Google Vertex AI Agent Engine
Google Cloud's fully managed runtime for deploying, scaling, and operating AI agents built with ADK, LangGraph, and other frameworks.
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Google Vertex AI Agent Engine scores 4.2/10 for free value in Agents. The main constraint: GCP free tier / new-customer credits apply; usage-based compute pricing for the managed runtime.
Free value score
4.2 / 10Show the math
Key metrics
What you get
GCP free tier / new-customer credits apply; usage-based compute pricing for the managed runtime
Framework-agnostic managed agent runtime on GCP
Gotchas
- Cloud account
Requires a cloud account; free use is via account credits / free-tier quota, not an unconditional free plan.
Sources
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"Agent Engine | * vCPU - First 180,000 vCPU-seconds (50 hours) per month * RAM - First 360,000 GiB-seconds (100 hours) per month Learn about Agent Engine pricing."
https://docs.cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features -
"A free usage tier applies per month, per account for each resource. ... | Agent Compute | 0 hour to 50 hour $0.00 (Free) / 1 hour, per 1 month / account 50 hour and above $0.085 / 1 hour, per 1 month / account | Agent Memory (RAM) | 0 gibibyte hour to 100 gibibyte hour $0.00 (Free) ... 100 gibibyte hour and above $0.009 / 1 gibibyte hour"
https://cloud.google.com/products/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform/pricing -
"The Free Tier has no end date, but Google reserves the right to change the offering, including changing or eliminating usage limits, with 30 days' advance notice. ... During the sign up, you must provide a credit card or other payment method that is valid for the period of the Free Trial."
https://docs.cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features -
"Pricing for Vertex AI Agent Engine Runtime was lowered. On January 28, 2026, Sessions, Memory Bank, and Code Execution will begin charging for usage."
https://docs.cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/docs/release-notes
