Getting started
Signing up only needs a school email — no credit card. Once verified, you get $100 in credit plus access to always-free services (small VM instances, storage, a few databases) that don't disappear once the $100 runs out.
What I actually built with it
My first real use was spinning up a small VM to host a Node.js API for a group project instead of running it locally. After that, I used the free-tier SQL database to stop hardcoding data into a JSON file.
The most useful part wasn't the compute — it was being forced to think about environment variables, basic security groups, and actually reading error logs. That's the stuff a course project rarely teaches you.
What I'd do differently
I burned through more credit than I needed early on because I forgot to shut down a VM after a demo. Lesson: set a spending alert on day one.
Is it worth setting up if you haven't? If you're a CS/engineering student and haven't touched cloud infrastructure outside of a lecture slide,yes.
### Eligibility and sign-up page
Top comments (1)
Amazing 👍👍❤️