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 · Reviewed 2026-09-12, corrections outstanding · Figures compiled 2026-03-31 · 12 of 12 figures in the “Pricing Change Timeline” table come from our records for 1,580 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).
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 SEP 30 | $100 + up to $100 Source ↗ | 6 months (Free plan) | New accounts only; the Free plan closes at 6 months or when the credits run out, and AWS erases the account 90 days later unless you upgrade | 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 MAY 13 Source ↗ | $5 | 90 days | New accounts only | Yes |
Persistent compute is the most valuable free tier category.
| Provider | VM / Instance | Limits | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS CHANGED SEP 30 Source ↗ | EC2 | No free hours; paid from Free plan credits (up to $200) | Free plan: 6 months |
| GCP Source ↗ | e2-micro VM | 2 shared vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 30 GB disk, us-* regions | Always free |
| Azure Source ↗ | B2pts v2 / B2ats v2 VMs | 750 hrs/mo each, 2 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM | 12 months only |
| DigitalOcean CHANGED MAY 13 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 SEP 30 | DynamoDB | NoSQL (key-value) | 25 GB, 25 WCU/RCU Source ↗ | Always free |
| AWS CHANGED SEP 30 Source ↗ | RDS (MySQL/PostgreSQL) | Relational | No allowance of its own: paid from the Free plan's credits (up to $200) | Free plan, up to 6 months |
| AWS CHANGED SEP 30 | Aurora PostgreSQL Serverless | Relational (serverless) | Up to 4 ACUs and 1 GiB per cluster, paid from the Free plan's credits Source ↗ | Free plan, up to 6 months |
| 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 Source ↗ | Cosmos DB | Multi-model NoSQL | 1,000 RU/s, 25 GB storage | Lifetime free |
| Azure Source ↗ | SQL Database | Relational | Up to 10 serverless databases, each 100K vCore seconds/mo and 32 GB | Always free |
| Azure Source ↗ | Database for PostgreSQL | Relational | 750 hrs/mo Flexible Server B1MS, 32 GB storage, 32 GB backup | 12 months |
| Azure Source ↗ | Database for MySQL | Relational | 750 hrs/mo Flexible Server B1MS, 32 GB storage, 32 GB backup | 12 months |
| DigitalOcean CHANGED MAY 13 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 CHANGED SEP 30 | Lambda | 1M requests/mo Source ↗ | 400K GB-seconds | Always free |
| GCP 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 MAY 13 Source ↗ | Functions | No separate request quota | 90K GiB-seconds | Every month (no end date stated) |
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 SEP 30 | S3: no free storage (paid from credits) | CloudFront: 1 TB transfer, 10M requests/mo | CloudFront always free; S3 from credits |
| 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 MAY 13 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 SEP 30 | Activate | Up to $200K Source ↗ | — | Activate Provider Org ID (Portfolio) |
| GCP Source ↗ | Google for Startups | Up to $350K | 1–2 years | VC funding, pre-seed to Series A |
| Azure Source ↗ | Microsoft for Startups | Up to $150K | 90 days to 2 years | No funding requirement (easiest to qualify) |
| DigitalOcean CHANGED MAY 13 Source ↗ | DigitalOcean Startups | Amount varies (up to $10,000 a month) | 12 months | $10M raised or less; partner or direct application |
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 →
Microsoft for Startups needs no investor. B2B tech startups can reach $150K in credits with Azure usage, and the only lifetime-free managed database (Cosmos DB). Read the full Azure guide →
Google for Startups offers up to $350K to AI-first startups. Its Scale tier needs VC funding; its $2K Start tier needs none.
If you need predictable pricing, clean docs, and a simple UI, DO's $4/mo Droplets 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. Free plan closure: the account closes at 6 months or when credits run out, and content is deleted after 90 days unless you upgrade to the Paid plan.
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 424 tracked changes.
| Date | Provider | Change | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| effective Oct 7, 2026 | AWS | AWS Proton reaches end of support on 2026-10-07, when its console and resources stop being accessible. AWS: "Your deployed CloudFormation stacks and the resources they manage will remain intact and continue to function." New customers could not sign up after 2025-10-07. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| effective Sep 30, 2026 | AWS | AWS App Mesh reached end of support on 2026-09-30. AWS: "After September 30, 2026, you will no longer be able to access the AWS App Mesh console or AWS App Mesh resources." AWS points App Mesh users to Amazon ECS Service Connect. 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. Unconfirmed. We could not check this change against an archived copy of Amazon ECR Public's page, so it does not count toward the rating. Source ↗ | LOW |
| effective Jul 10, 2026 | Amazon Kiro | Kiro added a Pro Max plan at $100 per user a month with 5,000 credits, between Pro+ and Power. It first appears on kiro.dev/pricing between the 2026-06-03 and 2026-07-10 captures. Source ↗ | LOW |
| effective Jun 30, 2026 | AWS | Fargate platform version 1.3.0 reached end of support on June 30, 2026. AWS blocked new tasks and services on it from June 15 and said it would terminate the tasks still running on it on June 30. Platform version 1.4.0 replaces it. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| effective Jun 14, 2026 | AWS Activate | AWS raised Activate Portfolio from up to $100,000 to up to $200,000 in credits. aws.amazon.com/startups/credits/ said "Up to $100,000 USD AWS Activate Credits" in the Internet Archive's capture of 2026-05-31 and "Up to $200,000 USD in Activate Credits" in the capture of 2026-06-14. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| effective Jun 3, 2026 | Amazon Kiro | Kiro stopped giving new users 500 bonus credits on sign-up, usable within 30 days, and now credits $20 toward the first paid plan instead. The change falls between the 2026-05-02 and 2026-06-03 captures of kiro.dev/pricing. Source ↗ | MEDIUM |
| effective May 13, 2026 | DigitalOcean | As of 2026-05-13, DigitalOcean's startup credits exclude Dedicated and Serverless Inference, third-party AI models, Paperspace Machines, Cloudways and Bare Metal GPUs as well as GPU Droplets and H100 GPU products, the two exclusions its page stated before. The page also now puts the monthly credit limit at $10,000; its April capture mentioned a monthly limit without an amount. 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 | The Node.js 20 Lambda runtime (nodejs20.x) was deprecated on 2026-04-30. Lambda blocks creating functions on it from 2027-02-01 and updating them from 2027-03-03; AWS's runtime page says "you can continue to invoke your functions indefinitely". Source ↗ | HIGH |
| effective Apr 20, 2026 | AWS | Amazon WorkSpaces Thin Client stopped accepting new customers on 2026-04-20. Existing customers can keep using their devices, and can still order more, until AWS ends support on 2027-03-31. Source ↗ | LOW |
| discovered Apr 14, 2026 · effective date unknown | 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, except for the services whose entry below dates them to a read of the vendor's own page.
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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 15 Cloud IaaS services in our catalogue, each with the free tier terms. 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.
We name no most generous free tier here, because generosity is not one quantity: the columns above measure different things and a tier that leads one trails another. A badge on this page reads "Most Free Services", and we do not repeat it here: no column on the page carries the dimension the label names.
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.