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!