majiayu000 Cloud Pricing Expert
Expert knowledge of cloud provider pricing models across AWS, Azure, and GCP with current 2025 pricing data.
Compute Pricing (2025)
AWS EC2 (us-east-1)
t3.micro: $0.0104/hour (2 vCPU, 1GB)
t3.small: $0.0208/hour (2 vCPU, 2GB)
t3.medium: $0.0416/hour (2 vCPU, 4GB)
t3.large: $0.0832/hour (2 vCPU, 8GB)
m5.large: $0.096/hour (2 vCPU, 8GB)
c5.large: $0.085/hour (2 vCPU, 4GB) - compute-optimized
r5.large: $0.126/hour (2 vCPU, 16GB) - memory-optimized
Spot pricing: 50-90% discount (variable)
Reserved (1yr): 35-40% discount
Reserved (3yr): 60-65% discount
Savings Plans: 30-70% discount (flexible)
Azure VMs (East US)
B1s: $0.0104/hour (1 vCPU, 1GB) - burstable
B2s: $0.0416/hour (2 vCPU, 4GB)
D2s v5: $0.096/hour (2 vCPU, 8GB)
F2s v2: $0.085/hour (2 vCPU, 4GB) - compute-optimized
E2s v5: $0.126/hour (2 vCPU, 16GB) - memory-optimized
Spot: 50-90% discount
Reserved (1yr): 40% discount
Reserved (3yr): 62% discount
GCP Compute Engine (us-central1)
e2-micro: $0.0084/hour (0.25-2 vCPU, 1GB)
e2-small: $0.0168/hour (0.5-2 vCPU, 2GB)
e2-medium: $0.0335/hour (1-2 vCPU, 4GB)
n2-standard-2: $0.0971/hour (2 vCPU, 8GB)
c2-standard-4: $0.2088/hour (4 vCPU, 16GB) - compute
Preemptible: 60-91% discount
Committed (1yr): 37% discount
Committed (3yr): 55% discount
Serverless Pricing
AWS Lambda
Requests: $0.20 per 1M requests
Compute:
- $0.0000166667 per GB-second
- 128MB, 1s = $0.0000021
- 1024MB, 1s = $0.0000166667
Free tier: 1M requests, 400K GB-seconds/month
Example: 10M requests, 512MB, 200ms avg
= 10M * $0.20/1M + 10M * 0.5GB * 0.2s * $0.0000166667
= $2 + $16.67 = $18.67/month
Azure Functions
Consumption Plan:
- $0.20 per 1M executions
- $0.000016 per GB-second
Premium Plan (always-on):
- EP1: $0.2065/hour (1 vCPU, 3.5GB)
- EP2: $0.413/hour (2 vCPU, 7GB)
Free tier: 1M requests, 400K GB-seconds
GCP Cloud Functions
Invocations: $0.40 per 1M invocations
Compute: $0.0000025 per GB-second
Networking: $0.12/GB egress
Free tier: 2M invocations, 400K GB-seconds
Storage Pricing
AWS S3 (us-east-1)
Standard: $0.023/GB/month
Standard-IA: $0.0125/GB (54% cheaper, min 128KB, 30 days)
Glacier Instant: $0.004/GB (83% cheaper, min 128KB, 90 days)
Glacier Flexible: $0.0036/GB (84% cheaper, 90 days, 1-5min retrieval)
Deep Archive: $0.00099/GB (96% cheaper, 180 days, 12hr retrieval)
Requests:
- PUT/COPY/POST: $0.005 per 1K requests
- GET/SELECT: $0.0004 per 1K requests
Data Transfer: $0.09/GB out to internet (first 10TB)
Azure Blob Storage
Hot: $0.0184/GB (frequent access)
Cool: $0.01/GB (min 30 days)
Archive: $0.00099/GB (min 180 days, 15hr retrieval)
Transactions:
- Write: $0.05 per 10K
- Read: $0.004 per 10K
GCP Cloud Storage
Standard: $0.020/GB
Nearline: $0.010/GB (min 30 days)
Coldline: $0.004/GB (min 90 days)
Archive: $0.0012/GB (min 365 days)
Operations: $0.05 per 10K Class A (write)
$0.004 per 10K Class B (read)
Database Pricing
AWS RDS PostgreSQL (db.t3.medium)
On-demand: $0.068/hour ($49.64/month)
Reserved 1yr: $0.043/hour (37% savings)
Reserved 3yr: $0.029/hour (57% savings)
Storage (gp3): $0.115/GB/month
Backup: $0.095/GB/month
Aurora Serverless: $0.12 per ACU-hour (auto-scaling)
Azure SQL Database
General Purpose (2 vCore):
- Provisioned: $0.5556/hour ($406/month)
- Serverless: $0.75-1.50/vCore-hour (auto-pause)
Storage: $0.115/GB/month
GCP Cloud SQL PostgreSQL
db-n1-standard-1 (1 vCPU, 3.75GB):
- On-demand: $0.0413/hour ($30.15/month)
- Committed 1yr: 37% discount
Storage (SSD): $0.17/GB/month
DynamoDB / Cosmos DB / Firestore
DynamoDB (us-east-1):
- On-demand: $1.25 per 1M read, $1.25 per 1M write
- Provisioned: $0.00065/hour per RCU, $0.00065/hour per WCU
- Storage: $0.25/GB
Cosmos DB:
- Provisioned: $0.008/hour per 100 RU/s
- Serverless: $0.25 per 1M RU
Firestore:
- Reads: $0.06 per 100K
- Writes: $0.18 per 100K
- Storage: $0.18/GB
Networking Pricing
Data Transfer (AWS, per GB)
Internet egress (us-east-1):
- First 10TB: $0.09/GB
- 10-50TB: $0.085/GB
- 50-150TB: $0.070/GB
Cross-region: $0.02/GB
Same AZ: Free
VPC peering: $0.01/GB
NAT Gateway:
- $0.045/hour
- $0.045/GB processed
CDN Pricing
CloudFront (per GB):
- First 10TB: $0.085/GB
- 10-50TB: $0.080/GB
Azure CDN:
- First 10TB: $0.081/GB
Cloud CDN:
- First 10TB: $0.085/GB
Price Comparison Examples
Example 1: Simple Web Application
const requirements = {
compute: '2 x t3.medium (24/7)',
storage: '100GB SSD',
database: 'PostgreSQL (db.t3.medium)',
traffic: '1TB/month egress',
};
const costs = {
aws: {
ec2: 2 * 0.0416 * 730 = 60.74,
ebs: 100 * 0.10 = 10,
rds: 49.64 + (20 * 0.115) = 51.94,
transfer: 1000 * 0.09 = 90,
total: 212.68,
},
azure: {
vm: 2 * 0.0416 * 730 = 60.74,
disk: 100 * 0.048 = 4.80,
sql: 406, // Managed SQL more expensive
transfer: 1000 * 0.087 = 87,
total: 558.54,
},
gcp: {
compute: 2 * 0.0335 * 730 = 48.91,
disk: 100 * 0.17 = 17,
sql: 30.15 + (20 * 0.17) = 33.55,
transfer: 1000 * 0.12 = 120,
total: 219.46,
},
};
// Winner: AWS ($212.68/month)
// With Reserved Instances (1yr): $140/month (34% savings)
Example 2: Serverless API
const requirements = {
requests: '50M/month',
avgDuration: '200ms',
avgMemory: '512MB',
};
const lambda = {
requests: 50 * 0.20 = 10,
compute: 50e6 * 0.5 * 0.2 * 0.0000166667 = 83.33,
total: 93.33,
};
const azureFunctions = {
executions: 50 * 0.20 = 10,
compute: 50e6 * 0.5 * 0.2 * 0.000016 = 80,
total: 90,
};
const cloudFunctions = {
invocations: 50 * 0.40 = 20,
compute: 50e6 * 0.5 * 0.2 * 0.0000025 = 12.5,
networking: 1000 * 0.12 = 120, // 1TB egress
total: 152.50,
};
// Winner: Azure Functions ($90/month)
Free Tiers (Always Free, 2025)
AWS
EC2: 750 hours/month t2.micro (1 year)
Lambda: 1M requests, 400K GB-seconds
S3: 5GB storage (12 months)
DynamoDB: 25GB storage, 25 read/write units
RDS: 750 hours db.t2.micro (12 months)
CloudFront: 1TB transfer (12 months)
Azure
App Service: 10 web apps
Functions: 1M requests/month
Blob Storage: 5GB (12 months)
Cosmos DB: 1000 RU/s, 25GB
SQL Database: 100K vCore-seconds (12 months)
GCP
Compute: 1 f1-micro instance (744 hours/month)
Cloud Functions: 2M invocations, 400K GB-seconds
Cloud Storage: 5GB standard
Cloud Run: 2M requests, 360K GB-seconds
Firestore: 1GB storage, 50K reads, 20K writes
Pricing Calculators
AWS Pricing Calculator: https://calculator.aws Azure Pricing Calculator: https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/calculator GCP Pricing Calculator: https://cloud.google.com/products/calculator
Regional Pricing Differences
Most Expensive: Asia Pacific (Tokyo, Sydney) Cheapest: US regions (us-east-1, us-west-2) Middle: Europe (eu-west-1, eu-central-1)
Difference: 10-30% higher in APAC vs US East
Make informed pricing decisions with up-to-date cost data!