IBM Cloud vs. AWS: 2026 Pricing & Cost Comparison
IBM Cloud delivers competitive on-demand rates on balanced VPC compute profiles and managed Red Hat OpenShift (ROKS), while AWS offers broader global region availability and an expansive managed serverless portfolio.
Within 3-6% (IBM Cloud slightly cheaper on standard VPC profiles)
Standard on-demand list pricing comparison for general purpose memory and vCPU tiers.
Comparable on PostgreSQL and MySQL
PostgreSQL and MySQL database clusters with high availability and automated daily backups.
AWS Generous Free Pools
IBM Cloud includes 5 TB/month free outbound bandwidth on VPC Virtual Servers, whereas AWS charges $0.09/GB after the first 100 GB.
Direct Head-to-Head Configuration Shootout
Monthly prices based on 730 hours/month on-demand consumption.
| Workload Profile | IBM Cloud SKU & Rate | AWS SKU & Rate | Cost Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
General Purpose (2 vCPU / 8 GB) 2 vCPU • 8 GB RAM • General Purpose | bx2-2x8 ($0.0800/hr) $58.40/mo | t3.large ($0.0832/hr) $60.74/mo | AWS saves 4% |
Compute Optimized (4 vCPU / 8 GB) 4 vCPU • 8 GB RAM • Compute Optimized | cx2-4x8 ($0.1600/hr) $116.80/mo | c5.xlarge ($0.1700/hr) $124.10/mo | AWS saves 6% |
Memory Optimized (4 vCPU / 32 GB) 4 vCPU • 32 GB RAM • Memory Optimized | mx2-4x32 ($0.2400/hr) $175.20/mo | r5.xlarge ($0.2520/hr) $183.96/mo | AWS saves 5% |
Managed PostgreSQL Database 2 vCPU • 8 GB RAM • Managed PostgreSQL | Databases for PostgreSQL ($0.150/hr) $109.50/mo | db.m5.large ($0.164/hr) $119.72/mo | AWS saves 9% |
Interactive 1-Click Code Transpiler
Translate your Terraform / OpenTofu HCL code between IBM Cloud and AWS instantly.
1-Click Multi-Cloud Migration Transpiler
OpenTofu / Terraform HCLDrop or paste your existing Terraform / OpenTofu HCL code below. Our semantic normalizer automatically translates resource shapes, network VPCs, managed databases, and storage buckets into ready-to-run code for your target cloud provider.
// Transpiling infrastructure...