Quick answer
Neither Google Cloud nor Azure is cheaper for everything. Monthly costs at official US East list prices checked October 14, 2026: Small SaaS, $255.88 on Google Cloud and $316.04 on Azure; Mobile app backend, $103.80 on Azure and $164.48 on Google Cloud; Media and downloads, $1,012.10 on Azure and $1,246.18 on Google Cloud. The biggest difference is serverless functions: $61.43 a month on Google Cloud against $28.20 on Azure.
- Official list prices
- 3 usage levels
- 12 regions
- Feature comparison
- Free calculator
How to compare Google Cloud and Azure costs
- 1Pick a usage level (Small SaaS, Mobile app backend, Media and downloads), then change the numbers or add more items with the + buttons.
- 2Choose the Region where your users are. Prices differ by region.
- 3Adjust the numbers in each card. Every field has an i tip explaining it.
- 4Compare the two monthly totals, then open Cost breakdown to see exactly how Google Cloud and Azure bill each line.
Which is cheaper, Google Cloud or Azure?
Monthly list prices in US East with the always-free allowances applied:
| Usage per month | Google Cloud | Azure | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small SaaS: 2 app servers, PostgreSQL, file storage | $255.88 | $316.04 | Google Cloud by $60.17 |
| Mobile app backend: serverless API, NoSQL, user uploads | $164.48 | $103.80 | Azure by $60.68 |
| Media and downloads: 5 TB of files, 10 TB downloaded a month | $1,246.18 | $1,012.10 | Azure by $234.07 |
Azure is cheaper for a mobile app backend in all 12 regions the calculator covers. Azure's internet egress costs less per GB than Google's Premium Tier, while Google's sustained use discount makes always-on servers cheaper.
What are the Google Cloud and Azure unit prices?
List prices in Google Cloud us-east1 (South Carolina) and Azure eastus (East US), read on October 14, 2026:
| Price (US East, on-demand) | Google Cloud | Azure |
|---|---|---|
| Server, 2 vCPU / 8 GB, per hour | $0.097118 (n2-standard-2) | $0.096 (D2s v5) |
| SSD disk | $0.10 per GB-month (balanced) | $19.71 a month per 128 GiB disk (P10) |
| Serverless, per million requests | $0.40 | $0.20 |
| Serverless compute | $0.000024 per vCPU-s + $0.0000025 per GiB-s | $0.000016 per GB-s |
| Object storage, per GB-month | $0.02 | $0.0208 |
| Object writes, per million | $5.00 | $5.00 |
| Object reads, per million | $0.40 | $0.40 |
| PostgreSQL, 2 vCPU / 8 GB, per hour | $0.1386 | $0.178 |
| Database storage, per GB-month | $0.17 | $0.115 |
| NoSQL, per million reads | $0.60 | $0.25 (1 RU each) |
| NoSQL, per million writes | $1.80 | $1.38 (5.5 RU each) |
| Internet egress, per GB | $0.12 | $0.087 |
| CDN, per GB | $0.08 | $0.0825 |
Is Google Cloud or Azure cheaper in your region?
A serverless mobile app backend (functions, NoSQL and user uploads), priced in each of the 12 regions the calculator covers:
| Region | Google Cloud | Azure | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| US East | $164.48 | $103.80 | Azure |
| US West | $137.76 | $103.20 | Azure |
| Canada | $174.33 | $108.90 | Azure |
| Brazil (São Paulo) | $209.60 | $150.25 | Azure |
| Ireland | $152.99 | $107.90 | Azure |
| UK (London) | $179.97 | $112.01 | Azure |
| Germany (Frankfurt) | $179.97 | $111.23 | Azure |
| India | $153.16 | $116.90 | Azure |
| Singapore | $179.02 | $114.23 | Azure |
| Japan (Tokyo) | $156.96 | $115.04 | Azure |
| South Korea (Seoul) | $201.99 | $112.62 | Azure |
| Australia (Sydney) | $200.15 | $116.96 | Azure |
How do Google Cloud and Azure compare on features?
| Google Cloud | Azure | |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic VM discount | Sustained use, up to 20% on N2 | None |
| VM billing | Per second after a 1-minute minimum | Per minute |
| Free serverless each month | 2M Cloud Run requests + 180,000 vCPU-s | 1M Functions executions + 400,000 GB-s |
| Free internet egress | 100 GB from Cloud Storage, 1 GB from VMs (US regions) | 100 GB a month |
| New-customer credit | $300 for 90 days | $200 for 30 days |
| Cheapest paid support | Standard, from $29 a month | Developer, $29 a month |
Facts from each provider's own documentation, checked October 14, 2026.
What are the key differences between Google Cloud and Azure?
- Discounts. Google discounts N2 servers that run all month by up to 20% automatically. Azure needs a reservation (up to 72%) or savings plan (up to 65%).
- Egress. Azure includes 100 GB of free internet egress a month and charges less per GB than Google's Premium Tier.
- Serverless. Cloud Run functions run up to 60 minutes per HTTP request with several GiB of memory; Azure Functions' Consumption plan stops at 10 minutes and 1.5 GB.
- Databases. Azure Database for PostgreSQL offers a 99.99% SLA with zone-redundant HA; Cloud SQL HA carries 99.95% and keeps backups up to 365 days.
Should you choose Google Cloud or Azure?
Choose Google Cloud if
- you run always-on servers and want savings without a commitment
- you build on Cloud Run, Firestore or BigQuery
- you need serverless functions that run longer than 10 minutes
Choose Azure if
- your organization already runs on Microsoft 365 and Entra ID
- your app sends a lot of data to users
- you need the 99.99% SLA of zone-redundant managed PostgreSQL
More comparisons: AWS vs Google Cloud · AWS vs Azure · AWS vs Cloudflare · Google Cloud vs Cloudflare · Azure vs Cloudflare · Compute Engine vs Azure Virtual Machines.
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.
- Google Cloud: Compute Engine VM pricing · Cloud Run pricing · Cloud Storage pricing · Cloud SQL pricing · Firestore pricing · Network (egress) pricing
- Azure: Linux Virtual Machines pricing · Azure Functions pricing · Blob Storage pricing · Azure Database for PostgreSQL pricing · Cosmos DB serverless pricing · Bandwidth pricing
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 Google Cloud and Azure?
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
Last updated by the Playxoft engineering team.