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Saleor on GKE Autopilot

Saleor on GKE Autopilot

Saleor is an open-source, GraphQL-first headless e-commerce platform built on Python/Django (product catalog, checkout, orders, and payment plugins, all exposed through a GraphQL API rather than a bundled storefront). This module deploys Saleor on GKE Autopilot on top of the App_GKE foundation, which provisions and manages the shared Google Cloud and Kubernetes infrastructure.

This guide focuses on the cloud services Saleor uses and how to explore and operate them from the Google Cloud Console and the command line. For the mechanics that are common to every GKE application — Workload Identity, ingress, autoscaling, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC Service Controls, backups, and the deployment lifecycle — refer to the App_GKE foundation guide rather than repeating them here.


What Saleor costs on RAD, and how that compares​

Running Saleor in your own GCP project costs about $106.53/month in Google Cloud charges; RAD's module fee is a one-time 110 credits (or 99 credits in a RAD-managed project), covering setup and support -- not the ongoing cloud bill, which Google bills you directly in your own project or RAD meters hourly in credits in a RAD-managed one. If a lower running cost matters more than the deployment target, see the Cloud Run guide for the lower-cost option; otherwise, if you deploy into a RAD-managed project you can pause the whole thing for free when you are not using it -- see Pause it for free below.

What you pay on RAD​

Your own projectRAD-managed project
Module fee110 credits, once99 credits, once (10% lower)
Build timemetered in credits as the build runs (a few credits, typically)same
Google Cloud running cost~$106.53/month, billed to your own billing account at Google's list price~97 credits/day, metered hourly by RAD at list price plus margin

Default running cost in your own project

ResourceUS$/month (Google list price, us-central1)
GKE Autopilot pod, 1x vCPU / 1 GiB$36.08
Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL, 1 vCPU / 3.75 GB, zonal, 10 GB SSD$51.02
NFS/cache file server (small VM)$13.43
Cloud NAT and networking$5.00
Cloud Storage (add-ons, backups)$1.00
GKE cluster management feeshared across every GKE app in the project; $0 if this is your only cluster, else ~$73
Total$106.53

How it compares​

  • Saleor's own official managed offering, Saleor Cloud, starts at $1,599/month (Select tier, up to $200,000 GMV; source: https://saleor.io/pricing) -- aimed at production storefronts at real transaction volume, so it is not a like-for-like comparison with a single self-serve deployment, but it is the only verified commercial price for this exact platform.
  • Saleor's own footprint here (1x vCPU / 1 GiB) is smaller than this reference class, so an even cheaper VPS tier would do just as well, but sized to the smallest commonly-quoted class for comparison: Hetzner CPX22 (2 vCPU/4GB) runs about $24/month, a DigitalOcean 2 vCPU/4GB Droplet is also $24/month, and a GCP Compute Engine e2-standard-2 (2 vCPU/8GB) is about $49/month -- plus the admin's own time for backups, security patches and upgrades, which RAD's managed Cloud SQL, Secret Manager and monitoring cover for you -- but RAD's price is never meant to beat a VPS, only to replace the admin time a VPS still needs.
  • Saleor is a commerce API that live storefronts depend on, so uptime tends to matter more here than squeezing the running cost down -- but the same pause mechanism below still applies to a staging or demo storefront that is not taking live orders.

Pause it for free: delete a RAD-managed project, restore it when you need it​

This is the headline for a RAD-managed project. Deleting a RAD-managed project first unlinks its billing, then asks Google to delete the project outright -- Google's own 30-day recoverable soft delete. Unlike deleting one module, this does not tear down Cloud SQL, any VM or the compute resource one by one: the whole project simply stops, and nothing is charged while it waits, because billing is already unlinked.

Restoring, within 30 days and only by the project's owner, asks Google to undelete the project and reattaches its billing account, then asks you to run Update on each deployment to confirm everything came back. Because nothing was individually destroyed, that Update finds the same resources already there -- it is a check, not a rebuild, and an Update never charges the module fee again. This costs only a handful of credits (under US$1) in total for a typical 2-3-deployment chain.

What this needs: you must own the project (not one RAD only manages billing for), you must restore it yourself within 30 days -- after that Google deletes it for good -- and restoring is admitted like creating a new project, so your purchased credit balance must still clear the tier's floor (100 credits for the sandbox tier most study/demo use fits). Google says most services are fully working again within 36 hours of a restore.

One real gap: nightly backups are written to a bucket inside the project, and that bucket has Cloud Storage's soft-delete explicitly turned off, so it is very likely gone as soon as you delete the project -- even though the project itself is recoverable for 30 days. If you have customised the app and want to keep that work, copy a backup out (to Google Drive, or a bucket outside the project) before deleting. For a default install with nothing irreplaceable in it, this does not matter.

Pay only while you use it, the other way: delete and redeploy​

In your own project (or once you are past the 30-day restore window above), the alternative is to delete Saleor outright and redeploy it later. A redeploy costs the module fee again, plus the builds -- roughly 110 + 3-6 credits of build time.

Deleting saves money only once Saleor would otherwise sit unused long enough to clear that redeploy cost against its own daily running cost -- against the own-project total above, that works out to about 3 days or more. Most of the running cost here is usually the database and the NFS/cache VM; they stop only when nothing else in the project uses them, so deleting this app while something else shares the project saves only this app's own compute part.

Keep data first: nightly backups go to a bucket inside the deployment and are deleted with it, so copy the latest backup out before deleting if you want to keep it.

Lab sessions and Managed Environments​

  • Lab sessions, for training: a trainer runs a session for a class. Each participant gets the app in their own Google Cloud project for 15 minutes to 24 hours, within an allowance the trainer sets. Either the trainer funds every place, or each participant pays for their own. Everything is deleted when the session ends and unused credits go back to the trainer.
  • Managed Environments, for consultancies: a partner runs the app for a client from a ring-fenced wallet it funds, and settles with the client directly. If the wallet runs low, billing pauses and the data is kept, so nobody receives an unexpected charge. At the end the partner hands the project over and the deployments become the client's own.
  • Credits can be bought in more than 20 currencies, including XAF, XOF, NGN, GHS, KES and ZAR, by card, bank transfer or mobile money.

Sources (8 October 2026): Google Cloud Billing Catalog API list prices; radmodules.dev/pricing for RAD's own fees and daily-credit estimates; https://cloud.google.com/resource-manager/docs/delete-restore-projects for the pause/restore mechanics; https://saleor.io/pricing for the named competitor's price.

1. Overview​

Saleor runs as a custom-built container (ghcr.io/saleor/saleor:3.23 wrapped with a cloud entrypoint) on GKE Autopilot. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

CapabilityGoogle Cloud serviceNotes
ComputeGKE AutopilotTwo Kubernetes workloads: the main Saleor API (uvicorn, 2 workers + co-located Celery worker/beat) and a separate prebuilt Dashboard; 2 vCPU / 3 GiB by default on the main pod
DatabaseCloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15Required — fixed by Saleor_Common regardless of database_type
Object storageCloud StorageA dedicated media bucket provisioned automatically
Cache & brokerRedis (optional)Backs CACHE_URL/CELERY_BROKER_URL for the co-located Celery worker
SecretsSecret ManagerAuto-generated SECRET_KEY, RSA_PRIVATE_KEY, DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD; database password
IngressCloud Load BalancingModule default LoadBalancer; this project's live deployment currently runs ClusterIP due to exhausted IP quota — see Notes below

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

  • PostgreSQL 15 is mandatory. Saleor_Common fixes the database engine; selecting any other value in database_type has no effect.
  • The Celery worker (order processing, webhooks, emails, scheduled tasks) runs co-located inside the main pod's container, started as a background process by the cloud entrypoint — not a separate additional_services Deployment. GKE has no build-sharing path between the main app and a sidecar Deployment any more than Cloud Run does.
  • Resource sizing is pre-tuned: 2000m CPU / 3Gi memory. Confirmed live on GKE Autopilot that smaller sizes (even 1Gi/2 vCPU, Autopilot-rounded to 2176Mi) OOMKill under the combined load of 2 uvicorn workers + Django + Celery worker/beat.
  • Three secrets are generated automatically: SECRET_KEY, RSA_PRIVATE_KEY (Saleor's JWT signing keypair — must never be rotated casually), and DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD.
  • A separate, genuinely prebuilt Dashboard workload (ghcr.io/saleor/saleor-dashboard:3.23) is deployed alongside the API as an additional_services entry. Its API_URL is baked into the served UI at container start, resolved from the Foundation's $(GKE_SERVICE_URL) plan-time sentinel + /graphql/.
  • service_type module default is LoadBalancer; this deployment currently runs ClusterIP — an operational choice made in config/deploy.tfvars because this project's external IP quota (IN_USE_ADDRESSES) was exhausted at deploy time, not a module design decision. Flip back once IP quota is available.
  • Redis is optional and off by default (enable_redis = false). When enabled with redis_host left empty, falls back to the NFS server VM's IP.
  • Health probes target /health/, unauthenticated, confirmed 200 both locally and live.

2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them​

All commands assume you have run gcloud container clusters get-credentials <cluster> --region <region> --project <project> and that PROJECT, REGION, and NAMESPACE are set. The namespace and other identifiers are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. GKE Autopilot — the Saleor API and Dashboard workloads​

Saleor's API pods are scheduled on Autopilot, which bills for the CPU/memory the pods actually request. The Dashboard runs as a second, independent workload (an additional_services entry) serving the static admin UI bundle.

  • Console: Kubernetes Engine → Workloads → select the workload to see pods, revisions, and events. Kubernetes Engine → Services & Ingress shows the external IP (when service_type = LoadBalancer).
  • CLI:
    kubectl get pods,svc -n "$NAMESPACE"
    kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> --tail=100
    kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name>-dashboard --tail=100

See App_GKE for how Autopilot, scaling, and the workload type (Deployment vs StatefulSet) are managed.

B. Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15​

Saleor stores all application data (products, orders, checkouts, users, payment records) in a managed Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 instance. Pods reach it privately through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar over loopback; no public IP is exposed. On first deploy, db-init creates the application database and role, then db-migrate (which depends on db-init) applies Django's schema migrations.

  • Console: SQL → select the instance for connections, backups, flags, and metrics.
  • CLI:
    gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
    gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
    gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --database=<db-name> --project "$PROJECT"

The instance name, database name, user, and the Secret Manager secret holding the password are all surfaced in the Outputs. For the connection model, automated backups, and password rotation, see App_GKE.

C. Cloud Storage​

A dedicated Cloud Storage media bucket is provisioned automatically for Saleor's uploaded product/media assets. The workload service account is granted access. Additional buckets can be declared via storage_buckets.

  • Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets.
  • CLI:
    gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
    gcloud storage ls gs://<media-bucket>/ # bucket name is in the Outputs

See App_GKE for CMEK options and GCS Fuse mounts.

D. Redis (cache & Celery broker)​

Redis is disabled by default. When enable_redis = true is set and redis_host is left empty, the NFS server VM's IP is used as the Redis endpoint (requires enable_nfs = true). The cloud entrypoint composes CACHE_URL (Redis DB /0) and CELERY_BROKER_URL (Redis DB /1) from REDIS_HOST/REDIS_PORT.

  • Console: Memorystore → Redis (if using a managed instance).
  • CLI:
    redis-cli -h <redis-host> ping
    # Confirm the composed URLs from the running pod's env:
    kubectl exec -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> -- env | grep -E 'CACHE_URL|CELERY_BROKER_URL'

E. Secret Manager​

Three secrets are generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager: SECRET_KEY (Django's cryptographic signing key), RSA_PRIVATE_KEY (JWT signing keypair for all issued access/refresh tokens), and DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD (bootstrap admin account password). The database password is managed separately by the foundation.

  • Console: Security → Secret Manager.
  • CLI:
    gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT"
    gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<secret-name> --project "$PROJECT"

The database password secret name is in the Outputs. See App_GKE for the Secret Store CSI integration and rotation.

F. Networking & ingress​

By default the workload would be exposed through an external Cloud Load Balancing IP (service_type = LoadBalancer). This project's live deployment currently runs service_type = ClusterIP because the project's external IP quota (IN_USE_ADDRESSES) was exhausted at deploy time — verify with kubectl port-forward rather than expecting a public IP. Once quota is available, switch back to service_type = "LoadBalancer" with reserve_static_ip = true.

  • Console: Network services → Load balancing; VPC network → IP addresses.
  • CLI:
    kubectl get svc -n "$NAMESPACE"
    kubectl port-forward -n "$NAMESPACE" svc/<service-name> 18080:8000
    gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_GKE for custom domains, Cloud CDN, and static IP details.

G. Cloud Logging & Monitoring​

Pod stdout/stderr flow to Cloud Logging; GKE and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring. Optional uptime checks and alert policies are available (uptime checks require a publicly reachable endpoint).

  • Console: Logging → Logs Explorer; Monitoring → Dashboards / Alerting.
  • CLI:
    gcloud logging read 'resource.type="k8s_container" AND resource.labels.namespace_name="'"$NAMESPACE"'"' \
    --project "$PROJECT" --limit 50

3. Saleor Application Behaviour​

  • First-deploy database setup. db-init (postgres:15-alpine) idempotently creates the application database and role. db-migrate (the application image, depends_on_jobs = ["db-init"]) then runs python3 manage.py migrate --noinput. Both jobs are safe to re-run.
  • Extensions always installed. pg_trgm, unaccent, hstore, and citext are installed unconditionally by Saleor_Common's assembled configuration — the calling module's enable_postgres_extensions/postgres_extensions variables have no additional effect on this base set.
  • Celery worker + beat runs co-located, not as a separate workload. Order processing, webhooks, emails, and scheduled tasks all run inside the main pod's background worker process.
  • SECRET_KEY, RSA_PRIVATE_KEY, and DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD are immutable after first boot. RSA_PRIVATE_KEY in particular signs every JWT Saleor issues — rotating it invalidates all active sessions. Only rotate during a planned maintenance window.
  • Superuser bootstrap. The cloud entrypoint runs manage.py createsuperuser --email $SALEOR_SUPERUSER_EMAIL --noinput on every boot when DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD is set (idempotent — a no-op once the user exists). SALEOR_SUPERUSER_EMAIL defaults to admin@example.com and is not exposed as a variable on this module — it is Saleor_Common's own fixed default.
  • Health path. Startup and liveness probes target /health/ — Saleor's unauthenticated health endpoint, confirmed to return 200 as soon as the ASGI server accepts connections.
  • Dashboard's API_URL is baked in at container start, not read dynamically — confirmed via the official Dashboard image's own /docker-entrypoint.d/50-replace-env-vars.sh, which sed-replaces API_URL into the built index.html. On GKE this uses $(GKE_SERVICE_URL) — the Foundation's plan-time sentinel resolved to the main app's actual Service URL, since Kubernetes does not interpolate $(VAR) across containers.

4. Configuration Variables​

Variables are grouped exactly as they appear on the deployment platform. Only settings specific to or notable for Saleor are listed; every other input is inherited from App_GKE with its standard behaviour and defaults.

Group 1 — Project & Identity​

VariableDefaultDescription
project_id(required)Target Google Cloud project.
regionus-central1Region for the workload and regional resources.

Group 2 — Deployment Environment​

VariableDefaultDescription
tenant_iddemoShort suffix that makes resource names unique per environment.
support_users[]Emails granted project access and monitoring alerts.
resource_labels{}Labels applied to all resources for cost/ownership tracking.

Group 3 — Application Identity​

VariableDefaultDescription
application_namesaleorBase name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
application_versionlatestMaps to the SALEOR_VERSION build ARG (3.23 when latest) and the Dashboard image's own tag.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling​

VariableDefaultDescription
deploy_applicationtrueSet false to provision infrastructure only.
container_resources{ cpu_limit = "2000m", memory_limit = "3Gi" }Sized for the combined uvicorn + Celery workload — see Overview.
min_instance_count0Minimum replicas (HPA minReplicas).
max_instance_count1Maximum replicas (HPA maxReplicas).
container_port8000uvicorn's bind port — must match the base image's CMD.
enable_cloudsql_volumetrueCloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar for loopback connections.
enable_image_mirroringtrueMirror the built image into Artifact Registry.

Group 5 — Environment Variables & Secrets​

VariableDefaultDescription
environment_variables{}Extra non-secret settings, merged on top of Saleor_Common's own defaults (ALLOWED_HOSTS, SALEOR_SUPERUSER_EMAIL). Do not set SECRET_KEY, RSA_PRIVATE_KEY, or DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD here.
secret_environment_variables{}Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name.
secret_propagation_delay30Seconds to wait after secret creation before proceeding.
secret_rotation_period2592000sSecret Manager rotation notification frequency.

Group 6 — GKE Backend & Cluster​

VariableDefaultDescription
service_typeLoadBalancerThis deployment currently overrides to ClusterIP in deploy.tfvars due to exhausted IP quota — see Overview.
workload_typeDeployment (implied by null)Saleor deploys as a Deployment; StatefulSet is not used.
session_affinityClientIPSticky routing.
network_tags["nfsserver"]Node/pod network tags; nfsserver is required when enable_nfs = true.
termination_grace_period_seconds30Seconds to wait after SIGTERM before SIGKILL — gives the Celery worker time to finish in-flight tasks.

Group 8 — Custom SQL Scripts​

enable_custom_sql_scripts, custom_sql_scripts_bucket, custom_sql_scripts_path, custom_sql_scripts_use_root — run SQL from a GCS bucket after provisioning. See App_GKE.

Group 11/12 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks​

VariableDefaultDescription
initialization_jobs[]Leave empty for the built-in db-init → db-migrate pair.
cron_jobs[]Scheduled Kubernetes CronJobs (e.g. Saleor management commands).

Group 13/15 — Filesystem (NFS) & Redis​

VariableDefaultDescription
enable_nfstrueDeclared but not used by Saleor's own storage path — media is served from the media GCS bucket. Also the source of the Redis NFS-IP fallback when enable_redis = true and redis_host = "".
enable_redisfalseEnables Saleor's cache/broker over Redis.
redis_host""Falls back to the NFS server IP when enable_nfs = true.
redis_port6379Redis port.
redis_auth""Optional Redis auth password (sensitive).

Group 14/16 — Cloud Storage & Database​

VariableDefaultDescription
create_cloud_storagetrueCreate GCS buckets defined in storage_buckets.
storage_buckets[{ name_suffix = "data" }]Additional buckets, on top of the Saleor_Common-declared media bucket.
database_typePOSTGRESDeclared for convention parity; Saleor_Common always fixes PostgreSQL 15 regardless of this value.
application_database_namegkeappPostgreSQL database name. Recommended override: saleor_db. Immutable after first deploy.
application_database_usergkeappApplication database user. Recommended override: saleor_user.

Group 19 — Custom Domain & Static IP​

VariableDefaultDescription
enable_custom_domaintrueProvisions a Gateway API resource + static IP for custom hostnames.
reserve_static_iptrueRecommended once service_type is switched back to LoadBalancer.

Group 10/22 — Observability & Health​

VariableDefaultDescription
startup_probeHTTP /health/, 90s delayStartup probe forwarded to Saleor_Common — allows time for db-migrate to complete first.
liveness_probeHTTP /health/, 60s delayLiveness probe forwarded to Saleor_Common.
uptime_check_config{ enabled=false, path="/" }Optional Cloud Monitoring uptime check — requires a publicly reachable endpoint.
alert_policies[]Metric alert policies.

Group 22 — VPC Service Controls & Audit Logging​

Standard App_GKE VPC-SC and audit logging options — see App_GKE.


5. Outputs​

These values are returned on a successful deployment and are the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.

OutputDescription
service_nameKubernetes Service name (main API).
namespaceNamespace the workload runs in.
service_cluster_ipIn-cluster ClusterIP.
service_external_ipExternal LoadBalancer IP — only populated when service_type = LoadBalancer and a static IP is reserved; empty on this project's current ClusterIP deployment.
service_urlURL to reach Saleor.
database_instance_nameCloud SQL instance name.
database_name / database_userApplication database name / user.
database_password_secretSecret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host / database_portDB endpoint (127.0.0.1 via the Auth Proxy) / port.
storage_bucketsCreated Cloud Storage buckets (including media).
network_name / network_exists / regionsVPC network, presence, available regions.
container_image / container_registryDeployed API image and Artifact Registry repo.
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channelsMonitoring status and channels.
initialization_jobs / db_import_jobNames of the setup and (optional) import jobs.
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefixNaming identifiers.
project_id / project_numberProject identifiers.
cicd_enabled / cicd_configurationCI/CD status and details.
artifact_registry_repository / cloudbuild_trigger_name / cloudbuild_trigger_idRegistry and build trigger.
kubernetes_readyWhether the cluster/workload is ready.
vpc_sc_enabled / vpc_sc_perimeter_name / vpc_sc_dry_run_modeVPC-SC status.
audit_logging_enabled / artifact_registry_cmek_enabledAudit logging and CMEK status.

The Dashboard workload's own URL is surfaced back into the main API's environment as SALEOR_DASHBOARD_URL rather than as a top-level Terraform output.


6. Configuration Pitfalls & Sensible Defaults​

Risk: Critical (data loss / outage / security) — High (service degraded) — Medium (cost or partial degradation) — Low (minor).

Inherited plan-time validation. This module passes its configuration through the App_GKE foundation engine, which validates values and combinations at plan time. Invalid configuration fails the plan with a clear, named error before any resource is created, so most mistakes below are caught up front rather than at apply or runtime.

SettingSensible valueRiskConsequence if wrong
RSA_PRIVATE_KEY (auto-generated)Never rotate outside a maintenance windowCriticalRotating it invalidates every issued JWT — all active sessions must re-authenticate.
application_database_name / application_database_userSet onceCriticalImmutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/user and destroys all data.
container_resources{ cpu_limit="2000m", memory_limit="3Gi" }HighSmaller sizes OOMKill under Autopilot's memory rounding, confirmed live for the combined uvicorn + Celery workload.
service_typeLoadBalancer once IP quota allowsMediumClusterIP (this project's current state) makes Saleor unreachable except via kubectl port-forward or from inside the cluster.
enable_redis / redis_hostConsistent — set both together, or neitherHighEnabling Redis without a reachable host (and without enable_nfs for the fallback) breaks CACHE_URL/CELERY_BROKER_URL composition.
SALEOR_SUPERUSER_EMAIL / DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORDRetrieve from Secret Manager promptlyHighThe bootstrap admin account is the only way in on first deploy.
termination_grace_period_seconds≥ 30sMediumToo short cuts off the Celery worker mid-task during a rolling update or scale-down.
enable_iaponly when the Dashboard/API don't need public accessHighIAP blocks unauthenticated requests to both the API and Dashboard services.
backup_retention_days7 (raise for prod)MediumToo short for compliance retention.

For the foundation behaviour referenced throughout — IAM and Workload Identity, autoscaling, ingress and certificates, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_GKE. Saleor-specific application configuration shared with the Cloud Run variant is described in Saleor_Common.

Need RAD to do something it does not do yet? Request it on the roadmap, or vote on what is already there.