Difference between STOP instance and SUSPEND instance in Google Cloud Platform

Question

I was created an instance in Google Cloud Platform. I use this instance 2 to 4 days in a week. So, I want to close my instance for rest of the days to save my billing charges. So, what is best option for me. Stop the instance or Suspend the instance? What is the difference between them?

Answer 1

Please have a look at the documentation Suspending and resuming an instance:

Suspending an instance differs from stopping an instance in the following ways:

• Suspended instances preserve the guest OS memory, device state, and application state.
• Google charges for the storage necessary to save instance memory.
• You can only suspend an instance for up to 60 days. After 60 days, the instance is automatically moved to the TERMINATED state.

and at the article Stopping and starting an instance:

Instances that are in a TERMINATED state are not charged for per-second usage and do not count toward your regional CPU quota, so you can choose to stop instances that you are not using, saving you from being charged for instances that aren't active. After you are ready, you can come back and start the same instances again, with the same instance properties, metadata, and resources.

Your instances are not charged for per-second usage while in the TERMINATED state but any resources attached to the virtual machine, such as static IPs and persistent disks, are charged until they are deleted.

As a result, it's better to stop your VM instance, to avoid extra changes for keeping instance's memory.

In addition, please have a look at the article Save money by stopping and starting Compute Engine instances on schedule.