AWS vs Azure price comparison
A tight, like-for-like comparison of the primitives most teams price out first (compute, object storage, managed PostgreSQL, egress and Kubernetes) with AWS and Azure both priced from live catalogues (GCP shown as illustrative list prices). Then track the cost of whole example setups over time and open any of them in the calculator. Free, runs in your browser.
AWS vs Azure vs GCP price snapshot
US East (Virginia) · May 2026On-demand list prices for the primitives most teams price first. The interactive tool above re-prices these for the UK, EU and US-West regions and tracks how they move month to month; GCP is shown as illustrative list prices.
| Primitive | AWS | Azure | GCP* |
|---|---|---|---|
| General-purpose VM 2 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · Linux, on-demand | $70.08/mo $0.096/hour m5.large | $70.08/mo $0.096/hour D2s v5 | $48.91/mo $0.067/hour * e2-standard-2 |
| Object storage Standard tier · first band · per GB-month | $23/mo $0.023/GB-month S3 Standard | $24/mo $0.024/GB-month Blob Standard (LRS) | $20/mo $0.02/GB-month * Cloud Storage Standard |
| Managed PostgreSQL 2 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · general purpose, single instance | $130/mo $0.178/hour RDS db.m5.large | $130/mo $0.178/hour Flexible D2ds v5 | $114/mo $0.1564/hour * Cloud SQL 2vCPU/8GB |
| Internet egress Data transfer out · first paid band · per GB | $90/mo $0.09/GB * EC2 data out | $87/mo $0.087/GB * Bandwidth out | $120/mo $0.12/GB * Network egress |
| Managed Kubernetes Control plane · per cluster-hour | $73/mo $0.1/cluster-hour EKS | $73/mo $0.1/cluster-hour AKS (Standard) | $73/mo $0.1/cluster-hour * GKE |
Monthly figures assume one unit at the default quantity (1 instances etc.). * GCP prices are illustrative list prices shown for context. On-demand only: excludes committed-use/Reserved discounts, sustained-use discounts, free tiers, taxes and data-transfer nuances.
Both the AWS and Azure columns are priced from the same Price List and Retail Prices snapshots that power our cost calculator.
Small real architectures priced on both clouds, ready to open in the calculator to adjust sizes line by line.
We snapshot every primitive and setup on a schedule, so the AWS-vs-Azure trend lines fill in as the months pass.
AWS vs Azure pricing FAQ
- Is AWS or Azure cheaper?
- It depends on the workload; neither provider is uniformly cheaper. For the primitives most teams price first (compute, object storage, managed PostgreSQL, egress and Kubernetes) this page shows AWS and Azure side by side on live list prices, so you can compare like for like for your own mix.
- Where does the pricing come from?
- The AWS and Azure columns are priced from the same live AWS Price List and Azure Retail Prices snapshots that power our cost calculator. GCP is shown as illustrative list prices for context.
- Is the comparison region-aware?
- Yes. Prices reflect the selected region, because cloud rates vary significantly between regions; a comparison only holds if both providers are priced in comparable locations.
- Do the prices include discounts?
- No. These are on-demand list prices for planning only. They exclude committed-use and Reserved discounts, sustained-use discounts, free-tier allowances, taxes and data-transfer nuances. Always confirm against the provider’s own pricing.
On-demand list prices for planning only. They exclude taxes, support plans, free-tier allowances, committed-use / Reserved discounts, sustained-use discounts and the many data-transfer nuances each provider applies. Service names map to comparable (not identical) products; see each row's footnote. Always confirm against the provider's own pricing before making a decision.