Google Colab
Google Colab is a hosted Jupyter Notebook service. Google’s own FAQ says it needs no setup, gives free access to computing resources including GPUs and TPUs, and suits machine learning and data science. Its newer AI-first version adds a coding partner inside the notebook.
What Google Colab does
- Runs Jupyter notebooks in the browser with no setup.
- Gives access to computing resources including GPUs and TPUs, free of charge according to Google’s FAQ.
- Offers an AI-first experience: Google’s videos describe a coding partner in your notebook that helps with data work, models and visualisations.
- Integrates with GitHub and Kaggle, and supports forms and widgets to make notebooks interactive, as Google’s videos show.
What people use it for
Learn Python and data science
Open the introductory notebook and run each cell, changing one thing at a time.
Try a model on a GPU
Use a hosted runtime to run a machine learning example without installing anything.
Make a notebook others can use
Add forms and widgets so a colleague can change parameters without editing code.
Who it suits
- Students and beginners learning Python, data science or machine learning.
- Analysts and researchers who want a quick notebook without local setup.
Plans and access
Google’s FAQ says Colab is free to use, but that it prioritises users who are actively programming in a notebook and restricts some activities, such as file hosting, mining cryptocurrency, password cracking and creating deepfakes. Paid versions exist for more resources, so read Google’s current terms. Never put secrets or personal data in a shared notebook.
How to start
- 1Open the introductory notebook and sign in. Open
- 2Run the cells in order and change one value at a time.
- 3Watch Google’s video on AI-first Colab, then try its assistant on a small dataset.
- 4Read what generated code does before you run it on real data.
Watch and learn
Videos from Google’s own channel, so you can learn it here. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. More on the Google for Developers channel.
Google for Developers · 2025
Supercharge Your Workflows with AI-First Colab
Google for Developers · 2025
End to End Machine Learning with AI First Colab
Google for Developers · 2025
Stunning Visualizations with AI-First Colab
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Common questions about Google Colab
- What is Colab?
- Google’s FAQ describes Colab as a hosted Jupyter Notebook service that requires no setup and gives free access to computing resources, including GPUs and TPUs.
- Is it really free?
- Google says yes, with limitations. It prioritises users who are actively programming, and paid options exist for more resources.
- What is not allowed?
- Google lists file hosting, torrents, remote proxies, cryptocurrency mining, denial-of-service attacks, password cracking, using multiple accounts to get around limits and creating deepfakes.
- Can I trust the AI’s code?
- Read it first. Run it on sample data and check the output before you use it on anything that matters.
Where this comes from
Written from the maker’s own pages, read on 2026-10-13. Plans, limits and features change, so the page you land on is the source.
Each tool links to its maker’s own page. They are listed so you know what exists and what to learn, not ranked, and they are not endorsements. We are not affiliated with these companies. A tool can change or be renamed; the page you land on is the source.