AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud pricing (2026): the same setup, real numbers
We priced one server, a NAT gateway, 1 TB of data out, a public IP and an SSD on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, straight from each provider’s price list. Here is what each costs per month.
Key takeaways
- Same 2 vCPU / 8 GB server: AWS and Azure cost $70.08 a month. Google lists $79.85, but its automatic full-month discount brings it to $63.88.
- A NAT gateway costs $32.85 a month on AWS and Azure even with zero traffic. Google charges per VM: $2.04 with two VMs.
- Sending 1 TB to the internet is cheapest on Azure ($78.30) and most expensive on Google’s default tier ($111.76).
- Add all five items up and this setup lands just $3.25 apart across the three clouds.
On this page
“Which cloud is cheapest?” gets asked a lot, and most answers compare whole price pages. We did something smaller: we priced five things almost every team runs, on all three clouds, and wrote down the monthly bill.
The setup: Northern Virginia on all three (AWS us-east-1, Azure East US, Google us-east4), on-demand Linux, no commitments, 730 hours in a month.
01How much does a 2 vCPU, 8 GB server cost?
| Cloud | Instance | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| AWS | m6i.large | $70.08 |
| Azure | D2s v5 | $70.08 |
| Google CloudLowest | n2-standard-2 | $63.88 |
AWS and Azure match to the cent. Google’s list price is higher ($79.85), but it has sustained-use discounts: an N2 VM that runs the whole month gets up to 20% off, automatically. AWS and Azure offer bigger discounts too, but only if you commit for one or three years.
02How much does a NAT gateway cost on each cloud?
| Cloud | How it’s charged | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| AWS | $0.045 per gateway-hour | $32.85 |
| Azure | $0.045 per gateway-hour | $32.85 |
| Google CloudLowest | $0.0014 per VM-hour (2 VMs) | $2.04 |
On AWS and Azure the gateway bills by the hour just for existing. Google bills by how many VMs use it, so a small setup pays about 16× less. The per-GB processing fee is $0.045 on all three.
03What does 1 TB of data transfer out cost?
| Cloud | Rule | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| AzureLowest | 100 GB free, then $0.087/GB | $78.30 |
| AWS | 100 GB free, then $0.09/GB | $81.00 |
| Google Cloud | Premium tier, $0.12/GiB | $111.76 |
This is where Google loses: its default network tier costs more, and it counts in GiB. Its cheaper Standard tier exists, but you have to choose it.
04Is a public IPv4 address cheaper anywhere?
No. All three charge $0.005 an hour, which is $3.65 a month. On AWS that applies whether the address is attached to anything or not.
05Which cloud has the cheapest SSD storage?
| Cloud | Disk (~100 GB) | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| AWSLowest | gp3, 100 GB | $8.00 |
| Azure | Standard SSD E10, 128 GB | $9.60 |
| Google Cloud | Balanced PD, 100 GiB | $11.00 |
Azure sells disks in fixed sizes, so a 100 GB need is billed as 128 GB.
06So which cloud is cheapest?
None of them, across the board. Google wins always-on compute and small-setup NAT, Azure wins data out, AWS wins disks, and IPs are a tie. For this setup the totals land $3.25 apart: Google $192.33, Azure $194.48, AWS $195.58. A different workload would give a different gap.
07The cost that’s the same on every cloud
The NAT gateway nobody routes through, the IP left behind, the disk that outlived its server: they cost full price on every cloud. Picking the right cloud saves a few dollars per line. Deleting what nobody uses saves the whole line.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Cloud cheaper than AWS?
For a VM that runs all month, often yes: Google takes up to 20% off an N2 VM automatically, with no commitment. For data sent to the internet, Google’s default tier costs more: $0.12 per GiB against $0.09 per GB on AWS.
Does an AWS NAT gateway cost money with no traffic?
Yes. In us-east-1 it is billed $0.045 per hour whether or not traffic flows, which is $32.85 a month, plus $0.045 for every GB it processes.
Where do these prices come from?
The AWS Price List API, the Azure Retail Prices API and the Google Cloud SKU catalog, for us-east-1, East US and us-east4. Checked on 30 September 2026: on-demand Linux, no commitments, tax excluded.
Sources
- AWS Price List API (EC2, VPC, data transfer), us-east-1
- Azure Retail Prices API (prices.azure.com), East US
- Google Cloud SKU catalog and pricing docs (Cloud NAT, network pricing, sustained-use discounts), us-east4
