For GKE pods that need to egress directly to the internet for most of their communications, the most cost-efficient and straightforward approach is to deploy a GKE cluster with public cluster nodes. Public nodes have external IP addresses, allowing pods to directly reach the internet. This eliminates the need for additional services like Cloud NAT or Secure Web Proxy for outbound internet access, which would incur extra costs and management overhead.

Exact Extract:

"Public clusters have nodes with external IP addresses, allowing them to directly initiate connections to the internet. This is the simplest configuration for clusters that require direct internet egress for their workloads."

"When using public clusters, Cloud NAT is not required for outbound internet connectivity from the nodes or pods, as they can use their external IP addresses. This can reduce operational overhead and cost compared to private clusters that need NAT."Reference: Google Kubernetes Engine Documentation - Cluster network configuration, Public clusters vs Private clusters