---
title: "How to Specify SKU Names For GCP SKU Rate Cards"
slug: "how-to-specify-sku-names-for-gcp-sku-rate-cards"
updated: 2026-01-14T19:11:47Z
published: 2026-01-14T19:11:47Z
canonical: "resources.realtheory.io/how-to-specify-sku-names-for-gcp-sku-rate-cards"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://resources.realtheory.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How to Specify SKU Names For GCP SKU Rate Cards

## Background

RealTheory can use Google Cloud Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) to calculate cost data when your environment uses non-standard or negotiated pricing, such as Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) or a private pricing agreement.

SKU names categorize services and map them to their associated pricing, including GKE nodes, persistent disks, and network egress. You provide SKU names using exact strings or wildcards (*) in a comma-separated list. If multiple SKUs could match a resource, RealTheory applies the first matching SKU in the table. Use the drag-and-drop handle to reorder rows and control matching priority.

The rest of this topic provides guidance on how to specify SKU names for the various sections of the SKU rate card: [Node SKUs](/v1/docs/how-to-specify-sku-names-for-gcp-sku-rate-cards#node-skus) [Storage SKUs](/v1/docs/how-to-specify-sku-names-for-gcp-sku-rate-cards#storage-skus) [Network SKUs](/v1/docs/how-to-specify-sku-names-for-gcp-sku-rate-cards#network-skus) [Load Balancer SKUs](/v1/docs/how-to-specify-sku-names-for-gcp-sku-rate-cards#load-balancer-skus) [Kubernetes Management Service SKUs](/v1/docs/how-to-specify-sku-names-for-gcp-sku-rate-cards#kubernetes-management-service-skus)

## Node SKUs

Node SKUs must reference valid Google Compute Engine machine types. Use wildcards to match entire machine families or specific hardware generations.

### Examples

| SKU Name | Matches |
| --- | --- |
| e2-standard-4 | Only e2-standard-4 machine types |
| e2-standard-* | All E2 Standard machine types |
| n2-highmem-* | All N2 High Memory machine types |
| c3-highcpu-* | All C3 High-CPU machine types |

## Storage SKUs

Storage SKUs must match the Persistent Disk (PD) type backing your GKE Persistent Volumes.

### Examples

| SKU Name | Matches |
| --- | --- |
| Standard | Standard HDD |
| SSD | Performance SSD |
| Balanced | Balanced SSD |
| Extreme | Extreme SSD |

## Network SKUs

Network SKUs represent the pricing categories used for data transfer.

When using the InterRegion Inbound or InterRegion Outbound SKUs, you can optionally specify the following key/value pairs in **Properties**:

- `source=<region>`
- `destination=<region>`

where `<region>` is the Google Cloud region code (for example, `us-central1`, `europe-west1`) corresponding to the source or destination of the cross-region traffic.

### Examples

| SKU Name | Applies to... |
| --- | --- |
| IntraRegion | All internal traffic moving between zones within the same region |
| InterRegion Inbound | All incoming traffic from a different region |
| InterRegion Outbound | All outgoing traffic sent to a different region |
| Internet Inbound | All incoming traffic arriving from the public internet |
| Internet Outbound | All traffic leaving the GCP network for the public internet |

## Load Balancer SKUs

Load Balancer SKUs must match the Google Cloud Load Balancing (GCLB) resources provisioned by your Kubernetes Services.

### Examples

| SKU Name | Applies to... |
| --- | --- |
| Global External | Global External Load Balancer |
| Regional External | Regional External Load Balancer |
| Regional Internal | Regional Internal Load Balancer |
| Cross Regional Internal | Cross-Regional Internal Load Balancer |

## Kubernetes Management Service SKUs

Kubernetes Management Service SKUs must account for the Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) management fees based on your cluster edition.

### Examples

| SKU Name | Matches |
| --- | --- |
| Standard | Standard Edition |
| Enterprise | Enterprise Edition (formerly Anthos) |

**See Also** [Creating a SKU Rate Card](/v1/docs/creating-a-sku-rate-card) [Rate Cards Explained](/v1/docs/rate-cards-explained)