A Google Cloud budget watches what an Ursa Major project spends and emails alerts when spending reaches set thresholds. Budgets help a lab keep cloud spending in line with its grant or other funding.
How budgets work in Ursa Major
- Budgets apply to Tier 2 projects, the projects recharged to a lab funding source under an MOU. Most Ursa Major usage, including VMs, GPUs, Standard storage and Filestore, is Tier 2. Tier 1 resources are managed by Research Computing and do not use lab budgets. See KB005: Ursa Major service tiers and KB007: Ursa Major recharge workflow.
- Research Computing sets budgets up. Project owners do not create budgets themselves. To add or change a budget, send a request to research-computing@ucr.edu or through the UCR Support Portal.
- A budget does not stop spending. It only sends alerts. To limit costs, stop or delete resources you are not using.
What to include in a request
- The project name (for example
my-lab-project) and the PI. - The amount the lab expects to spend in each period, and the period (monthly is common).
- The alert thresholds you want, for example 50%, 90% and 100% of the amount. Thresholds can be based on actual spending so far, or on forecast spending by the end of the period, which gives earlier warning.
- Who should get the alerts. Project owners can be notified, and so can other people, such as a lab manager.
Reading the alerts
- Alerts are based on net cost: usage minus any discounts and credits that apply.
- An alert means spending has reached a threshold. Check what is running in the project, and stop or delete what you do not need.
- Ask Research Computing to adjust the budget as the lab's work changes.
More information
- Google Cloud: budgets and budget alerts
- Questions: research-computing@ucr.edu or see Get help.
Owner: Research Computing
Reviewed: 4 Oct 2026