Side-by-side comparison of AWS, GCP, Azure, and DigitalOcean free tiers in 2026. Compare always-free compute, databases, serverless, storage, startup credits, and hidden costs across all 4 major clouds.
Published 2026-03-31 · Not yet reviewed · Data verified from our index of 1,547 developer tools · 4 cloud providers compared
Quick verdict: GCP wins for side projects — it's the only provider with a permanent free VM (e2-micro) and the most generous always-free limits (Cloud Run 2M req/mo, BigQuery 1 TiB). AWS has the broadest service catalog and the best serverless stack (Lambda + DynamoDB). Azure has the strongest enterprise play (Active Directory, Cosmos DB lifetime free tier, .NET ecosystem). DigitalOcean doesn't compete on free tiers but wins on simplicity and competitive paid pricing ($4/mo Droplets after Jan 2026 price cuts).
The catch: Every cloud hides costs differently. AWS charges for data transfer and NAT gateways. GCP charges for egress and has confusing Firestore pricing tiers. Azure has no spending cap on pay-as-you-go. DigitalOcean has minimal free services but the fewest gotchas. We compare all of them below.
Every major cloud offers trial credits to new accounts. The amounts, durations, and restrictions vary significantly.
| Provider | Credit Amount | Duration | Restrictions | Credit Card Required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS CHANGED JUN 30 Source ↗ | None (service-level free tiers) | N/A | Each service has individual limits; no blanket credit | Yes |
| GCP Source ↗ | $300 | 90 days | Cannot use GPUs or create >8 vCPU VMs during trial | Yes |
| Azure Source ↗ | $200 | 30 days | Shorter window than GCP; transitions to pay-as-you-go | Yes |
| DigitalOcean CHANGED AUG 28 Source ↗ | $200 | 60 days | New accounts only; good middle ground on duration | Yes |
Persistent compute is the most valuable free tier category. Only GCP and AWS offer always-free compute options.
| Provider | VM / Instance | Limits | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS CHANGED JUN 30 Source ↗ | EC2 t2/t3.micro | 750 hrs/mo, 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM | 12 months only |
| GCP WINNER Source ↗ | e2-micro VM | 2 shared vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 30 GB disk, us-* regions | Always free |
| Azure Source ↗ | B1S VM | 750 hrs/mo, 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM | 12 months only |
| DigitalOcean CHANGED AUG 28 Source ↗ | No free compute | Cheapest: $4/mo Droplet (512 MB RAM) | Paid only |
Free managed databases are critical for side projects. The offerings vary dramatically between providers.
| Provider | Database | Type | Free Limits | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS CHANGED JUN 30 Source ↗ | DynamoDB | NoSQL (key-value) | 25 GB, 25 WCU/RCU | Always free |
| AWS CHANGED JUN 30 Source ↗ | RDS (MySQL/PostgreSQL) | Relational | 750 hrs/mo db.t3.micro, 20 GB | 12 months |
| AWS CHANGED JUN 30 Source ↗ | Aurora PostgreSQL Serverless | Relational (serverless) | 4 ACUs, 1 GB storage | 12 months (new Mar 2026) |
| GCP Source ↗ | Firestore | NoSQL (document) | 1 GiB storage, 50K reads/day, 20K writes/day | Always free |
| GCP Source ↗ | BigQuery | Data warehouse | 1 TiB queries/month, 10 GB storage | Always free |
| Azure BEST SQL Source ↗ | Cosmos DB | Multi-model NoSQL | 1,000 RU/s, 25 GB storage | Lifetime free |
| Azure Source ↗ | SQL Database | Relational | 100K vCore seconds/mo, 32 GB | 12 months |
| DigitalOcean CHANGED AUG 28 Source ↗ | No free managed databases — cheapest: $15/mo for managed PostgreSQL/MySQL | |||
Serverless compute is where free tiers shine — you only pay for what you use, and the free tiers are generous.
| Provider | Service | Free Requests | Free Compute | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS BEST ECOSYSTEM CHANGED JUN 30 Source ↗ | Lambda | 1M requests/mo | 400K GB-seconds | Always free |
| GCP MOST GENEROUS Source ↗ | Cloud Functions | 2M invocations/mo | 400K GB-seconds, 200K GHz-seconds | Always free |
| GCP Source ↗ | Cloud Run | 2M requests/mo | 360K vCPU-seconds, 180K GiB-seconds | Always free |
| Azure Source ↗ | Functions | 1M executions/mo | 400K GB-seconds | Always free |
| DigitalOcean CHANGED AUG 28 Source ↗ | Functions | Included with paid resources | 25K GiB-seconds (90K with any paid resource) | Limited |
Object storage and CDN are essential infrastructure. All four providers offer some free storage, but with very different limits.
| Provider | Object Storage | CDN / Data Transfer | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS CHANGED JUN 30 Source ↗ | S3: 5 GB standard | CloudFront: 1 TB transfer, 10M requests/mo | 12 months (S3 & CF) |
| GCP Source ↗ | Cloud Storage: 5 GB regional | 1 GB egress to NA/EU; Cloud CDN not free | Always free (storage) |
| Azure Source ↗ | Blob Storage: 5 GB LRS hot | Azure CDN not free-tier; 15 GB outbound | 12 months |
| DigitalOcean CHANGED AUG 28 Source ↗ | Spaces: $5/mo (250 GB + CDN) | Included with Spaces; no free tier | Paid only |
All four clouds offer startup credit programs, but eligibility requirements and credit amounts vary significantly. See our complete startup credits guide for full details.
| Provider | Program | Max Credits | Duration | Key Requirement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS CHANGED JUN 30 Source ↗ | Activate | Up to $100K | 1–2 years | VC-backed or accelerator member (higher tiers) |
| GCP LARGEST CREDITS Source ↗ | Google for Startups | Up to $200K | 1–2 years | Series A or earlier + approved partner |
| Azure Source ↗ | Founders Hub | Up to $150K | 1 year | No funding requirement (easiest to qualify) |
| DigitalOcean CHANGED AUG 28 Source ↗ | Hatch | Up to $100K | 12 months | Series A or less + accelerator/incubator |
Only provider with a permanent free VM (e2-micro). Cloud Run's 2M req/mo and Firestore give you a complete stack at $0 indefinitely. Read the full GCP guide →
Lambda + DynamoDB + API Gateway is the gold standard for serverless. 1M requests/month + 25 GB always-free database. Nothing else matches this ecosystem. Read the full AWS guide →
Founders Hub requires no funding — just a startup idea. Up to $150K credits, OpenAI API access, and the only lifetime-free managed database (Cosmos DB). Read the full Azure guide →
Google for Startups offers up to $200K — the biggest credit pool. Plus $2K in AI/ML credits (Vertex AI, BigQuery ML). Requires an approved partner though.
If you need predictable pricing, clean docs, and a simple UI, DO's $4/mo Droplets (after Jan 2026 cuts) beat the complexity of AWS/GCP/Azure. Per-second billing means you only pay for uptime. Read the full DigitalOcean guide →
Active Directory (50K objects always free), .NET native support, seamless Office 365 integration. Azure DevOps (5 users, unlimited repos) makes it a natural fit for Microsoft shops.
Every cloud has surprise costs that catch new users. Here's what to watch for on each provider.
Data transfer: $0.09/GB after 100 GB free. NAT Gateway: $32+/mo if Lambda needs VPC internet. Idle Elastic IPs: $3.60/mo when unattached. EBS on stopped instances: You pay for disk even when EC2 is stopped. 12-month silent conversion: No warning when free tier expires. Set a billing alarm on day one.
Egress charges: $0.12/GB to internet (higher than AWS). Firestore pricing confusion: Native mode vs Datastore mode have different pricing and limits. Region restrictions: Free e2-micro VM only in us-west1, us-central1, us-east1. Cloud SQL not free: Managed PostgreSQL/MySQL starts at $7/mo — use Firestore or an external DB.
No spending cap: Once your $200 trial expires, there's no automatic stop — charges accumulate on pay-as-you-go. Log Analytics ingestion: 5 GB/mo free, then $2.76/GB — logging can cost more than compute. App Service F1 limits: 60 CPU-min/day with 1 GB RAM — apps sleep after the quota. VM deallocation: You must "deallocate" (not just "stop") VMs to stop charges.
Minimal free tier: The biggest "gotcha" is that there's almost nothing free — but what you do pay for is predictable. Bandwidth overage: $0.01/GB beyond your Droplet's allocation (much cheaper than AWS/GCP). Backups: 20% surcharge if enabled. Floating IPs: Free when attached, $4/mo when unattached.
Recent pricing changes we've tracked across all 4 cloud providers. See the full timeline for all 554 tracked changes.
| Date | Provider | Change | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| effective Oct 7, 2026 | AWS | AWS Proton end of support. Infrastructure-as-code provisioning service being retired. All environments, services, and templates will stop working. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| effective Sep 30, 2026 | AWS | AWS App Mesh end of support. Service mesh for ECS/EKS being fully retired. All configurations, virtual nodes, and routes will stop functioning. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| discovered Sep 7, 2026 · effective date unknown | AWS Activate | The AWS Activate program now offers up to $200,000 in credits, an increase from $100,000 for VC/accelerator-backed startups. The description of credits for AI startups building on custom silicon is no longer present. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| discovered Sep 3, 2026 · effective date unknown | Google Cloud Pub/Sub | The Always Free tier of 10 GiB messages/month still exists, but it only applies to the Message Delivery Basic SKU. Throughput costs for BigQuery and Cloud Storage subscriptions, as well as import topics, are not free even within the first 10 GiB. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| discovered Sep 3, 2026 · effective date unknown | Amazon Kiro | The tier names have changed. 'Pro+' is now 'Pro Max'. There is a new 'Pro Max' tier at $100/month for 5,000 credits. The sign-up bonus is now $20 towards a paid plan, instead of 500 bonus credits. Add-on credits are available for all paid tiers and cost $0.04/credit, with packs ranging from $5 to $100. Unused add-on credits roll over for 12 months. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| discovered Aug 28, 2026 · effective date unknown | DigitalOcean | The description of credits has been updated. GPU Droplets are now explicitly excluded from core credits, and a separate application process is required for GPU credits. The program now has a $10,000 monthly credit limit. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| discovered Aug 28, 2026 · effective date unknown | Amazon ECR Public | The free tier for public repositories is now 50 GB/month, up from 500 MB/month. The anonymous data transfer limit is 500 GB/month, and with an AWS account, it's 5 TB/month. Source ↗ | LOW |
| effective Jun 30, 2026 | AWS | AWS Fargate Platform Version 1.3.0 end of support. Tasks on PV 1.3.0 will stop running. Migration to Platform Version 1.4.0+ required. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| effective Apr 30, 2026 | AWS | AWS App Runner closed to new customers. Service enters maintenance mode with no new features. AWS recommends migrating to Amazon ECS Express Mode for simplified container deployment. Source ↗ | HIGH |
| effective Apr 30, 2026 | AWS | Node.js 20 AWS Lambda runtime 3-phase deprecation begins. Phase 1 (April 30): no new function creation. Phase 2 (June 30): no function updates. Phase 3 (August 30): no invocations. Source ↗ | HIGH |
| effective Apr 20, 2026 | AWS | AWS WorkSpaces Thin Client end of availability. AWS stopping sales of Thin Client devices. Existing devices continue working but no new hardware can be purchased. Source ↗ | LOW |
| effective Apr 14, 2026 | Amazon SP-API | Amazon SP-API per-call fees (originally April 30, 2026) postponed indefinitely following widespread developer backlash. The $1,400/year annual fee (started Jan 31) remains in effect, but per-call GET fees ($0.40/1K calls above tier allowance) have no new implementation date. Amazon cited "additional feedback" from developer community as reason for delay. Source ↗ | HIGH |
A source check reads each cited page for that service's name and a price; the figures in the tables above are from our own records.
Compare cloud free tiers, track pricing changes, and plan your infrastructure stack — all from your AI coding assistant.
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We publish no ranking of these. Nothing we record measures popularity or generosity, so naming a best or a top few would be our preference rather than our data. We hold 12 Cloud IaaS services in our catalogue, each with the free tier terms and the date we last verified them. This page compares them on free tier limits, what each charges past them, and lock-in risk; the table above carries the figures side by side. Our ranking rule is published at /criteria.
Free tier generosity varies by use case. Some providers offer more storage, others more compute or API calls. Our comparison table above shows exact limits side-by-side so you can evaluate based on what matters most for your workload.
Each provider structures free tier limits differently — some cap storage, others cap requests or compute hours. Our comparison table provides exact numbers for each provider. Check the growth cost analysis section to understand what you'll pay when you exceed free tier limits.