Pricing and Free Tiers Across the Clouds

All three major clouds — AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure — price the same fundamental way: metered usage, billed by the unit, with on-demand as the default and discounts available through commitment or interruptibility. That shared model is the right frame. But the details differ in ways that matter, especially for someone deciding where to learn or where to run a first project.

The most important area of difference is the free offer. Every provider gives new accounts some amount of free usage, but the structure, the limits, and the honest caveats are not the same. This topic maps those differences as accurately as possible — and then flags the most important caveat of all: cloud pricing changes often. The specifics described here reflect what was publicly documented as of June 2026. Always check the provider's live pricing page before making any cost decision.

Same Model, Different Numbers

The per-unit rates for compute, storage, and data transfer differ across providers and change over time. Google Cloud was an early adopter of per-second billing for compute; the others followed. All three have different on-demand rates for different machine families, different per-GB storage rates by tier, and different egress rates by destination region. At the level of this course, those numbers are less important than the structural understanding — and they change enough that specific figures go stale quickly.

What does not change is the shape: usage-based, itemized, with the same categories (compute, storage, data transfer, managed services) showing up on every bill regardless of provider. If you understand one cloud's bill structure, you understand them all at the conceptual level.

Free Offers Compared

Each provider offers new accounts a way to explore at little or no cost. The structures are genuinely different, which matters when you are deciding where to start.

AWS updated its free offering in July 2025 from the previous "12 months of specific service allowances" model to a credits-based approach. New accounts receive approximately $100 in credits at sign-up, with the ability to earn up to an additional $100 through program activities, usable over roughly six months. AWS also maintains a set of "always-free" allowances — services that remain free in limited quantities indefinitely, regardless of account age. Note, however, that under AWS's current Free account plan, the account itself ends after about six months or when its credits run out unless you upgrade to a Paid plan — the always-free allowances exist within that structure, so the overall free account does not continue indefinitely. If you read older documentation still describing "750 hours of EC2 per month for 12 months," that program no longer applies; check the current AWS Free Tier page for the current structure.

Google Cloud offers new accounts a $300 credit (as of this writing) usable over 90 days, plus a set of permanently free-tier resources — small amounts of compute, storage, and database access — that continue after the initial credit expires. The always-free tier is notable for covering a modest virtual machine (the e2-micro instance in certain regions) at no cost indefinitely, which makes it a convenient baseline for learning experiments.

Azure gives new accounts a free account that includes a $200 credit usable for 30 days, 12 months of limited access to certain popular services, and a set of always-free services with no expiry. The 12-month portion covers specific service sizes (small databases, a modest virtual machine) up to defined usage caps — after that period or after the caps are reached, standard billing applies.

Most cloud sign-ups ask for identity verification and often a payment method, but the exact requirement depends on the provider, account type, region, and student or free-plan eligibility — always check the live sign-up page. Providing a payment method does not mean you will be charged: it is only charged if you explicitly upgrade beyond the free tier limits. Setting a budget alert (Topic 42) from day one is the recommended safeguard for anyone learning on any of the three.

Free Data Transfer Allowances

Data transfer out (egress) to the internet is billed after a free monthly allowance on all three providers. As of June 2026, AWS and Azure both offer the first 100 GB per month of outbound data transfer at no charge. Google Cloud gives 200 GB per month of free internet egress on its Standard network tier, per region (in place since 2023); the always-free tier also separately includes small per-service amounts. For small personal projects, learning environments, and early-stage development, these allowances comfortably cover most scenarios. Data transfer in (ingress) remains free without limit on all three, as it has been since each provider launched.

The Honest Caveat

Cloud pricing is one of the most frequently updated areas of the cloud industry. New machine types launch, old ones are discounted or retired, free tier structures change (as AWS demonstrated in July 2025), and egress fees have generally moved downward over the years as competition has intensified. Any specific figure in this topic — credit amounts, free tier allowances, always-free service limits — should be verified against the provider's live documentation before you rely on it for a decision.

The structural understanding — same model, different details, free offers are real but limited, egress is free up to a point — is what this course provides. The current numbers are yours to look up; the conceptual frame makes them interpretable when you do.