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AWS vs Google Cloud: the network tier decides the bill

Google Cloud sells outbound traffic at two prices, and a new server gets the higher one unless you choose otherwise. That setting, more than the server, decides whether a Linux app costs less on Google or on AWS. At 5,000 GB out a month, a 2 vCPU, 8 GB server runs $522.23 on AWS, $587.71 on Google's default tier and $444.18 on its Standard Tier. On American Cloud it's $64.13, and we don't charge for traffic out.

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Check the network tier before you compare servers

For a full month, Google's server is $65.37 after the 20% discount that self-serve billing accounts get automatically, against $81.23 on AWS. Then add traffic. On Google's default Premium Tier it costs $0.12 per GiB to North America, against $0.09 per GB on AWS after 100 GB free, so AWS catches up at about 320 GB a month and is $65.48 cheaper at 5,000 GB. Switch Google to Standard Tier, which sends traffic over the public internet, and Google stays under AWS at every level we priced.

So past a few hundred GB, you aren't comparing servers. You're comparing traffic prices, and on Google, two networks. An app that serves users pays that line on either cloud. On ours, the line doesn't exist.

One Linux app on AWS, on Google's two tiers, and on ours

AWS in US East (N. Virginia), Google Cloud in Iowa (us-central1). Linux, list prices, a 730-hour month, one server alone on the account. Google bills disk and traffic per GiB, so we converted. Where Google has two prices, Premium Tier comes first, at its rates for traffic to North America.

American Cloud
AWS
Google Cloud
Linux server, 2 vCPU and 8 GB, a full month
$60 (Standard tier, Intel)
$73.58 (m7i.large, $0.1008 an hour)
$56.72 (n2-standard-2, $70.90 list less the 20% full-month discount)
A 50 GB SSD disk and a public IPv4 address
$4.13 ($3.13 disk, $1 IP)
$7.65 ($4.00 gp3, $3.65 IP)
$8.65 ($5.00 balanced disk, $3.65 IP)
The server's month before any traffic
$64.13
$81.23
$65.37
Discount for running all month
None to qualify for. The monthly price is the price
The on-demand rate above is the rate
Up to 20% on N2 for self-serve billing accounts, applied automatically. E2 gets none
Network tiers for traffic out
One, and it's free
One price list for data out, by volume
Premium, the default, or Standard, which you have to choose
Free traffic out each month
All of it
100 GB across the account
1 GiB on Premium, 200 GiB on Standard
Price of traffic out, first paid tier
$0
$0.09 per GB, up to 10,240 GB
Premium: $0.12 per GiB up to 1,024 GiB, then $0.11. Standard: $0.085 per GiB
Price of traffic out past 10 TB a month
$0
$0.085 per GB
Premium: $0.08 per GiB. Standard: $0.065 per GiB
The month with 1,000 GB out
$64.13
$162.23
$177.01 on Premium, $127.53 on Standard
The month with 5,000 GB out
$64.13
$522.23
$587.71 on Premium, $444.18 on Standard
Kubernetes management fee
First control node free
$73 a month per EKS cluster
$73 a month per GKE cluster, less a $74.40 monthly credit per billing account
Around-the-clock help when production is down
Chat and tickets, included on every account
Business Support+: the greater of $29 or 9% of the month's charges
Enhanced Support: the greater of $100 or 10% of the month's list charges. Standard Support, $29 or 3%, covers business hours

Same traffic, two Google bills

The table's server at two traffic levels. Only Google's bar moves with the tier.

Same traffic, two Google bills ($ a month)

1,000 GB, Google Premium

American Cloud
$64.13
AWS
$162.23
Google Cloud
$177.01

1,000 GB, Google Standard

American Cloud
$64.13
AWS
$162.23
Google Cloud
$127.53

5,000 GB, Google Premium

American Cloud
$64.13
AWS
$522.23
Google Cloud
$587.71

5,000 GB, Google Standard

American Cloud
$64.13
AWS
$522.23
Google Cloud
$444.18
$ a month. On Premium Tier, the two meet at about 320 GB a month: $101.01 on Google, $101.03 on AWS.

Two things the totals don't show

A discount you don't sign up for

Google's 20% needs no commitment, but it grows with uptime. It starts once a server has run more than a quarter of the month, and the full 20% takes the whole month.

How access is set up

Moving between the two changes how you give programs access. On Google Cloud, programs run under dedicated service accounts, and you set permissions on the resource itself, such as a bucket. On AWS, you write a policy that grants a user actions on resources. Fluxon's CTO called access control and networking the hard parts of a move in a 2023 post on Google's blog.

No network tier to choose

Our price is $10 per vCPU, $5 per GB of RAM and $1 per 16 GB of disk a month, plus $1 for a public IP. The server on this page is $64.13 however much traffic it sends, so there's no traffic estimate to get wrong. On Kubernetes, the first control node is free.

When something breaks, open chat in the portal: support replies in under 2 minutes, on every account, with no support plan to buy. Try your own sizes in the calculator on our pricing page.

Questions people ask

What is Google Cloud's Standard Tier?

It's the cheaper of Google's two network tiers. Traffic goes out over the public internet, and you have to choose it: a server you don't switch stays on Premium, the default.

Is GKE free?

Not quite. The cluster management fee is $0.10 an hour, but a $74.40 monthly credit per billing account covers one zonal or Autopilot cluster. Regional clusters pay the fee, and the servers in any cluster are billed on top.

Does American Cloud charge for traffic out?

No. There's no egress fee on any of our products, and servers have no monthly traffic cap.

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