App engine instances - what's the difference between instance sizes with same mem and cpu?

Question

I have an app engine project, and am wondering what the differences are between the various instance sizes, listed here:

https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/about-the-standard-environment#instance_classes

There is no description there of what the difference is between say B1 and F1. They have the same memory and cpu. Why would you pick on over the other?

Thanks

Answer 1

Historically, "F" stood for "front-end" and "B" for "back-end". App Engine has moved from the concept of "backends" some time ago. These days:

• "F" instances are used in automatic scaling, and "B" instances are used in manual and basic scaling. See more on scaling.
• "F" class instances come with a larger free quota than the "B" class instances.