GCP vs Azure

GCP and Azure both offer comprehensive cloud services. GCP excels in AI and machine learning integrations, while Azure is strong in hybrid cloud solutions and seamless integration with Microsoft products.

In this page:

What's good
Price comparison
What services do they offer
Company details
Alternatives to consider

What's good about...

Google Cloud

Extensive range of managed services with a focus on big data and machine learning
BigQuery and Google Kubernetes Engine are widely considered industry-leading solutions
Strong community and developer tooling
40+ data centers around the world

Microsoft Azure

Integrations with the rest of Microsoft's products
Extensive range of managed services, from serverless to databases to queues to AI
Generous free tier, and compute savings plans available
60+ datacenter locations around the world

Price comparison

How do Google Cloud's prices compare against Microsoft Azure?

Example configuration	Google Cloud	Microsoft Azure
VM Small	$20.49 / mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (E2 custom)	$6.13 / mo 2 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (B2pts v2)
VM Medium	$90.15 / mo 4 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (E2 custom)	$86.87 / mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (B4pls v2)
VM Large	$179.87 / mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (E2 custom)	$173.74 / mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (B8pls v2)
Block Storage	$4.10 / mo 100 GB	$8.10 / mo 100 GB
Object Storage	$24.93 / mo 1 TB	$21.50 / mo 1 TB
Load Balancer	$29.44 / mo	$23.25 / mo Standard
Managed PostgreSQL	$93.60 / mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 50 GB storage	$131.89 / mo 2 vCPU, 4 GiB RAM, 50 GB storage (Gen 5)
Managed Redis®*	$35.28 / mo 1 vCPU, 1.55 GiB RAM (Basic)	$39.60 / mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (Basic C1)
Serverless 25M Executions	$47.62 / mo 25M invocations, 2nd gen, 150 ms duration	$29.80 / mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration
Free egress allowance	Depends on service	100 GB / mo
1 TB of egress beyond allowance	$120.00 $0.12 / GB (Premium network)	$87.00 $0.087 / GB (Premium network North America)

GCP offers GPUs in the following configurations:

Name	GPUs	VRAM	vCPUs	RAM	Price/h
g2-standard-4	1x L4	24GB	4	16GB	$0.71	Source
g2-standard-8	1x L4	24GB	8	32GB	$0.85	Source
g2-standard-12	1x L4	24GB	12	48GB	$1.00	Source
g2-standard-16	1x L4	24GB	16	64GB	$1.15	Source
g2-standard-32	1x L4	24GB	32	128GB	$1.73	Source
g2-standard-24	2x L4	48GB	24	96GB	$2.00	Source
a2-highgpu-1g	1x A100	40GB	12	85GB	$3.67	Source
g2-standard-48	4x L4	96GB	48	192GB	$4.00	Source
a2-highgpu-2g	2x A100	80GB	24	170GB	$7.35	Source
g2-standard-96	8x L4	192GB	96	384GB	$8.00	Source
a2-highgpu-4g	4x A100	160GB	48	340GB	$14.69	Source
a2-highgpu-8g	8x A100	320GB	96	680GB	$29.39	Source
a2-megagpu-16g	16x A100	640GB	96	1360GB	$55.74	Source

Azure offers GPUs in the following configurations:

Name	GPUs	VRAM	vCPUs	RAM	Price/h
NC4as T4 v3	1x T4	16GB	4	28GB	$0.53	Source
NC8as T4 v3	1x T4	16GB	8	56GB	$0.75	Source
NC6	1x K80	12GB	6	56GB	$0.90	Source
NV6	1x M60	8GB	6	56GB	$1.14	Source
NV12s v3	1x M60	8GB	12	112GB	$1.14	Source
NC16as T4 v3	1x T4	16GB	16	110GB	$1.20	Source
NC12	2x K80	24GB	12	112GB	$1.80	Source
NC6s v2	1x P100	16GB	6	112GB	$2.07	Source
ND6s	1x P40	24GB	6	112GB	$2.07	Source
NV12	2x M60	16GB	12	112GB	$2.28	Source
NV24s v3	2x M60	16GB	24	224GB	$2.28	Source
NC6s v3	1x V100	16GB	6	112GB	$3.06	Source
NC24	4x K80	48GB	24	224GB	$3.60	Source
NC24r	4x K80	48GB	24	224GB	$3.96	Source
NC12s v2	2x P100	32GB	12	224GB	$4.14	Source
ND12s	2x P40	48GB	12	224GB	$4.14	Source
NC64as T4 v3	4x T4	64GB	64	440GB	$4.35	Source
NV48s v3	4x M60	32GB	48	448GB	$4.56	Source
NV24	4x M60	32GB	24	224GB	$4.56	Source
NC24ads A100 v4	1x A100	80GB	24	220GB	$4.78	Launch
NC12s v3	2x V100	32GB	12	224GB	$6.12	Source
ND24s	4x P40	96GB	24	448GB	$8.28	Source
NC24s v2	4x P100	64GB	24	448GB	$8.28	Source
ND24rs	4x P40	96GB	24	448GB	$9.11	Source
NC24rs v2	4x P100	64GB	24	448GB	$9.11	Source
NC24s v3	4x V100	64GB	24	448GB	$12.24	Source
NC24rs v3	4x V100	64GB	24	448GB	$13.46	Source
ND40rs v2	8x V100	256GB	40	672GB	$22.03	Source
ND96asr A100 v4	8x A100	320GB	96	900GB	$27.20	Source

Note: Our pricing examples are based on several assumptions. Your actual costs may differ. Always check the cloud provider's website for the most up-to-date pricing.

Which services do they offer?

Here are some managed services that Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure offer:

Service	Google Cloud	Microsoft Azure
Block Storage
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Container Registry
GPU-powered Servers
Load Balancer
Managed Containers
Managed Kubernetes
Managed MySQL
Managed PostgreSQL
Managed Redis®*
Object Storage
Serverless Cron Jobs
Serverless Functions
Static Sites
Virtual Private Server (VPS)

Company details

	Google Cloud	Microsoft Azure
Website	cloud.google.com	azure.microsoft.com
Headquarters	United States of America 🇺🇸	United States of America 🇺🇸
Founded	2008	2008
Data Center Locations	40	66
Example Customers	PayPal, GitLab, 20th Century Fox, Target, Scotiabank	General Motors, NHS, Fujitsu, NBA

	Google Cloud
Website	cloud.google.com
Headquarters	United States of America 🇺🇸
Founded	2008
Data Center Locations	40
Example Customers	PayPal, GitLab, 20th Century Fox, Target, Scotiabank

	Microsoft Azure
Website	azure.microsoft.com
Headquarters	United States of America 🇺🇸
Founded	2008
Data Center Locations	66
Example Customers	General Motors, NHS, Fujitsu, NBA