How to set up a free cloud PC

MoyMote guide · October 28, 2026

Google gives some new accounts $300 of trial money. You use it to rent a computer that sits far away on the internet. You open it and use it on your phone. This is called a "cloud computer".

Step by step, from your phone

1. Go to the site. In your phone's browser open cloud.google.com/free. In Chrome, tap the three dots at the top right and tick "Desktop site". Google's page then opens in full.
2. Sign up. Sign in with your Google account. Start the free trial. Add your card. This is only to check it is you. The trial does not turn paid by itself.
3. Get the free credit. When signup ends, your account gets $300, good for 90 days. You do nothing else.
4. Open the machines page. On the Google Cloud page, go to Compute Engine. Then go to VM instances. If it asks you to turn something on, agree. Then tap "Create instance".

5. Choose the machine. A region is the place where the machine sits. Pick one close to you. For machine type pick e2-standard-8. That is a strong computer: 8 processors, 32 GB memory. The operating system is the main program inside the computer. Debian and Ubuntu are two kinds of Linux. Pick Debian. Then tap "Create".

6. Do a one-time prep. This step makes the machine ready to open from your phone. In the machine list, tap "SSH" (SSH is a way to talk to the machine by typing). A black text window opens. Paste the lines below into the black window, press Enter, and wait until it finishes (it takes a few minutes).

   curl https://dl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/chrome-remote-desktop.gpg && echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome-remote-desktop/deb stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/chrome-remote-desktop.list && sudo apt-get update
   sudo DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install --assume-yes chrome-remote-desktop && sudo DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt install --assume-yes xfce4 desktop-base dbus-x11 xscreensaver
   sudo bash -c 'echo "exec /etc/X11/Xsession /usr/bin/xfce4-session" > /etc/chrome-remote-desktop-session' && sudo systemctl disable lightdm.service

   Then open remotedesktop.google.com/headless in a new tab. Tap Begin, then Next, then Authorize. Copy the line given for Debian Linux. Go back to the black window, paste the line and press Enter. Pick a 6-digit PIN (6 numbers, like a password).

7. Connect from your phone. To connect means to open the far computer's screen. Install the Chrome Remote Desktop app on your phone. Sign in with the same Google account. Choose your machine. Type the 6-digit PIN.

8. Shut it down when you finish. In your phone's browser go back to the Google Cloud page. Select the machine. Tap "Stop". This stops the hourly charge. A very small disk charge stays. If you are done for good, delete the machine.

If you have a computer

The same steps work in a computer browser. To connect, open remotedesktop.google.com/access.

More

• How many hours do you get? In the US region (us-central1) e2-standard-8 costs about $0.268 per hour. $300 covers about 1,119 hours. If the machine stays on day and night, that is about 46 days. Disk, internet address and network traffic cost extra. Prices change by region: price list.
• Stretching it to 90 days. Turn the machine on only when you need it. About 12 hours a day fits in 90 days. Or pick e2-standard-4. It costs about $0.134 per hour. Even left on for 90 days nonstop, it fits in the credit (disk and network not included).
• Linux. On the trial, machines run Linux.
• Oracle Cloud Always Free. Free with no end date. Gives an Arm (a kind of processor, Ampere A1) machine equal to 2 OCPUs (processor cores) and 12 GB of memory. Signup usually asks for a phone number and a credit card. Oracle documentation.
• GitHub Codespaces. A free personal account gets 120 compute hours and 15 GB-month of storage each month. On a 2-core machine that is about 60 hours. It runs in a browser and opens on a phone. You need no card to start. GitHub documentation.
• Sources. Free Cloud Features, Free Trial terms. Offers can change. Check the provider's page before you sign up.

MoyMote is a Windows app that lets you control your monitor's brightness and other settings from your phone. See what it does.