Mac install with g-drive and g-colab

My mac m1 local installs of comfy ui are fine but obviously render sloooooow.
It looks like google colab with g-drive is the best value and avoids uploading models repeatedly and instance management as with vast ai.

All looks good but no matter what gpu i select, it renders locally.

Indications are a full colab comfy install is the key.
From what i see that requires a notebook that’s configured for comfy and that requires a https://civitai.com/ subscription/key to have access to the model links.
It does not appear to work without the links, even if you already have the models.

Is this the vest/only method without resorting to vast ai or similar service?