Secret Manager Cost Calculator
Price Secret Manager from active versions, replica locations and access operations, and see what version pruning saves.
About Secret Manager Cost Calculator
Secret Manager multiplies three numbers you control independently: how many secrets you keep, how many versions of each remain active, and how many locations replicate them. Access operations are the second meter, and because a workload that reads a secret on every request generates one operation each time, caching the fetched value in memory is the difference between thousands and millions of operations. Secret sprawl is usually version sprawl — rotation scripts that add a version and never destroy the old one bill forever across every replica location. Confirm the per-version and per-operation prices in the Google Cloud pricing calculator, and check whether automatic replication or a pinned location list suits your residency rules.
Formula
Secret Manager Cost
cost = (secrets × active versions × replica locations − free versions) × version price + (access operations − free) ÷ 10,000 × access price.
- active versions
- Enabled or disabled versions; only destroyed versions stop billing
- replica locations
- Each location holding a copy is billed as its own version replica
- access operations
- Every accessSecretVersion call, which is why clients should cache
Worked example
With the default values below, Secret Manager Cost Calculator returns Monthly Cost of $86.61. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Secrets storedaccepts 0–1,000,000 secrets
- 200 secrets
- Active versions kept per secretaccepts 1–100 versions
- 3 versions
- Replica locations per secretaccepts 1–20 locations
- 2 locations
- Price per active version replicaaccepts 0–100 USD/month
- 0.06 USD/month
- Access operationsaccepts 0–10,000,000 thousands/month
- 5,000 thousands/month
- Price per 10,000 access operationsaccepts 0–100 USD
- 0.03 USD
- Free active versionsaccepts 0–10,000 versions
- 6 versions
- Free access operationsaccepts 0–10,000,000 thousands/month
- 10 thousands/month
- Rotations per month across all secretsaccepts 0–1,000,000 rotations
- 200 rotations
- Client cache lifetimeaccepts 0–1,440 minutes
- 5 minutes
- Workloads fetching secretsaccepts 0–1,000,000 workloads
- 60 workloads
- Secrets each workload readsaccepts 0–10,000 secrets
- 3 secrets
Results
- Monthly Cost
- $86.61
- Billable Active Version Replicas
- 1,194 replicas
- Version Storage Charge
- $71.64
- Access Operation Charge
- $14.97
- Access Operations with Caching
- 1,578 thousands
- Saved by Client Caching
- $10.27
- Saved by Keeping One Version
- $48.00
- Cost per Secret
- $0.4331
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Secret Manager Cost
- 3Monthly Cost= 86.61
- 4Billable Active Version Replicas= 1,194 replicas
- 5Version Storage Charge= 71.64
- 6Access Operation Charge= 14.97
- 7Access Operations with Caching= 1,578 thousands
- 8Saved by Client Caching= 10.27
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 12 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 4 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Secret Manager Cost calculated?
cost = (secrets × active versions × replica locations − free versions) × version price + (access operations − free) ÷ 10,000 × access price. Secret Manager multiplies three numbers you control independently: how many secrets you keep, how many versions of each remain active, and how many locations replicate them. Access operations are the second meter, and because a workload that reads a secret on every request generates one operation each time, caching the fetched value in memory is the difference between thousands and millions of operations.
Why does Secret Manager Cost matter?
Secret sprawl is usually version sprawl — rotation scripts that add a version and never destroy the old one bill forever across every replica location. Confirm the per-version and per-operation prices in the Google Cloud pricing calculator, and check whether automatic replication or a pinned location list suits your residency rules.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 12 inputs: Secrets stored, Active versions kept per secret, Replica locations per secret, Price per active version replica, Access operations, Price per 10,000 access operations, Free active versions, Free access operations, Rotations per month across all secrets, Client cache lifetime, Workloads fetching secrets, Secrets each workload reads. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.
Does disabling a secret version stop the charge?
No. Billing counts active versions, and a disabled version is still stored and still billed. You must destroy the version to stop paying for it, which is why rotation automation should include a destroy step for versions past your rollback window.