Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is the smallest of the big three cloud players but is quickly gaining popularity. When planning a Google Cloud migration, or considering a multi-cloud strategy, it is important to understand each cloud’s service and pricing model, and how to compare pricing correctly. Because Google Cloud pricing is structured differently from Amazon in many cases, a direct comparison can be misleading.
In this cloud pricing comparison, we’ll explain GCP vs. AWS pricing, where it makes sense to directly compare them and where it doesn’t, and show pricing for common services side by side.
In this article, you will learn:
Gartner’s 2020 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure places Amazon Web Services as the clear leader, both in execution and completeness of vision. Google Cloud, also in the leaders quadrant, is in third place behind Microsoft Azure (see our article on Azure vs Google Cloud).
The following table summarizes Gartner’s views about the relative strengths of each cloud provider, and their market share.
|
Provider |
Gartner |
Market Share |
|
AWS |
- Has the largest share of both infrastructure as a service (Iaas) and platform as a service (PaaS) segments - Strong performer in hybrid cloud and edge solutions - Strong financial health of AWS as standalone business |
- AWS has 31% of the worldwide cloud market - AWS revenues were $45.3 billion in 2020, up 30% YoY |
|
Google Cloud |
- Provides the most advanced hybrid cloud platform, Google Anthos - Leads in developer mindshare |
- Google has 7% of the global cloud market - Google Cloud Platform annual revenue was $13 billion in 2020, up 30% YoY - Growing faster than other providers in database as a service (DBaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) |
Let’s have a look at the AWS vs. Google Cloud pricing for machine instances and object storage. Please check for the latest prices on the Google Cloud and AWS official pricing pages.
Also, for reference, check out our article about Azure vs Google Cloud.
Below we provide a few examples of pricing for common instance sizes. AWS has a price advantage for general purpose and memory optimized instances, while Google Cloud is cheaper for compute optimized, but take into account that Google instances provide almost half the quantity of RAM.
|
Instance Parameters |
Google Cloud |
AWS |
|
On-Demand / Linux / General Purpose / 2 CPUs (Memory: AWS 8 GB / Google Cloud 7.5 GB) |
$0.107 |
$0.100 |
|
On-Demand / Linux / Compute Optimized / 2 CPUs (Memory: AWS 3.75 GB / Google Cloud 1.8 GB) |
$0.813 |
$0.100 |
|
On-Demand / Linux / Memory Optimized / 2 CPUs (Memory: AWS 15.25 GB / Google Cloud 13 GB) |
$0.134 |
$0.133 |
Of AWS’s four reserved instance options, only one is also offered by Google Cloud: per-month payments.
When directly comparing this option, Google Cloud offers very similar discounted pricing across most instance types. Again, the price should be offset by the fact that AWS instances offer more memory.
Another point to consider is that Google Cloud allows you to convert instance types during the commitment period, whereas AWS only offers this in a special “Convertible Instance” tier which offers a substantially reduced discount.
See the table below to compare common instant sizes across the two clouds, for a 1-year reserved instance term.
|
Instance Parameters |
Google Cloud |
AWS Per-Hour Price |
|
Reserved 1 Year / Linux / General Purpose / 4 CPUs (Memory: AWS 16 GB / Google Cloud 15 GB) |
$0.128 |
$0.123 |
|
Reserved 1 Year / Linux / Compute Optimized / 4 CPUs (Memory: AWS 8 GB / Google Cloud 3.6 GB) |
$0.095 |
$0.107 |
|
Reserved 1 Year / Linux / Memory Optimized / 4 CPUs (Memory: AWS 32 GB / Google Cloud 26 GB) |
$0.159 |
$0.159 |
AWS offers bigger discounts for upfront payments, which can make it more attractive than Google Cloud if you are prepared to pay some of all of the instance cost upfront.
See the table below to understand the additional discounts you can get on AWS for prepayment. The discounts are for General Purpose instances.
|
|
1 Year Reserved |
3 Year Reserved |
|
Monthly Payment |
38% |
57% |
|
Partial Upfront Payment |
41% |
60% |
|
Full Upfront Payment |
42% |
62% |
Let’s See how Google Cloud and AWS compare on two major cloud storage categories—elastic object storage, and block storage attached to compute instances.
There are two important differences between Google Cloud Storage and Amazon S3:
See our article on AWS storage tiers to gain a better understanding of Amazon’s cold storage options.
Here is a flat comparison of storage prices per GB across the Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage:
|
Storage Parameters |
Google Cloud Price Per GB |
AWS Price Per GB |
|
Frequent Access / First 50 TB |
$0.026 |
$0.0230 |
|
Frequent Access / 51-500 TB |
$0.026 |
$0.0220 |
|
Infrequent Access |
$0.010 |
$0.0125 |
|
Archive Storage |
$0.070 |
$0.0040 |
This table summarizes the additional costs charged by Google Cloud for network egress and data usage:
|
Storage Types |
Network Egress Outside GCP (except Asia) |
Cost Per 10,000 Class A Data Operations |
Cost Per 10,000 Class B Data Operations |
|
Standard Storage |
$0.08-0.12 (depending on data volume) |
$0.05 |
$0.004 |
|
NearLine Storage |
$0.08-0.12 (depending on data volume) |
$0.10 |
$0.01 |
|
ColdLine Storage |
$0.08-0.12 (depending on data volume) |
$0.10 |
$0.01 |
See Google’s definition for Class A operations (heavy operations like INSERT) and Class B operations (light operation like GET).
Google Cloud and AWS both offer block storage—Google Cloud calls it persistent disks, and in AWS it is the Elastic Block Store (EBS) service.
There are two key differences to understand in Google Cloud vs. AWS block storage pricing:
|
Block Storage Volume Type |
Google Cloud Price Per GB |
AWS Price Per GB |
|
Local standard volume |
$0.040 |
$0.045 |
|
SSD volume |
$0.170 (unlimited IOPS) |
$0.1 (additional cost for provisioned IOPS) |
|
Regional standard volume |
$0.080 |
N/A |
|
Regional SSD volume |
$0.340 |
N/A |
|
Snapshot storage |
$0.026 |
$0.05 |
|
Multi-regional snapshot storage |
$0.026 in each multi-region |
N/A |
Check out the calculators offered by AWS and Google to get deeper insights into your expected cloud costs for specific configurations.
|
Resource |
Google Cloud |
AWS |
|
Pricing Calculator |
||
|
Total Cost of Ownership Calculator |
No official TCO calculator available |
|
|
Storage Costs Calculator |
NetApp AWS Storage TCO Calculator— compare S3, EBS, EFS |
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