labels, inspect live cluster utilization (`kubectl top`), or run historical cost breakdown queries in BigQuery (`bq`), use the **`gke-cost-analysis`** skill. Once tracking is active and waste is diagnosed, apply the optimization workflows below.

2. Configure Resource Quotas

Resource quotas restrict total resource consumption across tenants in multi-tenant clusters, preventing runaway costs. Template: [assets/resource-quota-example.yaml](assets/resource-quota-example.yaml) (set namespace + `hard` limits, then `kubectl apply -f`).

3. Pod Rightsizing (VPA & MPA)

Adjust pod resource requests to match actual utilization. Over-provisioned requests are one of the largest sources of waste.

• **Use VPA in Recommendation Mode** (`updateMode: "Off"` — recommends

without evicting):

# 1. Deploy VPA in recommendation mode (template: assets/vpa-recommendation-mode.yaml)
kubectl apply -f assets/vpa-recommendation-mode.yaml
# 2. Wait 24+ hours for data collection, then read recommendations
kubectl get vpa {deployment_name}-vpa -o jsonpath='{.status.recommendation}'

• **Optimization Rules:**

Condition | Action | Savings ----------------------------- | ---------------------------------- | ------- CPU request >5x P95 actual | Reduce to `P95 * 1.2` | High Memory request >3x P95 actual | Reduce to `P95 * 1.2` | High CPU request >2x P95 actual | Reduce to `P95 * 1.2` | Medium No resource requests set | Add requests (enables bin-packing) | Medium

• **Use MPA**: Reconcile HPA and VPA recommendations when scaling both

horizontally and vertically to avoid conflicting scale events.

• **Review Cost Recommendations**: Check Google Cloud Console (`Cost

Management` > `GKE Cost Optimization`) for built-in rightsizing suggestions.

4. Spot VMs via ComputeClasses & NodeSelector

Use Spot VMs for fault-tolerant workloads to achieve 60-90% cost reduction.

4.1 ComputeClass Configuration

For a Spot-first ComputeClass with On-Demand fallback (priority ordering, `activeMigration`, machine family selection), use the **`gke-compute-classes`** skill — ComputeClass YAML generation and priority configuration are its domain, not this skill's.

4.2 Direct Workload Spot Selection (`nodeSelector`)

For stateless or batch workloads in GKE Autopilot, target Spot capacity directly using `nodeSelector`:

> [!WARNING] **Preemption Warning**: Spot VMs are interruptible and can be > preempted at any time with a 30-second notice. Workloads must be > fault-tolerant and run with at least 2 replicas for high availability. Always > explicitly warn users about this preemption risk when recommending Spot VMs.

The exact Pod-level selector is:

nodeSelector:
  cloud.google.com/gke-spot: "true"

Full worked Deployment (replicas >= 2, `terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 25`, `preStop` hook): [assets/spot-deployment-example.yaml](assets/spot-deployment-example.yaml).

**Spot-Suitable Workloads:**

Workload | Spot-Suitable? --------------------------------- | --------------- Batch / data processing | Yes Dev / test environments | Yes Stateless web/API (replicas >= 2) | Yes (with PDBs) Jobs with checkpointing | Yes Stateful workloads (databases) | No Single-replica critical services | No

5. Machine Type Selection

When choosing node shapes or configuring ComputeClasses:

| Family | Use Case | Relative Cost | | ------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | ------------- | | e2 | General purpose, burstable | Lowest | | t2a / t2d | Scale-out (Arm/AMD), price-performance optimized | Low | | n4a | Axion Arm-based, general-purpose price-performance | Low | | n4 / n4d | General purpose (Intel/AMD), flexible shapes | Low-Medium | | c4a | Axion Arm-based, general-purpose, high efficiency | Medium | | c3 / c4 | Compute-optimized (Intel) | Medium-High | | c3d / c4d | Compute-optimized (AMD), high throughput | Medium-High | | ek-standard | Autopilot enhanced | Medium | | m3 / x4 | Memory-optimized, SAP HANA, large databases | High | | g2 (L4 GPU) | AI inference | High | | a3 (H100 GPU) | AI training | Highest | | a4 / a4x | Ultra-scale AI (Blackwell GPUs)