diff --git a/cluster/gce/config-default.sh b/cluster/gce/config-default.sh
index e724a28088..370939b7c9 100755
--- a/cluster/gce/config-default.sh
+++ b/cluster/gce/config-default.sh
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ PREEMPTIBLE_NODE=${PREEMPTIBLE_NODE:-false}
 PREEMPTIBLE_MASTER=${PREEMPTIBLE_MASTER:-false}
 KUBE_DELETE_NODES=${KUBE_DELETE_NODES:-true}
 KUBE_DELETE_NETWORK=${KUBE_DELETE_NETWORK:-false}
+CREATE_CUSTOM_NETWORK=${CREATE_CUSTOM_NETWORK:-false}
 
 MASTER_OS_DISTRIBUTION=${KUBE_MASTER_OS_DISTRIBUTION:-${KUBE_OS_DISTRIBUTION:-gci}}
 NODE_OS_DISTRIBUTION=${KUBE_NODE_OS_DISTRIBUTION:-${KUBE_OS_DISTRIBUTION:-gci}}
@@ -83,6 +84,9 @@ RKT_VERSION=${KUBE_RKT_VERSION:-1.23.0}
 RKT_STAGE1_IMAGE=${KUBE_RKT_STAGE1_IMAGE:-coreos.com/rkt/stage1-coreos}
 
 NETWORK=${KUBE_GCE_NETWORK:-default}
+if [[ "${CREATE_CUSTOM_NETWORK}" == true ]]; then
+  SUBNETWORK="${SUBNETWORK:-${NETWORK}-custom-subnet}"
+fi
 INSTANCE_PREFIX="${KUBE_GCE_INSTANCE_PREFIX:-kubernetes}"
 CLUSTER_NAME="${CLUSTER_NAME:-${INSTANCE_PREFIX}}"
 MASTER_NAME="${INSTANCE_PREFIX}-master"
@@ -94,6 +98,9 @@ NODE_TAG="${INSTANCE_PREFIX}-minion"
 
 CLUSTER_IP_RANGE="${CLUSTER_IP_RANGE:-$(get-cluster-ip-range)}"
 MASTER_IP_RANGE="${MASTER_IP_RANGE:-10.246.0.0/24}"
+# NODE_IP_RANGE is used when ENABLE_IP_ALIASES=true or CREATE_CUSTOM_NETWORK=true.
+# It is the primary range in the subnet and is the range used for node instance IPs.
+NODE_IP_RANGE="$(get-node-ip-range)"
 
 if [[ "${FEDERATION:-}" == true ]]; then
     NODE_SCOPES="${NODE_SCOPES:-monitoring,logging-write,storage-ro,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/ndev.clouddns.readwrite}"
@@ -233,9 +240,6 @@ if [ ${ENABLE_IP_ALIASES} = true ]; then
   IP_ALIAS_SUBNETWORK=${KUBE_GCE_IP_ALIAS_SUBNETWORK:-${INSTANCE_PREFIX}-subnet-default}
   # Reserve the services IP space to avoid being allocated for other GCP resources.
   SERVICE_CLUSTER_IP_SUBNETWORK=${KUBE_GCE_SERVICE_CLUSTER_IP_SUBNETWORK:-${INSTANCE_PREFIX}-subnet-services}
-  # NODE_IP_RANGE is used when ENABLE_IP_ALIASES=true. It is the primary range in
-  # the subnet and is the range used for node instance IPs.
-  NODE_IP_RANGE="$(get-node-ip-range)"
   # Add to the provider custom variables.
   PROVIDER_VARS="${PROVIDER_VARS:-} ENABLE_IP_ALIASES"
 fi
diff --git a/cluster/gce/config-test.sh b/cluster/gce/config-test.sh
index c6b87e4130..eb34efd367 100755
--- a/cluster/gce/config-test.sh
+++ b/cluster/gce/config-test.sh
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ PREEMPTIBLE_NODE=${PREEMPTIBLE_NODE:-false}
 PREEMPTIBLE_MASTER=${PREEMPTIBLE_MASTER:-false}
 KUBE_DELETE_NODES=${KUBE_DELETE_NODES:-true}
 KUBE_DELETE_NETWORK=${KUBE_DELETE_NETWORK:-true}
+CREATE_CUSTOM_NETWORK=${CREATE_CUSTOM_NETWORK:-false}
 
 MASTER_OS_DISTRIBUTION=${KUBE_MASTER_OS_DISTRIBUTION:-${KUBE_OS_DISTRIBUTION:-gci}}
 NODE_OS_DISTRIBUTION=${KUBE_NODE_OS_DISTRIBUTION:-${KUBE_OS_DISTRIBUTION:-gci}}
@@ -83,6 +84,9 @@ RKT_VERSION=${KUBE_RKT_VERSION:-1.23.0}
 RKT_STAGE1_IMAGE=${KUBE_RKT_STAGE1_IMAGE:-coreos.com/rkt/stage1-coreos}
 
 NETWORK=${KUBE_GCE_NETWORK:-e2e-test-${USER}}
+if [[ "${CREATE_CUSTOM_NETWORK}" == true ]]; then
+  SUBNETWORK="${SUBNETWORK:-${NETWORK}-custom-subnet}"
+fi
 INSTANCE_PREFIX="${KUBE_GCE_INSTANCE_PREFIX:-e2e-test-${USER}}"
 CLUSTER_NAME="${CLUSTER_NAME:-${INSTANCE_PREFIX}}"
 MASTER_NAME="${INSTANCE_PREFIX}-master"
@@ -94,8 +98,8 @@ NODE_TAG="${INSTANCE_PREFIX}-minion"
 
 CLUSTER_IP_RANGE="${CLUSTER_IP_RANGE:-$(get-cluster-ip-range)}"
 MASTER_IP_RANGE="${MASTER_IP_RANGE:-10.246.0.0/24}"
-# NODE_IP_RANGE is used when ENABLE_IP_ALIASES=true. It is the primary range in
-# the subnet and is the range used for node instance IPs.
+# NODE_IP_RANGE is used when ENABLE_IP_ALIASES=true or CREATE_CUSTOM_NETWORK=true.
+# It is the primary range in the subnet and is the range used for node instance IPs.
 NODE_IP_RANGE="$(get-node-ip-range)"
 
 RUNTIME_CONFIG="${KUBE_RUNTIME_CONFIG:-}"
@@ -273,9 +277,6 @@ if [ ${ENABLE_IP_ALIASES} = true ]; then
   IP_ALIAS_SUBNETWORK=${KUBE_GCE_IP_ALIAS_SUBNETWORK:-${INSTANCE_PREFIX}-subnet-default}
   # Reserve the services IP space to avoid being allocated for other GCP resources.
   SERVICE_CLUSTER_IP_SUBNETWORK=${KUBE_GCE_SERVICE_CLUSTER_IP_SUBNETWORK:-${INSTANCE_PREFIX}-subnet-services}
-  # NODE_IP_RANGE is used when ENABLE_IP_ALIASES=true. It is the primary range in
-  # the subnet and is the range used for node instance IPs.
-  NODE_IP_RANGE="${NODE_IP_RANGE:-10.40.0.0/22}"
   # Add to the provider custom variables.
   PROVIDER_VARS="${PROVIDER_VARS:-} ENABLE_IP_ALIASES"
 fi
diff --git a/cluster/gce/util.sh b/cluster/gce/util.sh
index e62f362e54..f6d8954e04 100755
--- a/cluster/gce/util.sh
+++ b/cluster/gce/util.sh
@@ -773,10 +773,14 @@ function check-existing() {
 
 function create-network() {
   if ! gcloud compute networks --project "${NETWORK_PROJECT}" describe "${NETWORK}" &>/dev/null; then
-    echo "Creating new network: ${NETWORK}"
     # The network needs to be created synchronously or we have a race. The
     # firewalls can be added concurrent with instance creation.
-    gcloud compute networks create --project "${NETWORK_PROJECT}" "${NETWORK}" --mode=auto
+    local network_mode="auto"
+    if [[ "${CREATE_CUSTOM_NETWORK:-}" == "true" ]]; then
+      network_mode="custom"
+    fi
+    echo "Creating new ${network_mode} network: ${NETWORK}"
+    gcloud compute networks create --project "${NETWORK_PROJECT}" "${NETWORK}" --mode="${network_mode}"
   else
     PREEXISTING_NETWORK=true
     PREEXISTING_NETWORK_MODE="$(gcloud compute networks list ${NETWORK} --project ${NETWORK_PROJECT} --format='value(x_gcloud_mode)' || true)"
@@ -833,6 +837,8 @@ function create-subnetworks() {
         else
           echo "${color_yellow}Using pre-existing network ${NETWORK}, subnets won't be expanded to /19!${color_norm}"
         fi
+      elif [[ "${CREATE_CUSTOM_NETWORK:-}" == "true" && "${PREEXISTING_NETWORK}" != "true" ]]; then
+          gcloud compute networks subnets create "${SUBNETWORK}" --project "${NETWORK_PROJECT}" --region "${REGION}" --network "${NETWORK}" --range "${NODE_IP_RANGE}"
       fi
       return;;
     *) echo "${color_red}Invalid argument to ENABLE_IP_ALIASES${color_norm}"
@@ -852,11 +858,6 @@ function create-subnetworks() {
       exit 1
     fi
 
-    if [[ -z ${NODE_IP_RANGE:-} ]]; then
-      echo "${color_red}NODE_IP_RANGE must be specified{color_norm}"
-      exit 1
-    fi
-
     echo "Creating subnet ${NETWORK}:${IP_ALIAS_SUBNETWORK}"
     gcloud beta compute networks subnets create \
       ${IP_ALIAS_SUBNETWORK} \
@@ -935,15 +936,18 @@ function delete-network() {
 
 function delete-subnetworks() {
   if [[ ${ENABLE_IP_ALIASES:-} != "true" ]]; then
-    if [[ "${ENABLE_BIG_CLUSTER_SUBNETS}" = "true" ]]; then
-      # If running in custom mode network we need to delete subnets
-      mode="$(gcloud compute networks list ${NETWORK} --project ${NETWORK_PROJECT} --format='value(x_gcloud_mode)' || true)"
-      if [[ "${mode}" == "custom" ]]; then
+    # If running in custom mode network we need to delete subnets
+    mode="$(gcloud compute networks list ${NETWORK} --project ${NETWORK_PROJECT} --format='value(x_gcloud_mode)' || true)"
+    if [[ "${mode}" == "custom" ]]; then
+      if [[ "${ENABLE_BIG_CLUSTER_SUBNETS}" = "true" ]]; then
         echo "Deleting default subnets..."
         # This value should be kept in sync with number of regions.
         local parallelism=9
         gcloud compute networks subnets list --network="${NETWORK}" --project "${NETWORK_PROJECT}" --format='value(region.basename())' | \
           xargs -i -P ${parallelism} gcloud --quiet compute networks subnets delete "${NETWORK}" --project "${NETWORK_PROJECT}" --region="{}" || true
+      elif [[ "${CREATE_CUSTOM_NETWORK:-}" == "true" ]]; then
+        echo "Deleting custom subnet..."
+        gcloud --quiet compute networks subnets delete "${SUBNETWORK}" --project "${NETWORK_PROJECT}" --region="${REGION}" || true
       fi
     fi
     return