Google Colab

Google Colaboratory
Developer(s)	Google Research
Initial release	2017
Platform	Web application
Type	Cloud computing, Jupyter Notebook, Machine learning
License	Proprietary software Freemium
Website	colab.research.google.com

Google Colaboratory, or Google Colab for short, is a free, cloud-based Jupyter Notebook environment provided by Google. It allows users to write and execute Python code through the browser, especially suited for machine learning, data analysis, and education. Google Colab provides an online integrated development environment (IDE) for Python that requires no setup and runs entirely in the cloud. It offers free access to computing resources, including GPUs and TPUs, making it popular among researchers and students working on deep learning and data science projects. ^{[1] [2]}

Features

Google Colab screenshot

• Supports Python 3
• Built on top of Jupyter Notebook
• Free access to limited GPU/TPU computing resources
• Integration with Google Drive for saving and loading notebooks
• Ability to share notebooks like Google Docs
• Multiple users can collaborate and work on the same document at the same time ^[3]
• Compatible with popular machine learning libraries such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, and scikit-learn ^[4]

Limitations

• Idle timeouts and session limits
• Limited access to high-performance hardware without a paid subscription ^[5]

See also

• Amazon SageMaker
• CoCalc — does Jupyter notebooks, Markdown, LaTeX, RMarkdown, Linux terminal, SageMath, GNU Octave.
• Firebase Studio and Google Cloud Shell – other online IDEs from Google
• GitHub Codespaces
• Kaggle — Kaggle Notebooks
• List of online integrated development environments
• List of online educational resources
• List of Python software

References

1. https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tutorial/Why-and-how-to-use-Google-Colab
2. https://medium.com/kainos-applied-innovation/how-google-has-crushed-it-with-colaboratory-5664b5fb5856
3. https://www.ask.com/news/collaborate-projects-using-google-colab
4. https://sites.northwestern.edu/researchcomputing/resource-guides/resource-guide-deep-learning-frameworks/
5. https://pub.towardsai.net/3-years-of-google-colab-usage-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-e03ee4b7c92c

Sources

• Bisong, Ekaba (2019). "Google Colaboratory". Building Machine Learning and Deep Learning Models on Google Cloud Platform. Berkeley, CA: Apress. doi:10.1007/978-1-4842-4470-8_7. ISBN   978-1-4842-4469-2 . Retrieved 2025-08-24.