diff --git a/src/_nebari/provider/cloud/google_cloud.py b/src/_nebari/provider/cloud/google_cloud.py
index 81f86d8b13..7c87fed70e 100644
--- a/src/_nebari/provider/cloud/google_cloud.py
+++ b/src/_nebari/provider/cloud/google_cloud.py
@@ -51,6 +51,22 @@ def regions() -> Set[str]:
     return {region.name for region in response}
 
 
+@functools.lru_cache()
+def instances(region: str) -> Set[str]:
+    """Return a set of available compute instances in a region."""
+    credentials, project_id = load_credentials()
+    zones_client = compute_v1.services.region_zones.RegionZonesClient(
+        credentials=credentials
+    )
+    instances_client = compute_v1.InstancesClient(credentials=credentials)
+
+    return {
+        instance.machine_type.split("/")[-1]
+        for zone in zones_client.list(project=project_id, region=region)
+        for instance in instances_client.list(project=project_id, zone=zone.name)
+    }
+
+
 @functools.lru_cache()
 def kubernetes_versions(region: str) -> List[str]:
     """Return list of available kubernetes supported by cloud provider. Sorted from oldest to latest."""
diff --git a/src/_nebari/stages/infrastructure/__init__.py b/src/_nebari/stages/infrastructure/__init__.py
index 7b4c1aa237..243abd1608 100644
--- a/src/_nebari/stages/infrastructure/__init__.py
+++ b/src/_nebari/stages/infrastructure/__init__.py
@@ -325,6 +325,21 @@ def _check_input(cls, data: Any) -> Any:
             raise ValueError(
                 f"\nInvalid `kubernetes-version` provided: {data['kubernetes_version']}.\nPlease select from one of the following supported Kubernetes versions: {available_kubernetes_versions} or omit flag to use latest Kubernetes version available."
             )
+
+        # check if instances are valid
+        available_instances = google_cloud.instances(data["region"])
+        if "node_groups" in data:
+            for _, node_group in data["node_groups"].items():
+                instance = (
+                    node_group["instance"]
+                    if hasattr(node_group, "__getitem__")
+                    else node_group.instance
+                )
+                if instance not in available_instances:
+                    raise ValueError(
+                        f"Google Cloud Platform instance {instance} not one of available instance types={available_instances}"
+                    )
+
         return data
 
 
diff --git a/tests/tests_unit/conftest.py b/tests/tests_unit/conftest.py
index 19ab7702a5..54528cbd23 100644
--- a/tests/tests_unit/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/tests_unit/conftest.py
@@ -85,6 +85,11 @@ def _mock_return_value(return_value):
             "us-central1",
             "us-east1",
         ],
+        "_nebari.provider.cloud.google_cloud.instances": [
+            "e2-standard-4",
+            "e2-standard-8",
+            "e2-highmem-4",
+        ],
     }
 
     for attribute_path, return_value in MOCK_VALUES.items():