[Digital Today reporter Jinju Hong (홍진주)] Google has launched a Starter Tier in AI Studio that lets users publish apps immediately without registering a payment method or billing account. Previously, deploying an app required creating a Google Cloud project and setting up billing. Now, users can skip those steps with only a personal Google account.

On June 23 local time, online media outlet Gigazine reported that Google AI Studio is a service that uses Gemini to develop and test AI apps and prompts in a browser. Google recently also added a feature to build Android apps using only natural-language prompts. The latest change focuses on reducing the burden of cloud setup, which had been a hurdle at the deployment stage rather than during development.

If users select Starter Tier, Google automatically creates a Google Cloud project in the background. It also handles region selection, API activation and security policy processing. Users do not need to create, set up or manage projects themselves.

Google explained that Starter Tier, unlike a typical Google Cloud project, provides only minimal functions. It added, "That is the important point," and said, "The fewer configuration items there are, the lower the likelihood of problems." It means the tier is designed to help beginner developers publish apps quickly rather than expand functions.

The publishing method is also simple. Users can make an app public by pressing the Publish button in AI Studio. After publishing, a Cloud Run URL is issued, and the app can be used immediately as a web app through that address.

It also automated the required backend configuration. Cloud Run is set as the computing layer, and Firebase Authentication is added if user login is needed. Firestore is provided as the main option for data storage, while relational data requiring schemas, joins and ACID compliance can be handled with the developer edition of Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL. It is a way to automatically attach services that match app functions.

It is similar to the Google Cloud free trial in that it offers a free way to get started, but the conditions differ. The free trial has a 90-day limit, while Starter Tier has no time limit. Instead, there are limits on available regions and resource amounts, and users cannot freely add other Google Cloud services. The maximum number of apps that can be deployed is 2. If 2 apps are already public, users must delete an existing app or upgrade to a standard Google Cloud environment.

Eligibility is also limited. It is currently available for personal Google accounts. If users log in with a Google Workspace account for a company or educational institution, resource deployment may be blocked due to organizational policies. Availability is also affected by AI Studio's regional service coverage.

Official documentation also states, "Users with a valid Google Cloud billing account, or who previously had a billing account, cannot use Starter Tier." Enterprise accounts linked to paid or free Google Workspace, Google Workspace for Education, or Google for Nonprofits subscriptions are also excluded.

As a result, Starter Tier appears to be aimed at individual developers and beginners who want to experience AI app deployment without registering payment details, rather than users who have already made full use of Google Cloud. Still, with clear limits on app count and resources, it appears necessary to consider whether a switch to a standard Google Cloud environment is needed at the stage of operating an actual service.