Azure vs AWS pricing: what differs and how to compare
Azure and AWS both bill most services for the time they run, with no commitment, and both lower that rate when you commit for one or three years. What moves a quote between them is how the commitments work, how Windows Server and SQL Server licences are charged, and what data transfer and support add on top.
This page explains those differences without quoting prices, because prices change and differ by region. To see real numbers for your own workload, price it on both clouds on the canvas: each quote comes from that cloud's own pricing engine.
How Azure and AWS charge, side by side
| How it is charged | Azure | AWS |
|---|---|---|
| Without a commitment | Pay-as-you-go: billed for the time a resource runs, at a rate set per size and per region, with no commitment. | On-Demand: billed for the time a resource runs (per second for many EC2 instances), with no commitment. |
| Commitment discounts | Azure Reservations (1 or 3 years) for a specific resource type, or the Azure savings plan for compute: an hourly spend commitment for 1 or 3 years that follows usage across sizes and regions. | Savings Plans (Compute or EC2 Instance, 1 or 3 years, with no, partial or all upfront payment) and Reserved Instances for EC2 and for managed services such as RDS, ElastiCache and Redshift. |
| Automatic discounts | None for virtual machines: the pay-as-you-go rate stays unless you buy a reservation or the savings plan. | None for EC2. Some services, such as S3 storage and data transfer, get cheaper per unit as monthly volume grows. |
| Spare capacity | Azure Spot Virtual Machines: spare capacity at a discount, evicted when Azure needs it back. | EC2 Spot Instances: spare capacity at a discount, interrupted with a short notice when AWS needs it back. |
| Windows Server and SQL Server | Licence-included Windows Server and SQL Server, or Azure Hybrid Benefit, which applies licences you already own with Software Assurance or a qualifying subscription and removes the licence part of the rate. | Licence-included Windows Server and SQL Server. Bringing your own licences generally needs Dedicated Hosts for Windows Server, or License Mobility through Software Assurance for products that allow it. |
| Data transfer | Data in is free. Data out to the internet is billed per GB in tiers that fall with volume, after a monthly free amount; routing preference and transfer between regions change the rate. | Data in is free. Data out to the internet is billed per GB in tiers, after a monthly free amount; traffic between Availability Zones and between regions is billed too. |
| Support plans | Basic support is included. Paid plans such as Developer and Standard are a flat monthly fee. | Basic support is included. Paid plans are mostly priced as a percentage of monthly AWS spend, with a monthly minimum. |
| Free offers | A free account with a time-limited credit, some services free for an initial period, and services that are always free within monthly limits. | The AWS Free Tier. What a new account gets depends on when it was created, so check the current offer. |
Where an Azure and an AWS quote usually differ
Commitments: two shapes on both clouds
Both clouds sell one- and three-year commitments in two shapes. A reservation is tied to a kind of resource: Azure Reservations and AWS Reserved Instances. A spend commitment follows your usage across sizes and regions: the Azure savings plan for compute and AWS Compute Savings Plans. AWS adds EC2 Instance Savings Plans, which sit between the two, and lets you choose how much to pay upfront, which changes the discount. Azure reservations and the savings plan can be paid upfront or monthly.
The rule of thumb is the same on both: the more specific the commitment, the deeper the discount, and the less it helps if the workload changes. Price the same commitment on both clouds, or the comparison is not like for like.
Windows Server and SQL Server licences
On AWS, Windows Server and SQL Server instances are usually priced licence-included. Bringing your own Windows Server licences generally means Dedicated Hosts. On Azure, Azure Hybrid Benefit lets you apply Windows Server and SQL Server licences you already own, with Software Assurance or a qualifying subscription, to virtual machines and to Azure SQL, which removes the licence part of the rate.
For an estate of Windows servers or SQL Server databases, this can be one of the largest differences between the two quotes. Say in the request whether you bring licences, and which SQL Server edition you need.
Data transfer
Both clouds let data in for free and charge for data out to the internet per gigabyte, with tiers that fall as the volume grows. AWS also bills traffic between Availability Zones in the same region, so a design spread across zones adds transfer lines of its own. Transfer between regions is billed on both. Check each cloud's bandwidth page for how it treats traffic between zones, and put your expected outbound gigabytes per month in the request.
Spare capacity
Azure Spot Virtual Machines and EC2 Spot Instances both sell unused capacity at a discount and can take it back at short notice. They suit batch jobs, build agents and stateless workers that tolerate interruption, not a primary database.
Support and free offers
Paid AWS support is mostly priced as a percentage of the monthly AWS bill with a minimum, so it grows with your spend. Azure's paid plans such as Developer and Standard are a flat monthly fee. Neither is part of a workload quote, so add support from the provider's page. Both clouds also have free offers for new accounts and services that stay free within monthly limits; the details change, so check the official pages.
Regions
Both clouds set prices per region, and the same size can cost noticeably different amounts in two regions of the same cloud. Compare like for like: put the region or geography in the request, such as "US East" or "West Europe".
How to compare Azure and AWS on the canvas
- Describe the workload once. In the box on the canvas, write what you want to run: the services, sizes, region, hours per month, operating system and licences, outbound data, and any commitment such as "1-year reserved". The more of it you say, the closer the two quotes match.
- Price it on both clouds. Pick "All three" to send the same request to every engine at once, or price it on Azure first and use Mirror on AWS on the quote card. Mirroring turns the priced quote into a provider-neutral description of the workload and lets the AWS engine choose its own services and sizes.
- Read the Compare lane. It lines the quotes up by role (compute, database, storage, network), with each cloud's monthly total and the difference against the cheapest. Lines that could not be priced live are flagged.
- Change one assumption at a time. Add a commitment, switch the licences or the region, and price again, so you can see which choice moves the total.
- Keep the result. Export to Excel or CSV, or share a read-only link with whoever signs off the budget.
An AI assistant can do the first two steps for you by writing an AI link. This one opens two Windows Server VMs in US East on Azure and on AWS, side by side:
An AI link is priced when you open it, from your own free daily allowance. Nothing is priced in advance, so the page itself quotes no prices.
Official pricing pages
Each provider publishes its own prices and terms; these pages are where the details above come from.
Microsoft Azure
- Azure pricing overview
- Azure pricing calculator (Microsoft)
- Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances
- Azure savings plan for compute
- Azure Hybrid Benefit
- Azure bandwidth pricing
- Azure support plans
Amazon Web Services
- AWS pricing overview
- AWS Pricing Calculator (Amazon)
- AWS Savings Plans
- Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances
- Amazon EC2 Spot Instances
- Amazon EC2 On-Demand pricing, including data transfer
- AWS Support plans
- AWS Free Tier
Pricing on one cloud only
If the choice is already made, the single-cloud calculators go deeper on that cloud:
- Azure Price Calculator: itemized Microsoft Azure quotes from the Azure Retail Prices API, which you can save, share, export and compare with the other clouds.
- AWS Price Calculator: itemized Amazon Web Services quotes from AWS published pricing, which you can save, share, export and compare with the other clouds.
All three calculators are listed on the calculators page, and common questions are answered in the FAQ.
Other comparisons
Estimates are informational. cloudpricingcalculators.com is not affiliated with Microsoft, Amazon or Google. Validate prices with the provider or an authorised partner before buying.