Cloud Cost Calculator
Cloud Hosting Cost Calculator
Compare the baseline monthly cost of one server on AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and DigitalOcean.
| Provider | Compute | Disk | Traffic | Total per month |
|---|
Highlighted row: lowest estimated total. Prices are list prices as of .
These are estimates for planning, not quotes. Cloud prices change, so confirm on each provider's pricing page before you decide. The machine sizes are the closest comparable general-purpose types, not identical hardware.
How the comparison works
Enter what your workload needs. The calculator rounds up to the nearest of four common sizes: 2 vCPU with 4 GB (burstable), 2 vCPU with 8 GB, 4 vCPU with 16 GB, or 8 vCPU with 32 GB. For each provider it takes the matching general-purpose instance, then adds the disk you asked for and the traffic that leaves the provider's network for the internet, after any free allowance.
The compute cost is the on-demand hourly price times the hours you run it. Disk is the price per GB of a general-purpose SSD volume. Traffic uses each provider's tiered price for data going out to the internet. Data coming in is free at all four.
What the numbers leave out
- Discounts: one-year and three-year commitments, savings plans, sustained-use discounts and spot instances can cut compute costs by a large share. This tool shows on-demand prices only.
- Extras: public IP addresses, load balancers, managed databases, backups, snapshots, monitoring, support plans and tax.
- Regions: prices used are for AWS us-east-1, Azure East US and Google Cloud us-central1. Other regions can cost more.
- Included resources: DigitalOcean includes a disk and a large monthly transfer allowance in the Droplet price. The other three charge for both separately, which is why traffic-heavy workloads often look cheapest on DigitalOcean.
- Performance: burstable and shared-CPU sizes are cheaper but can be slower under sustained load.
Where the prices come from
Google Cloud's pricing pages load their prices with scripts, so its figures come from several independent price trackers that agree with each other. Treat them as close estimates and confirm on Google's page.
Frequently asked questions
Why does traffic matter so much?
Data transfer out to the internet is a separate charge at AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, at about 9 to 12 cents per GB at the start. A site serving many terabytes a month can spend more on traffic than on servers.
Are serverless and container services cheaper?
For spiky or low traffic, often yes, because you pay only when code runs. This calculator covers always-on virtual machines. Compare serverless separately.
Is Cloudflare or a CDN cheaper for traffic?
A CDN can reduce how much traffic leaves your server and often costs less per GB. It is not included in these numbers.
How current are the prices?
The date is shown above the table and in the sources list. Prices change, so refer to the provider pages for a final decision.