Documentation
Welcome to the comparecloudcosts.com documentation. This page covers how the tool works, how pricing data is collected, and how to interpret results. Content will be expanded gradually.
Getting Started
comparecloudcosts.com is a free, open-source tool that aggregates and normalizes on-demand (pay-as-you-go) pricing across AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, DigitalOcean, and Alibaba in a single side-by-side view.
Use the product tabsat the top to switch between categories: Virtual Machines, Databases, Serverless, Containers, Networking, and Data & Analytics.
Use the filter sidebar on the left to narrow results by provider, geography, instance specs, and product-specific attributes.
Product Categories
Virtual Machines
Compares compute instances across providers. Filter by operating system, CPU vendor/architecture, GPU support, and instance category (General Purpose, Compute Optimized, Memory Optimized, etc.). All prices are hourly, on-demand, Linux-based unless otherwise noted.
Databases
Covers managed relational, NoSQL, and In-memory database services (RDS, Cloud SQL, Azure Database, ElastiCache, Memorystore, etc.). Filter by database family, engine, deployment type (Single AZ, Multi-AZ, Serverless), and HA mode.
Serverless
Compares function-as-a-service pricing (AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, Google Cloud Functions, etc.) alongside integration services like API Gateways, Messaging Queues, Event Buses, and Workflows. Key attributes include supported runtimes, cold start behavior, billing granularity, and memory configuration.
Containers
Covers managed container runtimes including Kubernetes node pools (EKS, GKE, AKS, OKE, DOKS) and serverless container platforms (Fargate, Cloud Run, ACI). Filter by orchestrator, architecture (x86 or ARM), and billing granularity.
Networking
Compares data transfer, VPC, load balancing, VPN, NAT gateway, and dedicated connection pricing. Supports filtering by service type, connection type, routing, and direction (egress/ingress).
Data & Analytics
Covers managed data warehouse and analytics services (Redshift, BigQuery, Synapse, Snowflake, Databricks, and native cloud-provider offerings). Filter by engine, deployment type, and service tier.
Storage
Compares object, block, and file storage pricing (S3, Blob Storage, Cloud Storage, EBS). Filter by storage type, performance tier, redundancy (LRS, ZRS, GRS), and media type.
App Hosting
Covers managed application hosting and Platform-as-a-Service offerings (App Service, App Engine, Heroku, etc.). Compare by compute tier, operating system, and architecture.
AI & Machine Learning
Compares managed AI foundation models and APIs (e.g., GPT-4, Claude 3, Gemini 1.5, Llama 3). Filter by context window size, multimodal capabilities, and compare input/output pricing per 1M tokens.
Workloads
The Workloads feature allows you to price end-to-end cloud architectures instead of just individual components. We've defined common application patterns (like a 3-Tier Web App or a Data Processing Pipeline) and their component requirements.
By adjusting scale parameters like traffic or data volume, the tool automatically calculates the necessary resource specs (e.g. vCPUs, Memory) and queries the cheapest matching general-purpose instances across AWS, Azure, GCP, DigitalOcean, Oracle, and Alibaba.
Datacenters
The Datacenters page is a dedicated infrastructure reference that lets you compare the global physical footprint of each cloud provider side by side — independently of pricing. It is designed to help teams evaluate geographic reach, redundancy posture, and regulatory coverage before committing to a cloud strategy.
Unlike the pricing categories, this page does not connect to a live database. All data is sourced manually from each provider's official public infrastructure pages and verified periodically.
Data sources
Each figure on the page — region count, Availability Zone count, edge locations, countries served, and government cloud regions — is drawn directly from the provider's own published documentation:
- AWS — AWS Global Infrastructure, Regions & Availability Zones
- Azure — Azure Global Infrastructure, Azure Geographies
- Google Cloud — Google Cloud Locations, Google Network Infrastructure
- Oracle Cloud — OCI Cloud Regions, OCI Infrastructure
- DigitalOcean — Regional Availability
- Alibaba Cloud — Alibaba Cloud Global Infrastructure
Source links are also reproduced at the bottom of the Datacenters page itself, grouped by provider.
Accuracy & freshness
Infrastructure figures change frequently as providers expand. Counts shown on the page reflect a manually verified snapshot — the "Last verified" date is displayed at the bottom of the Datacenters page. Key caveats:
- Announced regions are regions the provider has publicly committed to launching but that are not yet generally available. They are marked with an amber indicator and shown as "Planned" in expanded rows.
- Edge locations (CDN/PoP nodes) are approximate — providers use different terminology and update counts frequently. Figures are rounded.
- Government cloud regions may have restricted access and are not always open to all customers. Counts refer to publicly announced dedicated compliance regions.
- Region coordinates on the world map are approximate and intended for geographic orientation only, not precise geolocation.
Important: Always verify current infrastructure availability directly with the provider before making architecture or compliance decisions.
Glossary
The following terms are used throughout the Datacenters page. Hovering the ⓘ icon next to any term on the page will also surface its definition inline.
- Region — A geographic cluster of data centers in a specific physical location. Each region is completely independent and isolated from failures in other regions. Providers typically publish regions as named locations (e.g. "US East (N. Virginia)", "West Europe").
- Availability Zone (AZ) — One or more discrete data centers within a region, each with redundant power, networking, and connectivity. Deploying resources across multiple Availability Zones in the same region allows applications to survive a single data center outage. DigitalOcean does not use traditional Availability Zones — each of its regions maps to a single data center.
- Edge Location — A smaller point-of-presence (PoP) node used for content delivery (CDN) and low-latency services such as DNS, DDoS protection, and WAF. Edge locations are distinct from full compute regions and are not independently deployable as compute environments.
- Government Cloud — Dedicated, isolated cloud regions operated specifically to meet government compliance requirements (e.g. FedRAMP High, IL4/IL5 in the US, UK OFFICIAL). Access is typically restricted to vetted public sector customers.
Pricing Data
Sources
Pricing data is fetched automatically on a weekly basis from each provider's public pricing APIs and pages. When a live fetch fails, the tool falls back to a curated static configuration that is updated manually.
All prices are on-demand (pay-as-you-go) in USD. Reserved, spot, savings plan, or committed-use pricing are not included.
Normalization
To enable apples-to-apples comparisons, all prices are normalized to a common unit — typically USD per hour. Resource specs (vCPUs, RAM, GPU count) are standardized across providers where definitions differ (e.g. Oracle OCPUs vs vCPUs).
Price Trends
The application tracks historical price changes across ingestion runs. When viewing the pricing tables, you will see an indicator next to the price: a red up arrow (▲) if the price increased, a green down arrow (▼) if the price decreased, or a grey dot (●) if the price remained unchanged. This allows you to quickly spot pricing shifts and volatility across cloud providers.
Accuracy
Prices are directional and intended for high-level comparison only. Always verify final pricing on the official provider calculator before making purchasing decisions.
Comprehensive Coverage & Missing Services: This application is not meant to be a comprehensive catalog of all offerings across all cloud providers. We consolidate data in good faith based on publicly available pricing pages and APIs, but we may inadvertently omit certain services, instance types, or product categories that cloud providers currently offer. If you represent a cloud provider or are a user who detects that a specific service or offering is missing or misrepresented, we welcome your feedback. Please reach out to us so we can continuously improve the accuracy and completeness of our platform.
Disclaimer: Price data may be delayed, incomplete, or imprecise. comparecloudcosts.com makes no warranties regarding accuracy. See our Terms of Use for full details.
Filters
Geography
Filters results to regions within a geographic area (N. America, W. Europe, Asia Pacific, etc.). Multi-select — choose one or more.
Specs & Price
Sliders to filter by vCPU count, memory (GB), and hourly price ($). Drag the handles inward to apply a range filter. Sliders at their outer limits apply no filter.
Search
The search box at the top of the table filters by instance type name or description.
Aggregation
Toggle Aggregate View in the toolbar to collapse results by instance type across providers, showing min/max/avg pricing instead of individual region rows.
Sharing
Use the Share buttons in the top bar to share a link to the tool on X (Twitter) or LinkedIn.
Contributing & Feedback
The project is open source. Found a bug, missing provider, or incorrect price? Open an issue or pull request on GitHub, or reach out at hello@comparecloudcosts.com.