Explanation
Why the waste happens and who it affects.
While Spot reduces unit cost, rigid dependence can create hidden costs by requiring standby standard capacity elsewhere, delaying deployments, or increasing operational intervention to keep environments usable. GKE explicitly recommends mixing Spot and standard node pools for continuity when Spot is unavailable.
Billing model
The pricing dimensions that drive this cost.
Spot VMs are discounted but have no availability guarantees; relying on Spot-only capacity can force compensating spend (extra standard capacity, retries, and operational overhead) to maintain reliability.
How to detect
3 checks to find it in your estate.
- Review whether critical or time-sensitive workloads rely exclusively on Spot-based capacity
- Assess whether the environment can continue operating acceptably during Spot interruptions
- Identify patterns where teams maintain separate standard capacity "just in case" due to Spot uncertainty
How to fix
2 ways to remove the waste.
- Treat Spot as preferred (where appropriate), not exclusive, capacity
- Maintain sufficient standard capacity to keep essential workloads running when Spot capacity is reclaimed or temporarily unavailable
Documentation
Vendor references for pricing and configuration.