Even with no cron, it was <500ms cold start. With a cron that hit every 5 mins, I saw less <100ms to hit US central and back (from Seattle).

I pay 10 cents a month to google. They have no shame charging me 3 cents on my credit card.

Not sure about exact numbers on the cold start but we avoid it altogether with a keep-warm request every minute.

Makes sense, and the 10 cents in your above comment is literal with a keep-warm every minute? That's pretty solid!