Save, branch, and compare scenarios against your current matrix — guest-first with zero signup.
Cost Topology & Budget Hotspot Map
Live budget allocation across your architecture on the cheapest provider — click a node to jump to its configurator.
Providers to Compare
3 of 10 selected — icon and label always identify a provider, color is secondary.
Side-by-Side Cost Matrix Monthly & Annual TCO
Comparing line-item equivalents across AWS us-east-1 (N. Virginia), Azure East US, GCP us-east1 (South Carolina).
Amazon Web Services
us-east-1 (N. Virginia)💡 Graviton3/4 arm64 processors offer up to 20% lower price/performance.
| Provider | Compute | Storage | Database | Network | Monthly TCO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AWS us-east-1 (N. Virginia) | $49/mo t4g.medium | $12/mo Amazon S3 (HOT) | $61/mo RDS/Aurora db.t4g.medium | $155/mo AWS Data Transfer & ELB | $277 $3,322/yr |
Azure East US | $126/mo Standard_D2as_v5 | $11/mo Azure Blob Storage (HOT) | $112/mo Azure Database Flexible Server D2ds_v5 | $152/mo Azure Data Transfer & Load Balancer | $399 $4,794/yr |
GCP us-east1 (South Carolina) | $98/mo e2-standard-2 | $10/mo Google Cloud Storage (HOT) | $93/mo Cloud SQL db-custom-2-7680 | $201/mo Google Cloud Data Transfer & Load Balancer | $402 $4,823/yr |
Cost Comparison Visualizer
Visual TCO breakdown across 3 selected providers.
Cloud Optimization Insights
Actionable techniques to decrease your infrastructure bill, per selected provider.
Migrate general-purpose workloads to AWS Graviton3/4 processors for up to 20% better price/performance compared to standard x86 instances.
If your organization owns on-premises Windows Server or SQL Server licenses with Software Assurance, apply them to Azure VMs for up to 40% savings.
Avoid paying for predefined instance shapes. Google Cloud allows custom vCPU & memory ratios tailored specifically to your exact application footprint.
Infrastructure Spec Configurator
Customize workload specs to update the matrix dynamically.
Workload Growth & Traffic Scale Simulator
Project non-linear cost curves at 2x, 5x, or 10x production capacity.
FinOps Commitment & Cash-Flow Advisor
How to Compare Cloud Costs in 3 Steps
Select a Workload Blueprint
Choose a preconfigured architecture like SaaS MVP, E-Commerce, Kubernetes microservices, or AI/ML inference to auto-populate realistic specs.
Customize Your Infrastructure
Adjust vCPUs, RAM, storage capacity, database engine, egress bandwidth, and commitment type using interactive sliders.
Compare & Share Results
View the side-by-side TCO matrix across up to 10 cloud providers — AWS, Azure, GCP, and 7 more. Export as CSV, print as PDF, or share via instant URL — no signup required.
Browse Cloud Providers & Comparisons
Each provider page prices that provider's published list rates through the same engine as the calculator — compute, storage, managed databases, Kubernetes and egress — and every comparison page is scored against the same reference workload, so the numbers are comparable across the site.
Cloud Cost Comparison FAQ
Which cloud provider is cheapest for compute in 2026?
It depends on the workload. For general-purpose Linux instances, AWS EC2 (Graviton4) and GCP E2/T2A offer the best price-to-performance. Azure excels when you bring existing Windows Server or SQL Server licenses via Azure Hybrid Benefit, saving up to 40%. For spot/preemptible workloads, GCP often has the lowest prices due to sustained use discounts.
How does AWS pricing compare to Azure and GCP for object storage?
AWS S3 Standard costs approximately $0.023/GB-month in us-east-1. Azure Blob Hot tier is ~$0.018/GB-month, and Google Cloud Storage Standard is ~$0.020/GB-month. For archive storage, all three providers converge near $0.001/GB-month. The real cost difference emerges in read/write operation fees and egress bandwidth charges.
What is a cloud TCO calculator and why should I use one?
A Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculator estimates the full cost of running cloud infrastructure including compute instances, managed databases, object storage, data transfer egress, load balancers, and Kubernetes cluster management — not just the hourly instance rate. CloudCostMatrix compares TCO across AWS, Azure, and GCP simultaneously.
How do reserved instance discounts compare across AWS, Azure, and GCP?
AWS offers Compute Savings Plans (flexible across instance families, regions, and services) with 1-year (~37% off) and 3-year (~60% off) terms. Azure Reserved VM Instances provide comparable discounts for specific VM sizes. GCP uses Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) with 1-year (~37% off) and 3-year (~55% off) commitments for specific machine types.
Is CloudCostMatrix free to use?
Yes, CloudCostMatrix is completely free. You can estimate, compare, and share cloud infrastructure costs without creating an account. All calculations happen in your browser with zero data sent to any server. Shared comparison links use URL compression, requiring zero database storage.
How accurate are the pricing estimates?
Accuracy varies by provider, and CloudCostMatrix tells you which is which rather than implying uniform confidence. AWS object storage, Azure compute/egress, Oracle Cloud compute/storage/egress, and Linode compute/database/storage sync live from official public pricing APIs; the remaining categories and providers use a manually-reconciled 2026 benchmark. Every provider row in the comparison table shows a Live / Verified / Estimate badge with a source link — see the full breakdown on the Methodology page. Actual costs may also vary based on instance availability, negotiated enterprise agreements, and regional pricing differences; treat every figure as directional for architecture planning, not a quote.
Can I save and compare multiple cloud architectures?
Yes. You can save unlimited architecture estimates — guest-first and 100% private in your browser with no signup required. The Saved Architectures library lets you reload, rename, duplicate, and branch any scenario, then run an Architecture A vs B diff that highlights specification changes, per-provider monthly cost deltas, 3-year TCO projections, and migration ROI. Sign in with Google to sync your library across devices.
How fresh is the cloud pricing data?
CloudCostMatrix runs an automated price-sync pipeline against each provider's official public pricing API on a schedule — currently AWS (S3 storage tiers), Azure (Retail Prices API), Oracle Cloud (cetools price list), and Linode (v4 API). The header badge reports exactly how many of the 10 providers are currently live-synced rather than a single blanket claim, and each row in the comparison table shows its own Live / Verified / Estimate status with a source link. Zero runtime API cost either way, since the catalog is compiled into the app at build time.