Cloud pricing comparison
Microsoft AzurevsGoogle Cloud Platform
Azure vs Google Cloud
Compute Pricing
Side-by-side pricing for Azure Virtual Machines and GCP Compute Engine. Azure leads on region count and Windows workloads; GCP offers sustained-use discounts and custom machine types that can reduce costs significantly for steady-state workloads.
Microsoft Azure
- Regions
- 60+
- VM sizes
- 600+ sizes
- Pricing models
- Pay-as-you-go, Spot, RI 1yr, RI 3yr
- Auto discounts
- None (manual RI required)
Google Cloud Platform
- Regions
- 40+
- Machine families
- 500+ types
- Pricing models
- On-Demand, Preemptible, CUD 1yr, CUD 3yr
- Auto discounts
- Sustained-use (up to 30%)
Instance pricing comparison
Pay-as-you-go / on-demand pricing in East US / us-central1. Prices per hour.
| Workload | vCPU | RAM | Azure | GCP | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General purpose 2 vCPU / 8 GB | 2 | 8 GB | $0.0960/hr Standard_D2s_v3 | $0.0971/hr n2-standard-2 | Azure −1% |
General purpose 4 vCPU / 16 GB | 4 | 16 GB | $0.1920/hr Standard_D4s_v3 | $0.1942/hr n2-standard-4 | Azure −1% |
Memory optimized 8 vCPU / 64 GB | 8 | 64 GB | $0.5040/hr Standard_E8s_v3 | $0.4740/hr n2-highmem-8 | GCP −6% |
Compute optimized 16 vCPU / 32 GB | 16 | 32 GB | $0.6800/hr Standard_F16s_v2 | $0.7672/hr c2-standard-16 | Azure −11% |
GPU — H100 (1×) | 8 | 80 GB | $18.6300/hr NCH100v4 | $12.3560/hr a3-highgpu-1g | GCP −34% |
GCP sustained-use discounts (up to 30%) apply automatically for instances running more than 25% of the month, making effective GCP pricing lower than list for persistent workloads. GPU pricing reflects nearest comparable H100-class instances on each provider.
Coverage & pricing models
| Capability | Azure | GCP |
|---|---|---|
| Regions | 60+ | 40+ |
| Instance / VM types | 600+ | 500+ |
| Pricing models | 4 | 4 |
| Spot / preemptible | Yes | Yes |
| Reserved (1 yr) | Yes | Yes |
| Reserved (3 yr) | Yes | Yes |
| Sustained-use discounts | No | Yes |
| Savings plans | No | No |
Feature availability
| Feature | Azure | GCP |
|---|---|---|
| Global load balancing | ||
| Managed Kubernetes (free CP) | ||
| Arm-based instances | ||
| Spot / preemptible instances | ||
| Committed-use discounts | ||
| Sustained-use auto-discounts | ||
| Custom machine types | ||
| Confidential VMs | ||
| Carbon-neutral regions | ||
| Active Directory integration | ||
| Windows Server licensing incl. | ||
| Free tier (12 months) |
When to choose each cloud
Choose Azure when
- You are a Microsoft-first org using M365, Active Directory, or Teams
- Windows Server and SQL Server licensing bundling reduces TCO
- Your compliance requirements favor the broadest global region footprint
- Confidential computing and Azure Trusted Launch VMs are requirements
- Hybrid connectivity with on-premises datacenters via ExpressRoute is needed
Choose GCP when
- Sustained-use auto-discounts will benefit your steady-state compute
- Custom machine types let you avoid overpaying for fixed instance shapes
- Vertex AI, BigQuery, or Cloud TPUs are central to your ML stack
- You are a Google Workspace org and want unified identity management
- H100/A100 GPU pricing at scale is a deciding cost factor
Also compare
See live Azure and GCP pricing
The catalog is updated daily from official APIs. Search, filter, and compare any instance across all regions and pricing models — no account required.