Cloud cost calculators

Amazon EC2 vs Azure Virtual Machines (VMs): Pricing and Feature Comparison

Amazon EC2 costs 8% less than Azure Virtual Machines for 2 medium servers in US East, and less in all 12 regions.

  • Free foreverNo trial, no paywall, no usage limits.
  • No sign-upOpen the page and start. We never ask for an email to use a tool.
  • PrivateEverything runs in your browser. Your input is never uploaded or stored on our servers.
  • Works offlineOnce the page has loaded, the tool keeps working without a connection.

Usage level

Region

Monthly free usage every account gets, such as 1 million Lambda requests or 100 GB of AWS egress. Sign-up credits and 12-month trials are not included. Turn this off if other projects already use them.
Reset to the preset

Servers

EC2 · Virtual Machines

Duplicate serversRemove servers
General-purpose Intel machines of the same generation on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure, so the comparison is like for like. The exact machine type for each cloud is listed under each size.
servers
730 hours is a full month, always on. Fewer hours means the servers are stopped part of the time.
hours
EBS gp3 on AWS, balanced persistent disk on Google Cloud, Premium SSD on Azure. Azure bills disks by size tier, rounding up.
GB

Add another service

Add as many as you need, for example two server groups or several buckets.

Monthly estimate

On-demand list prices in USD for the selected region, with always-free allowances applied when that switch is on. Taxes, support plans and committed-use discounts are not included.
  1. AWSCheapest$148.16/mo
  2. Azure$160.57/mo
  • Servers

Real bills are rarely just list prices

Idle servers, chatty services and unplanned egress add up. Our cloud engineers review your setup and show you where the money goes, free.

Get a free cloud cost review

Official list prices checked . Sources

Cost breakdown

What each service costs on each cloud, and the exact arithmetic behind every number.
Monthly cost per service and provider, in USD
ServiceAWSAzure
Servers$148.16EC2 m6i.large$160.57Azure VM D2s v5
Total per month$148.16$160.57

How each number was calculatedEvery line uses the provider's own unit price for the selected region, so you can check it against their price list.

  • Servers · EC2 m6i.large

    $148.16

    • 2 × m6i.large × 730 h (all month) × $0.096/h$140.16
    • EBS gp3 disk: 2 × 50 GB × $0.08/GB-month$8.00

    Linux, on-demand. Each gp3 volume includes 3,000 IOPS and 125 MiB/s.

Want an engineer to check this estimate against your real architecture? Talk to our team

Quick answer

Amazon EC2 is cheaper than Azure Virtual Machines at all three usage levels Playxoft priced. For two 2 vCPU, 8 GB servers with 50 GB disks in US East, it costs $148.16 a month against $160.57, and it is cheaper in all 12 regions covered. Playxoft's comparison uses official list prices checked October 14, 2026, with the always-free allowances applied.

  • Official list prices
  • 3 usage levels
  • 12 regions
  • Feature comparison
  • Free calculator

How to compare Amazon EC2 and Azure Virtual Machines costs

  1. 1Pick a usage level (1 small server, 2 medium servers, 4 large servers), then change the numbers or add more items with the + buttons.
  2. 2Choose the Region where your users are. Prices differ by region.
  3. 3Adjust the numbers in each card. Every field has an i tip explaining it.
  4. 4Compare the two monthly totals, then open Cost breakdown to see exactly how Amazon EC2 and Azure Virtual Machines bill each line.

Which is cheaper, Amazon EC2 or Azure Virtual Machines?

Monthly list prices in US East with the always-free allowances applied:

Usage per monthAmazon EC2Azure Virtual MachinesCheaper
1 small server: 2 vCPU, 4 GB burstable, 30 GB disk$32.77$35.65Amazon EC2 by $2.88
2 medium servers: 2 vCPU, 8 GB each, 50 GB disks$148.16$160.57Amazon EC2 by $12.41
4 large servers: 4 vCPU, 16 GB each, 100 GB disks$592.64$639.48Amazon EC2 by $46.84

Amazon EC2 is cheaper for 2 medium servers in all 12 regions the calculator covers. Azure bills each disk at the smallest Premium SSD tier that fits it, so the 30 GB and 50 GB disks here are billed as 32 GiB and 64 GiB.

What are the EC2 and Azure VMs unit prices?

List prices in AWS us-east-1 (N. Virginia) and Azure eastus (East US), read on October 14, 2026:

Price (US East, on-demand)AWSAzure
Server, 2 vCPU / 8 GB, per hour$0.096 (m6i.large)$0.096 (D2s v5)
SSD disk$0.08 per GB-month (gp3)$19.71 a month per 128 GiB disk (P10)

Is Amazon EC2 or Azure Virtual Machines cheaper in your region?

Two 2 vCPU, 8 GB servers with 50 GB disks, priced in each of the 12 regions the calculator covers:

RegionAmazon EC2Azure Virtual MachinesCheaper
US East$148.16$160.57EC2
US West$148.16$158.72EC2
Canada$165.02$176.64EC2
Brazil (São Paulo)$238.58$258.65EC2
Ireland$165.02$176.63EC2
UK (London)$171.34$186.76EC2
Germany (Frankfurt)$177.42$190.35EC2
India$156.58$167.87EC2
Singapore$184.80$195.61EC2
Japan (Tokyo)$190.64$204.52EC2
South Korea (Seoul)$181.40$192.69EC2
Australia (Sydney)$184.80$195.61EC2

How do Amazon EC2 and Azure Virtual Machines compare on features?

Amazon EC2Azure Virtual Machines
Comparable machinem6i.large (2 vCPU, 8 GB)D2s v5 (2 vCPU, 8 GB)
BillingPer second, 60-second minimum (Linux)Per minute
Automatic discountNoneNone
Commitment discountSavings Plans, up to 72%Reserved Instances up to 72%, savings plan up to 65%
Spot capacitySpot Instances, up to 90% offSpot VMs, up to 90% off
SLA, single instance99.5%99.9% with Premium SSD
SLA, across zones99.99%99.99%

Facts from each provider's own documentation, checked October 14, 2026.

What are the key differences between Amazon EC2 and Azure Virtual Machines?

  • Hourly price. An m6i.large and a D2s v5 cost the same per hour in every region this calculator covers, and so do the larger sizes.
  • Billing. EC2 bills Linux per second (60-second minimum); Azure bills per minute.
  • Disks. EBS gp3 costs per GB; Azure Premium SSD costs per size tier (P4 32 GiB, P6 64 GiB, P10 128 GiB…).
  • SLA. A single Azure VM with Premium SSD carries 99.9%; a single EC2 instance 99.5%. Both reach 99.99% across zones.
  • Burstable sizes. Microsoft plans to retire B-series v1 sizes (B1s, B2s) on November 15, 2028.

Should you choose Amazon EC2 or Azure Virtual Machines?

Choose Amazon EC2 if

  • your disks fall between Azure's size tiers
  • you run short-lived servers that benefit from per-second billing
  • the rest of your stack is on AWS

Choose Azure Virtual Machines if

  • you use Microsoft licensing or Entra ID
  • you want a 99.9% SLA for a single VM
  • your disks fit a size tier exactly

More comparisons: AWS vs Azure · Amazon EC2 vs Compute Engine · Compute Engine vs Azure Virtual Machines · AWS Lambda vs Azure Functions · Amazon S3 vs Azure Blob Storage · Amazon RDS vs Azure Database for PostgreSQL · Amazon DynamoDB vs Azure Cosmos DB.

Where do these prices come from?

Both sides use the provider's own published price list, read on October 14, 2026, for the same region, with the always-free allowances applied.

Prices are in US dollars, on-demand, for Linux, with no commitments. Every figure on this page is generated from the same price snapshot as the calculator, and automated tests check each claim whenever the prices change. A month is 730 hours and 1 TB is 1,024 GB. Providers change prices from time to time, so for a purchase decision confirm the final figure in the provider's console.

Moving between Amazon EC2 and Azure Virtual Machines?

Playxoft builds and runs production backends on AWS, Google Cloud, Azure and Cloudflare, and plans migrations between them with no surprise downtime, including white-label work for agencies. Send us your architecture or last month's invoice and we will tell you, free, which side is cheaper for your real usage. Get a free cloud cost review.

Frequently asked questions

No. In US East with the always-free allowances applied, a month: 1 small server, $35.65 on Azure VMs and $32.77 on EC2; 2 medium servers, $160.57 on Azure VMs and $148.16 on EC2; 4 large servers, $639.48 on Azure VMs and $592.64 on EC2. Amazon EC2 is cheaper for 2 medium servers in all 12 regions the calculator covers. Your own usage can change the answer, so price it in the calculator on this page.
EC2 and Azure Virtual Machines list the same hourly price for general-purpose Intel machines (m6i and Dsv5). EC2 bills per second and its gp3 disks per GB; Azure bills per minute and its Premium SSD disks by size tier, with a higher single-VM SLA (99.9% against 99.5%).
Azure Virtual Machines. A D2s v5 (2 vCPU, 8 GB) matches an m6i.large, and both list at $0.096 an hour in US East. The burstable t3.micro and t3.medium compare with Azure's B1s and B2s.
At US East list prices: server, 2 vCPU / 8 GB, per hour, $0.096 (m6i.large) on EC2 and $0.096 (D2s v5) on Azure VMs; SSD disk, $0.08 per GB-month (gp3) on EC2 and $19.71 a month per 128 GiB disk (P10) on Azure VMs. For 2 medium servers, that comes to $148.16 a month on EC2 and $160.57 on Azure VMs.
Both sides use official list prices for AWS us-east-1 (N. Virginia) and Azure eastus (East US), read on October 14, 2026, with the always-free allowances and each provider's own billing rules applied. Servers run 730 hours a month on Linux, on-demand. Taxes, support plans and commitment discounts are not included.

Last updated by the Playxoft engineering team.

From the cloud engineers who built this calculator

Paying more for cloud than you should?

Most cloud bills leak in the same places: oversized servers, environments nobody switched off, chatty services and egress nobody planned for. We design, migrate and tune backends on AWS, Google Cloud, Azure and Cloudflare. Send us your architecture or last bill and we will show you where the money goes, free.

Get a free cloud cost reviewSee backend and cloud services

More free tools

See all tools

Cloud Cost Calculator

New

Compare monthly costs on AWS, Google Cloud, Azure and Cloudflare for the same workload.

Open tool

AWS Cost Calculator

New

Estimate EC2, Lambda, S3, RDS and data transfer costs in seconds, next to other clouds.

Open tool

Google Cloud Cost Calculator

New

Estimate Compute Engine, Cloud Run, Cloud Storage and Cloud SQL costs, next to other clouds.

Open tool

Azure Cost Calculator

New

Estimate Azure VMs, Functions, Blob Storage and PostgreSQL costs, next to other clouds.

Open tool

Cloudflare Cost Calculator

New

Estimate Cloudflare Workers, R2, D1, KV and CDN costs, next to AWS, Google Cloud and Azure.

Open tool

SQL Formatter

Beautify or minify SQL in 12 dialects, with keyword case, indent and line:column errors.

Open tool