Comparison
Solvicus vs Google Cloud's CUD recommender
Google Cloud already ships committed use discount recommendations, for free, inside Cloud Billing. Any honest comparison has to start there — so this page is explicit about what Google's tooling does well, and narrow about where Solvicus is actually different.
What Google's built-in tooling does
The CUD recommender and FinOps Hub analyze your usage history — the previous 30 days by default — and recommend commitments to purchase. They cover a broader set of commitment types than Solvicus does: resource-based CUDs plus spend-based and flexible commitments across services like Cloud SQL, Spanner, AlloyDB and Memorystore. They read your billing data automatically, so there's nothing to assemble. Nothing is purchased without you — you complete the purchase in the console.
They also include genuine scenario modeling: you can toggle 1- versus 3-year terms, adjust the coverage threshold, and change or exclude the usage period, and the recommendation recalculates. If you've read elsewhere that Google's recommender is a take-it-or-leave-it number, that's out of date. And it's free.
Where Solvicus is different
The difference isn't “we have what-if and they don't.” It's the direction the model looks, and how deep the editing goes.
- Forward demand as the input, not history. Google's recommender infers your future from your recent bill. Its scenario controls let you reshape that historicalwindow — pick a different period, exclude atypical days — but there is no field for “here is the demand I have already signed contracts for.” Solvicus takes that forward plan as the optimization target. Google does have forecasting elsewhere in the platform, but it isn't wired into the CUD recommender.
- Line-item editing, not just parameters. Google's what-if is parameter-driven — term, coverage threshold, usage period. Solvicus hands you the individual commitments and lets you change any one of them (start month, term, amount), then re-scores cost, coverage and utilization against the optimum so you can see what your judgement cost or saved.
- It runs in your AI assistant. Solvicus is an MCP server, so the whole loop happens in Claude, ChatGPT or Antigravity — no console access needed for whoever is doing the analysis. See the FinOps MCP server page.
- A solved optimization, not a heuristic. Each resource becomes a mixed-integer program solved to optimality for the inputs you provide, with the reasoning shown.
At a glance
| Solvicus | Google Cloud (built-in) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it optimizes for | Demand you already know — signed contracts, a funded migration, a steady baseline — supplied as a forward plan | Your usage history (analyzed over the previous 30 days by default), extrapolated forward |
| Commitment types | Resource-based CUDs (vCPU + RAM), 1- and 3-year, any machine family and region | Broader — both resource-based CUDs and spend-based / flexible commitments (Cloud SQL, Spanner, AlloyDB, Memorystore and more) |
| Gets your usage data | You (or your AI assistant) provide demand and pricing — no access to your account | Automatically, from your Cloud Billing data |
| Buys anything? | No — recommends and evaluates only; you make every purchase | No — recommends only; you complete the purchase in the console |
| What-if / scenarios | Edit any individual commitment (start month, term, amount), stress-test against different demand, and see cost, coverage and utilization re-score live | Yes — scenario modeling with parameter controls: toggle 1- vs 3-year terms, adjust the coverage threshold, change or exclude the usage period |
| Where you work | In your AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, Antigravity) over MCP | In the Google Cloud console |
| Method | A mixed-integer program solved to optimality for the inputs you give it, with the reasoning shown | Google's own recommendation engine over your billing and usage metrics |
| Price | Free to start; paid plans to be announced | Free — included with Cloud Billing |
When Google's free tool is the right answer
Often. If your workloads are steady and your history is a fair picture of your future, if you want commitment recommendations with zero setup, or if you need coverage for flexible and spend-based commitments that Solvicus doesn't model yet — use the built-in recommender. It's free, it's authoritative about your own billing data, and it will get you most of the way.
When Solvicus fits
When your future demand is known but not yet visible in your usage: a customer contract you've signed but not yet onboarded, a funded migration with a dated ramp, a baseline you're certain about. In those cases a history-based recommendation under-commits, and the gap is real money. It also fits when you want to interrogate and adjust the plan commitment-by-commitment before betting three years on it.
You can use both
They aren't mutually exclusive, and we'd rather say so. A common pattern: Google's recommender for what your history already justifies and for flexible-commitment coverage, Solvicus for planning the demand you know is coming. Solvicus never touches your console, so running it alongside changes nothing about your account.
Comparison based on each vendor's own public documentation, verified as of July 2026. Products change — check the vendor's current documentation before deciding. We describe what each tool does rather than ranking them: the right choice depends on how predictable your demand is and how much control you want.