Configure underutilized reservation recommendations

This page describes how to view and modify the configuration of your underutilized, on-demand reservation recommendations. You might want to modify the configuration to increase the number of recommendations that you receive, or to get fewer recommendations to delete reservations that you plan to use.

Before you begin

Configure your recommendations

Get the current configuration

You can obtain the current configuration for underutilized reservation recommendations for your project by using the Google Cloud CLI or REST.

Permissions required for this task

To perform this task, you must have the following permissions:

recommender.computeRightSizeResourceRecommender.get on the project.

Complete this task using one of the following methods.

gcloud

To get the current configuration parameters, use the gcloud recommender recommender-config describe command and use google.compute.RightSizeResourceRecommender as the Recommender ID:

gcloud recommender recommender-config describe google.compute.RightSizeResourceRecommender \
  --location=ZONE --billing-account=BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID

Replace the following:

ZONE with the zone that contains reservations to list recommendations for.
BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID with the ID of your billing account.

For example:

gcloud recommender recommender-config describe google.compute.RightSizeResourceRecommender \
  --location=us-central1-c --billing-account=my-billing-account-id

The command returns the recommender configuration, including the modifiable subfields params.under_utilized_reservation_lookback_period and params.under_utilized_reservation_utilization_threshold.

{
  "name": "projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/ZONE/recommenders/google.compute.RightSizeResourceRecommender/config",
  "recommenderGenerationConfig": {
    "params": {
      "under_utilized_reservation_lookback_period": "P7D",
      "under_utilized_reservation_utilization_threshold": "0.8"
    }
  },
  "etag": "\"2f3c9b65cda6a4ba\"",
  "updateTime": "2024-06-03T04:41:15.330351Z"
}

REST

To retrieve the current configuration, use the recommenders.getConfig method and specify google.compute.RightSizeResourceRecommender as the Recommender ID:

GET https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/ZONE/recommenders/google.compute.RightSizeResourceRecommender/config

Replace the following:

PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project for which you want to modify the recommender configuration.
ZONE: the zone that contains your project.

From the command line, execute the following command to get the recommender configuration for a project:

PROJECT_ID=PROJECT_ID
ZONE=ZONE
curl -X GET -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
-H "x-goog-user-project: ${PROJECT_ID}" \
https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1/projects/$PROJECT_ID/locations/$ZONE/recommenders/google.compute.RightSizeResourceRecommender/config

The command returns the recommender configuration, including the subfields that you can modify: params.under_utilized_reservation_lookback_period and params.under_utilized_reservation_utilization_threshold.

{
  "name": "projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/ZONE/recommenders/google.compute.RightSizeResourceRecommender/config",
  "recommenderGenerationConfig": {
    "params": {
      "under_utilized_reservation_lookback_period": "P7D",
      "under_utilized_reservation_utilization_threshold": "0.8"
    }
  },
  "etag": "\"2f3c9b65cda6a4ba\"",
  "updateTime": "2024-06-03T04:41:15.330351Z"
}

Update the configuration for a project

To update the configuration of your underutilized reservation recommendations, modify the value for under_utilized_reservation_lookback_period and upload the new configuration for your project.

You can set the observation period to a value of 7 days up to 30 days, using a string beginning with P, then an integer for the number of days (7 minimum and 30 maximum), followed by D, for example:

For an observation period of 7 days, use "P7D".
For an observation period of 30 days, use "P30D".

Similarly, set the usage threshold that triggers an underutilized reservation recommendation by modifying the value for under_utilized_reservation_utilization_threshold and upload the new configuration for your project, for example:

For a threshold of 80%, "0.8".

After you upload the new configuration, it takes approximately 48 hours for it to take effect. Until that time, any generated recommendations use the previous configuration.

Permissions required for this task

To perform this task, you must have the following permissions:

recommender.computeRightSizeResourceRecommender.get on the project to view the configuration.
recommender.computeRightSizeResourceRecommender.update on the project to modify the configuration.

Complete this task using one of the following methods.

gcloud

To update the configuration parameters, use the gcloud recommender recommender-config update command and use google.compute.RightSizeResourceRecommender as the Recommender ID:

gcloud recommender recommender-config update google.compute.RightSizeResourceRecommender\
  --location=ZONE \
  --config-file=CONFIG_FILE_PATH \
  --etag=ETAG \
  --billing-account=BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID

Replace the following:

ZONE: the zone for which you want to obtain the current configuration
CONFIG_FILE_PATH: the path to the JSON file with the current configuration
ETAG: the etag value of the current configuration
BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID: the ID of the billing account

In your configuration file, specify only the recommenderGenerationConfig object with the updated configuration parameters. For example, to specify an observation period of 21 days and the underutilized reservation threshold to 80%, use the following configuration file:

{
  "params": {
    "under_utilized_reservation_lookback_period": "P21D",
    "under_utilized_reservation_utilization_threshold": "0.8"
  }
}

If the command is successful, it returns a response body similar to the following, showing the new configuration with the parameters you just modified.

{
  "name": "projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/ZONE/recommenders/google.compute.RightSizeResourceRecommender/config",
  "recommenderGenerationConfig": {
    "params": {
      "under_utilized_reservation_lookback_period": "P21D",
      "under_utilized_reservation_utilization_threshold": "0.8"
    }
  },
  "etag": "\"1245f9435cd01ea8\"",
  "updateTime": "2024-06-03T05:00:05Z"
}

REST

To update the configuration, make a PATCH request to the recommenders.updateConfig method and specify google.compute.RightSizeResourceRecommender as the Recommender ID:

PATCH https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/ZONE/recommenders/google.compute.RightSizeResourceRecommender/config

{
  "name": "projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/ZONE/recommenders/google.compute.RightSizeResourceRecommender/config",
  "recommenderGenerationConfig": {
    "params": {
      "under_utilized_reservation_lookback_period": "P21D",
      "under_utilized_reservation_utilization_threshold": "0.8"
    }
  },
  "etag": "\"2f3c9b65cda6a4ba\""
}

Replace the following:

PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project for which you want to modify the recommender configuration.
ZONE: the zone that contains your project.

Save the request body in a file, for example config.json. You can then reference the file when you update the recommender configuration for your project, using a command similar to the following:

curl -X PATCH \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
-H "x-goog-user-project: ${PROJECT_ID}" \
-d @config.json \
https://recommender.googleapis.com/v1/projects/$PROJECT_ID/locations/$ZONE/recommenders/google.compute.RightSizeResourceRecommender/config

The POST command returns a response body similar to the following, showing the new configuration with the parameters you just modified.

{
  "name": "projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/ZONE/recommenders/google.compute.RightSizeResourceRecommender/config",
  "recommenderGenerationConfig": {
    "params": {
      "under_utilized_reservation_lookback_period": "P21D",
      "under_utilized_reservation_utilization_threshold": "0.8"
    }
  },
  "etag": "\"1245f9435cd01ea8\"",
  "updateTime": "2024-06-03T05:00:05Z"
}

What's next

Learn how to view and apply idle reservation recommendations.
Learn how to view and apply underutilized reservation recommendations.

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated 2026-07-17 UTC.

Configure underutilized reservation recommendations Stay organized with collections Save and categorize content based on your preferences.

Before you begin

gcloud

REST

Configure your recommendations

Get the current configuration

Permissions required for this task

gcloud

REST

Update the configuration for a project

Permissions required for this task

gcloud

REST

What's next

Configure underutilized reservation recommendations