CostLensCloud SQL Right-sizing (GCP)

Cloud SQL Right-sizing (GCP)

CostLens surfaces Cloud SQL over-provisioned recommendations so you can resize instances that are larger than their workload needs.

Updated July 20261 min read

CostLens surfaces over-provisioned Cloud SQL instances flagged by Google's Overprovisioned Recommender — instances running a larger machine tier than their actual workload requires. Over-provisioned databases pay for vCPU and memory they never use.

How it works

Recommender analyses utilisation

Google's Cloud SQL Overprovisioned Recommender evaluates CPU and memory usage per instance and suggests a smaller tier.

CostLens reads them read-only

Using the recommender.viewer scope from GCP Accounts, CostLens ingests each recommendation and its projected saving.

Severity and savings are assigned

Savings come from the Recommender's costProjection, normalised to a 30-day month.

What to do

  1. Review the recommended tier and confirm it meets your peak requirements (headroom for spikes).
  2. Resize the instance in the Cloud Console (Cloud SQL → Edit → Machine type).

Resize causes a brief restart

Changing a Cloud SQL machine type restarts the instance. Schedule it during a maintenance window and confirm your application reconnects cleanly.

Severity levels

SeverityEstimated monthly savings
critical>$500
high$100–$500
medium$20–$100
low<$20

Required permissions

Limitations

  • Recommendations are based on Google's observation window; instances with variable or seasonal load may need judgement before resizing.
  • This check is advisory — CostLens surfaces the recommendation but the resize is applied in the Cloud Console.
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