Google Colab
Free hosted Jupyter notebooks from Google, with access to GPUs and TPUs.
Updated · AppBreakup editorial · Web
Is Google Colab free?
Free plan, plus paid plans
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All 5
HexStarting price: $36 per editor/month (Professional)
marimoOpen source
Jupyter NotebookOpen source
- Verified facts
- 4 of 4
- Alternatives ranked
- 5
- Approved reviews
- 0
- Visits sent from here
- 0
About Google Colab
Google Colab (Colaboratory) is a hosted Jupyter notebook service: you open a notebook in the browser and run Python on Google's machines without installing anything. It is widely used for machine learning courses, tutorials and quick experiments because the free tier includes access to GPUs and TPUs, although those resources are not guaranteed and sessions are cut off after inactivity or long runtimes. Notebooks live in Google Drive, can be loaded from GitHub, and are shared like a Google Doc. Files use the standard .ipynb format, so you can download them and keep working in Jupyter or another notebook tool. Paid plans and pay-as-you-go compute units give faster hardware and longer sessions, and Colab Enterprise runs on Google Cloud for companies. It suits students, researchers and anyone who wants to try data science or deep learning code without setting up a local environment.
Best for: Students and ML learners who want free GPU notebooks with nothing to install.
Pros and cons
What works
- Free access to GPUs and TPUs for learning and small experiments
- No setup: runs entirely in the browser with a Google account
- Standard .ipynb files that open in any Jupyter tool
Why people leave
- Free resources are not guaranteed and sessions get terminated
- Data has to be uploaded or mounted from Google Drive each session
- Real-time collaboration is weaker than in team notebook tools
Google Colab vs Hex, marimo and Jupyter Notebook
From each app's listing and the prices verified on its own site. A dash means we haven't verified it yet.
| Attribute | Google Colab | Hex | marimo | Jupyter Notebook |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan + paid | Free plan + paid | Open source | Open source |
| Verified price | — | $36 per editor/month (Professional) | — | — |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes (Community) | Free app | Free app |
| Open source | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Platforms | Web | Web | Windows, macOS, Linux, Web, Self-hosted | Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hosted |
Top Google Colab alternatives
See all 5- 1Hex64.8
Turns SQL and Python notebooks into shareable data apps, aimed at analytics teams on a warehouse.
- 2marimo61.8
Open-source reactive notebook stored as plain Python files, so it works well with Git and runs locally.
- 3Jupyter Notebook51.2
The open-source notebook Colab is built on; run it on your own hardware with no session time limits or idle disconnects.
- 4
Databricks50.0Hosted notebooks on managed Spark clusters with GPU options, for teams moving Colab experiments into production data and ML work.
- 5
Kaggle42.3Free hosted notebooks with GPU time, plus public datasets and competitions to practise on.
Why people left Google Colab
In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.
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Google Colab: common questions
What is Google Colab?
Google Colab: Free hosted Jupyter notebooks from Google, with access to GPUs and TPUs. Best for students and ML learners who want free GPU notebooks with nothing to install. Available for Web.
Is Google Colab free?
Google Colab has a free plan and paid plans.
Is Google Colab open source?
No, Google Colab is not open source. Open-source alternatives include marimo and Jupyter Notebook.
What platforms does Google Colab run on?
Google Colab is available for Web.
What are the best alternatives to Google Colab?
The highest-ranked Google Colab alternatives right now are Hex, marimo and Jupyter Notebook. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.
Google Colab vs Hex: what's the difference?
Both Google Colab and Hex are free with paid plans. Both run on Web.