AWS vs Azure vs GCP Pricing Compared (2026)
For a comparable general-purpose VM (2 vCPUs, 8 GB RAM, Linux, on-demand), AWS, Azure and Google Cloud cost within about 10% of each other as of October 2026: roughly $70 to $74 a month for current Intel-class instances. The differences that actually change your bill are elsewhere: discount programs (Azure's 3-year reservation cuts that VM by 60%), cheaper instance families (Google's E2 and AWS Graviton), free tiers, and data transfer out to the internet, where Google's standard rate is a third higher than AWS and Azure.
All prices below come from each provider's own pricing pages and price APIs, checked October 2026, in each provider's main US region (AWS us-east-1, Azure East US, Google Cloud us-central1). Prices change; confirm with the calculators linked at the end before you commit.
On-demand VM pricing: AWS vs Azure vs GCP
2 vCPUs, 8 GB memory, Linux, pay-as-you-go. Monthly cost assumes 730 hours (running 24/7).
| Provider | Instance | Hourly | Monthly (24/7) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | m7i.large (Intel) | $0.1008 | $73.58 |
| AWS | m7g.large (Graviton, Arm) | $0.0816 | $59.57 |
| Azure | D2s v5 (Intel) | $0.096 | $70.08 |
| Google Cloud | n2-standard-2 (Intel) | $0.0971 | $70.90 |
| Google Cloud | n4-standard-2 | $0.0907 | $66.21 |
| Google Cloud | e2-standard-2 (cost-optimized) | $0.0670 | $48.92 |
Sources: AWS EC2 On-Demand pricing, Azure Retail Prices API for Standard_D2s_v5 in eastus, Google Cloud VM instance pricing for Iowa.
What this means in practice:
- Like-for-like, the three are close. The Intel instances differ by about $3.50 a month.
- The cheapest option is usually a different instance family, not a different cloud. Google's E2 is about a third cheaper than its N2. AWS Graviton (Arm) instances are about 19% cheaper than the Intel equivalent, if your software runs on Arm. Most Linux containers, Node.js, Python, Java and Go apps do.
- Windows costs more everywhere. Azure's D2s v5 is $0.188/hour with a Windows license, nearly double the Linux price, unless you bring your own license.
Discounted pricing: reservations, savings plans and Spot
On-demand is the most expensive way to run a server that's always on. Each provider discounts commitments differently.
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commitment discount | Savings Plans and Reserved Instances, 1 or 3 years: up to 72% off (AWS) | Reserved VM Instances, 1 or 3 years | Committed use discounts (CUDs), 1 or 3 years |
| Example: our 2 vCPU VM, 1 year | Depends on plan type | D2s v5: $519/year, 38% off | n2-standard-2: 28% off (flexible CUD) or 37% off (resource CUD) |
| Example: 3 years | Depends on plan type | D2s v5: $997 for 3 years, 60% off | n2-standard-2: 46% (flexible) or 55% (resource) off |
| Automatic discount | None | None | Sustained use discounts: up to 20% on N2, 30% on N1 for VMs running most of the month; not on E2, N4 or C4 (docs) |
| Spare capacity | Spot Instances: up to 90% off (AWS) | Spot VMs: D2s v5 was $0.0203/hour (79% off) in East US | Spot VMs |
Spot and preemptible capacity can be reclaimed at short notice, so use it for CI runners, batch jobs and stateless workers, not your only database.
How to choose a commitment:
- Run on-demand for a month or two and look at your real baseline usage.
- Commit only to the baseline that never goes away. Leave peaks on-demand or Spot.
- Prefer flexible commitments (AWS Compute Savings Plans, Google flexible CUDs) if you might change instance types or regions; accept a smaller discount for that flexibility.
Data transfer (egress) pricing
Bandwidth out to the internet is where the three differ most, and it's the line item people forget.
| Free per month | Price after free allowance | |
|---|---|---|
| AWS | 100 GB, aggregated across services and regions | $0.09/GB for the first 10 TB (EC2 pricing) |
| Azure | 100 GB (Microsoft premium network routing, from North America) | $0.087/GB for the next 10 TB (bandwidth pricing) |
| Google Cloud | 1 GiB (Premium Tier) | $0.12/GiB up to 1 TiB, then $0.11 (network pricing) |
Data coming in is free on all three. Transfer between regions is billed separately, at lower rates.
If you serve a lot of traffic, price a CDN in front of your origin: cached responses cut how much you pay at VM egress rates.
A worked example: one VM plus 1 TB of traffic
A small production app: one 2 vCPU / 8 GB Linux VM running all month, serving 1 TB (1,024 GB) to users.
| AWS (m7i.large) | Azure (D2s v5) | Google Cloud (n2-standard-2) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compute | $73.58 | $70.08 | $70.90 |
| Egress | 924 GB × $0.09 = $83.16 | 924 GB × $0.087 = $80.39 | about 1,023 GiB × $0.12 = $122.76 |
| Total (before disks, IPs, tax) | about $157 | about $150 | about $194 |
Two things stand out. First, egress cost more than the VM on every provider. Second, the provider that's cheapest for compute isn't automatically cheapest overall: switching Google's VM to e2-standard-2 saves $22 a month, but its higher egress rate still leaves it the most expensive of the three for this workload. If your app is compute-heavy and serves little traffic, the ranking flips.
Not included: block storage (each VM needs a disk), public IPv4 addresses (AWS charges for every public IPv4 address), load balancers, backups and support plans. Add them in the calculators.
Free tiers and credits
| New-account offer | Always free (examples) | |
|---|---|---|
| AWS | Up to $200 in credits ($100 at sign-up, up to $100 more for exploring services); the free plan lasts up to 6 months (AWS Free Tier) | 30+ services within monthly limits |
| Azure | $200 credit for 30 days, plus 12 months of free amounts on 20+ services, including 750 hours each of B1s, B2pts v2 and B2ats v2 VMs (Azure free account) | 65+ services, e.g. 1 million Azure Functions requests per month |
| Google Cloud | $300 credit for 90 days (Free Program) | One e2-micro VM per month in us-west1, us-central1 or us-east1, 30 GB standard disk, 1 GB egress |
Google's always-free e2-micro is the only one of the three that keeps a small VM free indefinitely. For startups, all three run credit programs worth far more than the free tiers; see our startup perks list.
Which cloud is cheapest?
There's no single answer, but these rules hold for most small and mid-size teams:
- Mostly compute, little traffic: Google Cloud's E2 instances or AWS Graviton are usually cheapest.
- Long-running Windows or SQL Server workloads: Azure, especially if you already have Microsoft licenses you can bring (Azure Hybrid Benefit).
- Heavy outbound traffic: AWS or Azure, or any provider with a CDN in front.
- Steady 24/7 servers: whichever provider you pick, commit to 1 or 3 years for the baseline. That saves more than switching clouds.
- Small apps and side projects: a managed platform may cost less than any VM. Compare options in cloud hosting for developers and hosting tools, or see free alternatives to Heroku.
How to compare prices for your own workload
- List what you run: VM sizes, hours per month, storage, database, monthly egress.
- Price it in each official calculator: AWS Pricing Calculator, Azure pricing calculator and Google Cloud pricing calculator.
- Use the same region type (US East or Central) and the same OS on all three.
- Price both on-demand and a 1-year commitment.
- Add egress last. It often decides the result.
FAQ
Is AWS or Azure cheaper?
For a comparable Linux VM they're within about 5%: an Azure D2s v5 is $0.096/hour and an AWS m7i.large is $0.1008/hour in their main US regions as of October 2026. Azure has a slightly lower egress rate ($0.087/GB vs $0.09/GB) and is usually cheaper for Windows workloads with existing licenses. AWS is cheaper if you can use Graviton instances.
Which is cheaper: AWS, Azure or Google Cloud?
Google Cloud has the cheapest general-purpose VM in this comparison (e2-standard-2 at $0.067/hour) and the only always-free VM, but the highest internet egress rate. AWS and Azure come out ahead for traffic-heavy apps.
How does the AWS free tier compare to Azure's?
AWS gives new accounts up to $200 in credits on a free plan that lasts up to 6 months. Azure gives $200 for 30 days plus 12 months of free amounts on 20+ services. Google gives $300 for 90 days plus an always-free e2-micro VM.
What's the biggest hidden cost in cloud pricing?
Data transfer out to the internet. In the 1 TB example above, egress cost more than the VM on all three clouds. Public IPv4 addresses, cross-zone traffic and idle disks are the next most common surprises.
Are reserved instances worth it?
For servers that run all the time, yes. A 3-year Azure reservation for a D2s v5 costs 60% less than on-demand, and Google's 3-year resource CUD cuts an n2-standard-2 by 55%. Commit only to usage you're sure will last the full term.