Google Colab offers free browser-based Python notebooks with GPU/TPU access, plus paid Pro and Pro+ tiers for more compute. See features and pricing.
Google Colab, short for Colaboratory, is a free, cloud-hosted Jupyter notebook environment built by Google. It lets anyone write and execute Python code directly in the browser without installing anything locally, including limited free access to GPU and TPU hardware for machine learning workloads.
Because it runs in Google's infrastructure, Colab notebooks save directly to Google Drive and can be shared and co-edited much like a Google Doc, which has made it a common tool for both individual experimentation and classroom teaching.
Colab's free tier gives users a working Python environment with popular data science and machine learning libraries, such as TensorFlow and PyTorch, pre-installed, along with limited-time access to GPUs and TPUs. Notebooks integrate tightly with Google Drive for storage and sharing, and multiple people can edit or comment on the same notebook simultaneously.
Paid Colab Pro and Pro+ tiers add more monthly compute units, access to faster GPUs, more RAM, and longer background execution windows, with Pro+ allowing actively running notebooks to persist for up to 24 hours even if the browser is closed.
Google Colab's free tier costs nothing and includes limited, non-guaranteed access to GPUs and TPUs along with a maximum session length. Colab Pro is priced at $9.99 per month and includes 100 compute units, while Colab Pro+ is priced at $49.99 per month and includes 500 compute units along with priority access to more advanced GPUs.
Compute units are consumed at different rates depending on the GPU used, for example a T4 GPU burns roughly 1.76 units per hour while an A100 burns around 15 units per hour, and unused compute units carry over for up to 90 days. Compute units can also be purchased separately on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Yes, Google Colab has a free tier with limited GPU/TPU access; paid Pro ($9.99/month) and Pro+ ($49.99/month) tiers offer more compute.
Compute units are Colab's currency for GPU/TPU usage; Pro includes 100 units per month and Pro+ includes 500, with different GPUs consuming units at different rates.
Yes, Colab comes with popular ML libraries pre-installed and offers free access to GPUs and TPUs, making it popular for training and experimenting with models.
Google Colab (Colaboratory) is a product from Google.
Yes, unused compute units carry over for up to 90 days.