# Cloud Interconnect

> Cloud Interconnect provides dedicated or partner circuits into GCP, billed as fixed port fees that run 24x7 whether traffic flows or not. ZopNight discovers Interconnect resources via Cloud Asset Inventory and attributes the fixed charges from the BigQuery billing export; VLAN attachments are tracked separately.

Source: https://zop.dev/integrations/gcp/cloud-interconnect
Updated: 2026-08-19

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Cloud Interconnect provides dedicated or partner physical connectivity between your data center and Google Cloud. Ports and attachments carry fixed monthly fees whether or not traffic flows.

## Port fees bill whether packets flow or not

Interconnect is physical infrastructure, and it bills like physical infrastructure: a Dedicated Interconnect port carries a fixed recurring fee from the day it is provisioned, independent of utilization, and Partner Interconnect capacity is likewise charged for its existence rather than its use. Egress across the link is priced lower than internet egress, usually the reason the link was bought, but the fixed component never flexes. A port running at 2 percent utilization and a port running flat-out cost the same to keep.

## Keeping dedicated links out of the billing blind spot

ZopDev discovers Interconnect resources via Cloud Asset Inventory and attributes their fixed charges from the BigQuery billing export, so network spend is never a blind spot. This type represents the physical connection (the port and its link), while the VLAN attachments that carry traffic from it into specific VPCs are tracked as their own resource type, interconnect-attachment. Physical circuits cannot be paused: there is no schedule to apply, so the value of coverage is that a five-figure fixed line always has an owner, a purpose, and a visible utilization story.

## Circuits that outlast the strategy that bought them

Interconnect waste is rare but large when it happens. The datacenter-exit case: a company migrates fully to GCP, the on-premises side empties out, and the circuit that justified itself during migration keeps billing after there is nothing left to connect. The redundancy audit case: dual circuits bought for failover where one was quietly repurposed or downgraded, leaving asymmetric capacity nobody planned. And the capacity mismatch: a port sized for a migration burst that ended, still billing at burst scale.

## Reviewing physical connections in the console

Google Cloud console → Network Connectivity → Interconnect lists physical connections with their type, location, capacity, and operational status, alongside the VLAN attachments each one carries.