ResearchComputeAU & Indie Atlas v1.4

No fixed closing date.

Google TRC

Google TPU Research Cloud

TRC lends free Cloud TPU time to people doing machine-learning research they will share in public. You do not need a .edu.au address to express interest. Google invites people from the waiting list. It is not a blank credit on every Google Cloud product.

TPU time is free for invited participants. Budget a small amount for the virtual machine and storage, or attach research credits if you have them.

Who it is for

Anyone can ask to join. Google decides who is invited. Participants are expected to publish or otherwise share the work, give Google feedback, and follow the Google AI Principles.

What you get

Free Cloud TPU quota on a Google Cloud project, for a limited time, usually ready within minutes of accepting an invitation. The small virtual machine that drives the TPU, and the storage for your data, are not free. Google describes those leftover costs as generally small.

How to get it

  1. Read the FAQ, especially the sharing requirement and the note that other Google Cloud services are billed.
  2. Express interest at the TRC site. There is no published closing date.
  3. Wait for an invitation. Google sends them on a rolling basis and does not publish the wait.
  4. If you are invited, accept it and follow Google’s TPU getting-started guides. The FAQ says this quota does not work with Vertex AI workflows.
  5. Keep a free Kaggle notebook running while you wait, so the project is not stuck on the invitation.

Deadlines

There is no published closing date. Apply when your one-page description is ready. An empty calendar file would only pretend otherwise, so this page does not invent a reminder.

Read this before you apply

  • This is a poor fit for ordinary CPU work such as a statistics script. It is for TPU training and related research.
  • Third-party pages quote dollar values and academic-only rules. Those claims are not on Google’s FAQ, so this guide does not repeat them.
  • You must be willing to share the research. A private commercial model does not match the published terms.

Check before you rely on this

  • Google does not publish invitation wait times, which TPU generation you receive, or a dollar value for the quota.

Sources