Vertex AI Agent Builder

Agents 6.7/10

Google Cloud's managed platform to build agents and deploy them on Agent Engine, a fully managed agent runtime.

Free credit: $300
Credit window: 90 days
Card required: No

Vertex AI Agent Builder scores 6.7/10 for free value in Agents. The main constraint: GCP free tier / new-customer credits; usage-based for queries and Agent Engine runtime.

Category Agents Kind Managed agent runtime Caveats Console + ADK to build agents and deploy them onto Agent Engine, Google's managed runtime. Card required No Eligibility anyone

Free value score

6.7 / 10

Show the math

Overall 6.7/10

value = 6.7/100

weighted_components_v1

Execution 6/10

value = 300 $ one-time

fixed_log_v1

Connectivity 7.7/10

value = 7.7/100

policy_score_v1

Production controls 7/10

value = 7/100

policy_score_v1

Key metrics

1/mo Execution quota Uses stated quota when present; otherwise a conservative unpublished-quota floor.

1 Tool/model connectivity models

1 Production controls No published production-control count found.

free tier Free tier

card? Credit card

What you get

GCP free tier / new-customer credits; usage-based for queries and Agent Engine runtime

Build side of the Vertex agent stack

Gotchas

Cloud account

Requires a cloud account; free use is via account credits / free-tier quota, not an unconditional free plan.

Sources

"New customers get up to $300 in free credits to try Agent Platform and other Google Cloud products."
https://cloud.google.com/products/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform
"New users: New users to Google Cloud can sign up for an express mode account in a free tier to try Agent Platform for free for up to 90 days, within the specified quotas. You don't need to provide billing information to sign up in the free tier."
https://docs.cloud.google.com/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform/models/start/express-mode/overview
"are measured by number of requests, but billed under Agent Compute vCPU-h... A free usage tier applies per month, per account for each resource."
https://cloud.google.com/products/gemini-enterprise-agent-platform/pricing
"The Free Trial gets you a $300 Welcome credit to spend over 90 days on various Google Cloud products and you won't be billed."
https://docs.cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features

agents agent-deployment hosted runtime

Open service Source ← All Agents

Alternatives

Same category · similar quota

Google Vertex AI Agent EngineGoogle Vertex AI Agent Engine · paid · Paid plan

6.6

Managed runtime for agents (ADK, LangGraph, etc.). Compute $0.0864/vCPU-hr, memory $0.0090/GB-hr; free tier 180,000 vCPU-sec (50h) + 360,000 GiB-sec/mo; agent storage $0.30/GiB-mo.

1/mo21

Checked 26d ago

EmbeddingsMetered

Amazon Bedrock AgentCoreAmazon Bedrock AgentCore · limited · Managed agent runtime

6.5

AWS managed, serverless runtime to securely deploy and operate AI agents from any framework at scale.

1/mo21

Checked 26d ago

Embeddings

Azure AI Foundry Agent ServiceAzure AI Foundry Agent Service · limited · Managed agent runtime

6.5

Azure's managed agent service that hosts enterprise agents with memory, tools, and a callable endpoint.

1/mo51

Checked 26d ago

Embeddings