GCP committed use discount purchase fails - insufficient quota for committed CPUs in the region
Fixes committed use discount purchases blocked by regional quota. Covers checking committed CPU quota, requesting a quota increase, and choosing a region or machine family with headroom. Use when the CUD purchase errors on quota. Not for pricing or term questions.
TL;DR
Buying a committed use discount also reserves quota for committed CPUs in that region, and the region is out of headroom. Request a quota increase for committed CPUs in the region, or buy the commitment in a region or for a machine family that has capacity.
Use this when
- The CUD purchase flow errors on insufficient quota.
- The commitment is for a region where you already run close to quota limits.
- A large commitment (hundreds of vCPUs) is being purchased at once.
Not for this skill when
- The purchase succeeds but the discount does not apply. That is an attribution problem.
- You are unsure which machine family to commit to. That is a planning question.
Steps
- Open Quotas in the console for the project and region, and filter for committed CPU quotas for the machine family. Verify: you see current usage versus limit.
- Request a quota increase for the committed CPU quota to cover the purchase plus headroom. Verify: the request is submitted and approved.
- Retry the CUD purchase. Verify: it completes without the quota error.
- If the increase is denied or too slow, split the commitment across regions or choose a machine family with available committed quota. Verify: the alternative purchase succeeds.
- After purchase, confirm the discount appears on usage in the billing reports. Verify: the committed usage line items show the discounted rate.
Spend-based commitments variant
Some commitment types do not consume CPU quota the same way. Verify: you are requesting the quota type that matches your commitment type.
Compatibility: Google Cloud committed use discounts, all regions.
Why it happens
Committed use discounts are capacity reservations, not just price locks. The quota system treats them as reserved capacity, so a region that is tight on regular quota is also tight on committed quota.
Edge cases / pitfalls
- Quota increases can take days for large amounts. Start the request before the purchase window you need.
- Committed quota is per machine family in some regions; requesting the wrong family does not help.
- The discount applies to usage in the same region and family. Buying elsewhere to dodge quota changes what gets discounted.
- Track commitment utilization after purchase; an unused commitment still bills.
Provenance
Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstTwnDDT9IyaFPSVPcFtQ