Side-by-side comparison of 10+ serverless free tiers in 2026. Compare AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, Azure Functions, Cloudflare Workers, Deno Deploy, Cloud Run, Val Town, and more — invocations, compute, cold starts, and billing models.
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 · 10+ serverless platforms compared
Quick verdict: AWS Lambda gives 1M invocations/month free and has the largest ecosystem. Google Cloud Run is the most generous overall with 2M requests, 360K GB-seconds, and 1 GB free egress. Cloudflare Workers dominates edge computing with 100K requests/day, sub-5ms cold starts, and the unique advantage of CPU-time billing (you don’t pay for I/O waits). Azure Functions matches Lambda at 1M requests/month with a consumption-based model.
The critical distinction most developers miss: Cloudflare Workers bills by CPU time while AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, and Azure Functions bill by wall-clock time (including time spent waiting for network I/O, database queries, and external API calls). For I/O-heavy workloads, this can mean 10-50x cheaper effective compute on Workers. This single billing model difference matters more than headline invocation counts.
Side-by-side comparison of the top serverless free tiers.
| Platform | Free Invocations | Free Compute | Memory / CPU | Timeout | Billing Model | Cold Start | Always Free? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS Lambda CHANGED SEP 30 | 1M / month | 400K GB-sec/mo Source ↗ | 128 MB – 10 GB | 15 min max | Wall-clock time | 100–500ms (cold) | Yes (Always Free) |
| Google Cloud Functions Source ↗ | 2M / month | 400K GB-sec + 200K GHz-sec | 128 MB – 32 GB | 9 min (1st gen) / 60 min (2nd gen) | Wall-clock time | 200–800ms (cold) | Yes (Always Free) |
| Azure Functions Source ↗ | 1M / month | 400K GB-sec/mo | 1.5 GB max (Consumption) | 5 min (default) / 10 min (max) | Wall-clock time | 200–1000ms (cold) | Yes (Always Free) |
| Google Cloud Run Source ↗ | 2M / month | 360K GB-sec + 180K vCPU-sec | Up to 32 GB / 8 vCPU | 60 min max | Wall-clock time (request-based) | 100–500ms (cold) | Yes (Always Free) |
| Cloudflare Workers Source ↗ | 100K / day (~3M/mo) | 10ms CPU time / invocation | 128 MB RAM | 30s (HTTP) / 15 min (Cron) | CPU time only | <5ms (near-zero) | Yes |
| Vercel Edge Functions Source ↗ | 1M edge requests/mo | 4 hrs Active CPU/mo | 128 MB (Edge) / 1 GB (Serverless) | 25s (Hobby) | Wall-clock time (credit-based) | <5ms (Edge) / 250ms (Serverless) | Yes (Hobby) |
| Deno Deploy CHANGED AUG 28 Source ↗ | 1M / month | 10 hrs CPU time/mo | 512 MB RAM | No hard limit | CPU time | <10ms (near-zero) | Yes |
| Val Town Source ↗ | 100K runs/day | 1 min wall clock / run | Managed (V8 isolates) | 1 min per run | Run-based | <50ms | Yes |
| DBOS Source ↗ | 1M service calls/mo | 1 microVM (512 MB, 1 vCPU) | 512 MB / 1 vCPU | No hard limit | Service call-based | Scale-to-zero (seconds) | Yes |
| Inngest CHANGED AUG 28 Source ↗ | 50K executions/mo | 100K events/mo | Runs on your serverless | Configurable retries | Execution-based | Depends on host | Yes (Hobby) |
| Trigger.dev Source ↗ | $5 free compute/mo | 20 concurrent runs | Managed compute | No hard limit | Compute time-based | Warm pool available | Yes |
The big three cloud providers’ serverless compute offerings. These are the most mature platforms with the largest ecosystems, but they all bill by wall-clock time.
| Provider | Free Invocations | Free Compute | Ecosystem | Languages | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS Lambda | 1M / month | 400K GB-sec Source ↗ | API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3, SQS, SNS, EventBridge | Node.js, Python, Go, Java, .NET, Rust, Ruby | AWS-native backends, event-driven architectures |
| Google Cloud Functions Source ↗ | 2M / month | 400K GB-sec + 200K GHz-sec | Cloud Run, Firestore, Pub/Sub, Cloud Storage | Node.js, Python, Go, Java, .NET, Ruby, PHP | GCP-native, Firebase integrations |
| Azure Functions Source ↗ | 1M / month | 400K GB-sec | Cosmos DB, Service Bus, Event Grid, Storage | Node.js, Python, Java, .NET, PowerShell | Microsoft/.NET shops, enterprise integrations |
Serverless platforms that run code at the edge (CDN PoPs worldwide). Near-zero cold starts, global distribution, but more constrained runtimes.
| Provider | Free Tier | Cold Start | Runtime | Storage | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Workers Source ↗ | 100K req/day, 10ms CPU/req | <5ms | V8 isolates (JS/TS/Wasm) | KV: 1 GB, D1: 5 GB, R2: 10 GB | APIs, edge logic, full-stack apps |
| Vercel Edge Functions Source ↗ | 1M edge req/mo, 4 hrs CPU | <5ms | V8 isolates (JS/TS) | Blob: 1 GB, KV: via Vercel KV | Next.js middleware, edge API routes |
| Deno Deploy CHANGED AUG 28 Source ↗ | 1M req/mo, 10 hrs CPU, 20 GiB egress | <10ms | Deno runtime (JS/TS, Web APIs) | KV: 1 GB (450K reads/mo) | Deno/Fresh apps, Web API-native code |
Container-based serverless that runs any Docker image — more flexibility than FaaS, with scale-to-zero on the free tier.
| Provider | Free Tier | Container Support | Concurrency | Egress | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Cloud Run Source ↗ | 2M req/mo, 360K GB-sec, 180K vCPU-sec | Any Docker image | Up to 1000 concurrent per instance | 1 GB North America free | Containerized APIs, microservices |
| AWS App Runner | Closed to new customers since April 30, 2026. Existing customers only. Source ↗ | Any Docker image or source code | Configurable | Standard AWS egress | For existing App Runner customers. New customers use ECS Express Mode. |
Purpose-built serverless platforms for specific workloads — scripting, durable workflows, background jobs, and orchestration.
| Provider | Free Tier | Specialty | Durability | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Val Town Source ↗ | 100K runs/day, unlimited public vals | Script-as-a-service, shareable functions | SQLite storage, blob storage | Quick scripts, prototypes, public APIs, MCP servers |
| DBOS Source ↗ | 1M service calls/mo, 1 microVM | Durable workflow orchestration | Built-in (transactional, exactly-once) | Transactional workflows, reliable background processing |
| Inngest CHANGED AUG 28 Source ↗ | 50K executions/mo, 100K events | Event-driven workflow orchestration | Built-in retries, step functions | Background jobs, scheduled tasks, event-driven workflows |
| Trigger.dev Source ↗ | $5 free compute/mo, 20 concurrent | Background jobs with managed compute | Durable execution, retries | Long-running background jobs, scheduled tasks |
| Cloudflare Durable Objects Source ↗ | 100K requests/day (on Workers free) | Stateful serverless compute | Strongly consistent, WebSocket hibernation | Real-time collaboration, stateful edge computing |
This is the most important and least understood difference between serverless platforms. It can change your effective cost by 10-50x.
You pay for the total elapsed time of your function, including time spent waiting for database queries, HTTP requests, file I/O, and external API responses. A function that takes 500ms but spends 480ms waiting for a database query still costs 500ms of compute.
You pay only for actual CPU cycles used. Time spent waiting for I/O is free. That same function that takes 500ms but only uses 20ms of CPU time costs only 20ms. For I/O-heavy workloads (most web APIs), this is dramatically cheaper.
Lambda for event-driven microservices in the AWS ecosystem. Cloud Run for containerized APIs with the most generous free tier (2M req/month). Both handle production-scale traffic. Cloud comparison →
100K requests/day with sub-5ms cold starts, globally distributed. CPU-time billing makes I/O-heavy workloads dramatically cheaper. Integrated KV, D1, R2, and Durable Objects storage. View Workers details →
Val Town: write a function, get a URL. 100K runs/day free with MCP integration. Deno Deploy: full TypeScript runtime with Web APIs, 1M requests/month. Both offer instant deployment with no build step.
Seamless integration with Next.js middleware and edge API routes. 1M edge requests/month on the Hobby plan. Use Vercel’s serverless functions for Node.js APIs, edge functions for latency-sensitive routes.
On AWS? Use Lambda. On GCP? Use Cloud Functions or Cloud Run. On Azure? Use Azure Functions. The free tiers are similar enough that ecosystem integration and team expertise matter more than marginal differences in invocation limits.
Inngest: event-driven workflow orchestration with 50K executions/month free. Trigger.dev: managed compute for long-running background jobs with $5 free compute/month. Both handle retries, scheduling, and durable execution. Hosting alternatives →
1M service calls/month with exactly-once execution guarantees. Ideal for payment processing, multi-step workflows, and anything where partial failure is unacceptable. Open-source DBOS Transact library available for TypeScript, Python, Go, Java, Kotlin.
Strongly consistent state at the edge with WebSocket hibernation. 100K requests/day on the free Workers plan. Unique capability — no other edge platform offers per-object consistency guarantees.
Serverless free tiers have several non-obvious costs that can surprise you. Here’s what to watch for.
AWS Lambda invocations are free, but exposing them via API Gateway costs $3.50 per million requests (REST API) or $1.00 per million (HTTP API). For 1M Lambda invocations/month, the API Gateway bill can exceed $1-3.50. Google Cloud Functions and Azure Functions include HTTP triggers at no extra cost — a significant advantage over Lambda for HTTP workloads.
Most serverless platforms charge for outbound data transfer beyond free tiers. AWS: 100 GB/month free on an account of any age, aggregated across all AWS services, then $0.09/GB. GCP: 1 GB/month free (North America). Azure: 100 GB/month free. Cloudflare Workers: Unlimited egress (no bandwidth charges). Deno Deploy: 20 GiB/month free. For bandwidth-heavy workloads, Workers’ unlimited egress is a major differentiator.
AWS Lambda Provisioned Concurrency eliminates cold starts but costs $0.015/GB-hour — not free tier eligible. Azure Functions Premium keeps instances warm but starts at ~$0.173/vCPU-hour. Edge platforms (Workers, Deno Deploy) avoid this entirely with V8 isolate architecture — cold starts under 5ms without any warm-up configuration.
Vercel restructured to a credit-based model in 2026. The Hobby plan includes 4 hours Active CPU and 360 GB-hours Provisioned Memory — but understanding how credits map to actual usage requires monitoring the Vercel dashboard. Serverless functions and edge functions consume credits differently, and overage charges apply automatically. Vercel details →
Cloudflare Workers free tier limits each invocation to 10ms CPU time. This is CPU time, not wall-clock time, so I/O waits don’t count — but CPU-intensive tasks (heavy JSON parsing, image processing, crypto) can hit this limit. Paid Workers ($5/month) increases to 30 seconds CPU time per invocation. For most API workloads, 10ms CPU is sufficient.
Recent serverless-related pricing changes from our tracker. 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 Sep 5, 2026 · effective date unknown | Cloudflare Queues | The free tier now offers 10,000 operations/day, and the paid tier offers 1,000,000 operations/month. Message retention on the free tier is 24 hours (non-configurable), while the paid tier offers 4 days default, configurable up to 14 days. The pricing model is now based on operations (64KB chunks of data written, read, or deleted) with additional costs per million operations beyond the included allowance. Unconfirmed. We could not check this change against an archived copy of Cloudflare Queues's page, so it does not count toward the rating. Source ↗ | HIGH |
| discovered Aug 28, 2026 · effective date unknown | Deno Deploy | Deno Deploy cut its Free plan's CPU time from 15 to 10 hours a month, memory time from 350 GB-hours to 150 GiB-hours, custom domains from 50 to 5, apps from 20 to 10 and team members from 5 to 3; 60 deployments an hour became 15 builds an hour, one at a time. KV read units went up from 450,000 to 1,000,000 a month and write units from 300,000 to 500,000. The pricing page changed between a Common Crawl capture of 2026-08-07 and our read on 2026-08-28. Source ↗ | HIGH |
| discovered Aug 28, 2026 · effective date unknown | Inngest | The event limit has increased from 100K to 500K, and the span data ingested limit has increased from 100MB to 500MB. The number of users is no longer listed as a limit for the Hobby tier. Unconfirmed. We could not check this change against an archived copy of Inngest's page, so it does not count toward the rating. Source ↗ | LOW |
| effective Jul 28, 2026 | Cloudflare Workers AI | On 2026-07-28 Cloudflare took Kimi K2.6, Kimi K2.7 Code and GLM-5.2 off the Workers Free plan; they now need the Workers Paid plan (or, from 2026-08-07, prepaid AI Gateway credits). Source ↗ | HIGH |
| 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 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 13, 2026 · effective date unknown | LambdaTest | Rebranded to TestMu AI (testmuai.com), freemium plan preserved We hold no source for this record, so it does not set LambdaTest's rating. | LOW |
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.
Compare serverless free tiers, track pricing changes, and plan your infrastructure stack — all from your AI coding assistant.
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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 Generous Overall", 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.