AWS vs Azure vs GCP migration cost
Same scenario. Three providers. Three numbers. The cloud you migrate to changes your bill by 10–30%. This calculator models the same workload across all three on identical assumptions.
Workload spec
Destination
AWS
$40.9K/ mo
$490.3K / yr
Destination
Azure
$39.0K/ mo
$468.5K / yr
Destination
GCP
$37.4K/ mo
$448.2K / yr
| Cost line | AWS | Azure | GCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly compute + DB + storage | $40.9K | $39.0K | $37.4K✓ |
| Annual running cost | $490.3K | $468.5K | $448.2K✓ |
| Egress (monthly) | $900 | $870 | $850✓ |
| Business support (≈10%) | $4.1K | $3.9K | $3.7K✓ |
| Free egress (GB / mo) | 100 GB✓ | 100 GB✓ | 200 GB |
| Free storage (GB) | 50 GB✓ | 5120 GB | 50 GB✓ |
Reference list pricing (us-east-1 / East US / us-central1) as of April 2026. General-purpose VM (4 vCPU / 16 GB), managed PostgreSQL, standard object storage, internet egress. Committed use discounts, reserved instances, or savings plans can reduce compute 20–60%.
Standard Mid-Market (100 servers, 20TB, 12 months)
All numbers below are for a single shared mid-market scenario so the providers are directly comparable. Discount programmes are applied where they qualify.
| Cost component | AWS | Azure | GCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compute / month | $58K | $62K | $51K |
| Storage / month | $4K | $4K | $4K |
| Egress (during migration) | $18K | $18K | $16K |
| Partner consulting (12 mo) | $180K | $165K | $155K |
| Support / yr | $84K | $74K | $68K |
| Discount programme | none | $-155,000 (Hybrid) | $-183,600 (Sustained) |
| 3-year TCO | $2.9M | $2.6M | $2.5M |
Switching between clouds
Cloud-to-cloud migrations are dominated by egress (out of source) and re-architecture for the destination’s native services. Most patterns net out to similar all-in cost; the variance is in how much re-architecture you take on.
$200K–$700K (50–100 servers, 50 TB)
Egress out of AWS at $0.05–$0.09/GB. Re-architect IAM, VPC, RDS for Azure equivalents.
$220K–$750K (50–100 servers, 50 TB)
Active Directory federation re-architecture. Hybrid Benefit no longer applies, factor in higher Windows licensing.
$180K–$650K (50–100 servers, 50 TB)
Compute migration via Migrate to GCE. BigQuery / Vertex AI re-architecture for data workloads.
When each provider wins
Best for
AWS
- ▸Widest service breadth and most mature ecosystem
- ▸Best for green-field cloud-native architectures
- ▸Strongest partner network globally
Best for
Azure
- ▸Best for Microsoft-heavy estates (Windows, SQL, AD)
- ▸Hybrid Benefit cuts compute 30–40% for Windows VMs
- ▸Strongest hybrid / on-prem integration story
Best for
GCP
- ▸Strongest for data, ML, Kubernetes workloads
- ▸Sustained-use discounts without commitment
- ▸Cheapest list compute of the three