In GKE environments, it is common for unused Kubernetes resources to accumulate over time. Examples include Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs) that retain provisioned Persistent Disks, or Services of type LoadBalancer that continue to front GCP external load balancers even after the backing pods are gone. ConfigMaps and Secrets may also linger, creating operational overhead.
These orphaned objects often persist due to gaps in CI/CD teardown logic, manual testing workflows, or drift over time. While some carry negligible cost on their own, others can result in significant charges, especially storage and networking artifacts. This inefficiency applies broadly across Kubernetes platforms and is scoped here to GKE.
GKE charges for the control plane in certain tiers and always bills for underlying node resources (e.g., Compute Engine VMs), storage (e.g., Persistent Disks provisioned by PVCs), and network resources like external load balancers created by Services. Orphaned Kubernetes objects—such as Services, PVCs, ConfigMaps, or Secrets—can lead to idle infrastructure costs, especially when they trigger or retain provisioned GCP resources.
