AWS Lambda and Cloudflare Workers are the two most-compared serverless platforms, and they price compute on opposite philosophies. Understanding that difference tells you which one will be cheaper for your workload. (See the full Lambda vs Workers comparison.)
Two different meters
| AWS Lambda | Cloudflare Workers | |
|---|---|---|
| Request fee | $0.20 / 1M | $0.30 / 1M |
| Compute meter | GB-seconds (wall-clock × memory) | CPU-milliseconds (execution only) |
| Egress | ~$0.09/GB after 100 GB free | $0 |
| Free tier | 1M req + 400k GB-s/mo, perpetual | 100k req/day (~3M/mo) |
| Platform minimum | none | $5/mo (Paid plan) |
Snapshot captured June 2026 — verify on each vendor’s pricing page.
Why the meter matters
A typical API endpoint spends most of its time waiting — for a database, a third-party API, a cache. On Lambda you pay for that wait (GB-seconds count wall-clock time). On Workers you don’t (CPU-ms only counts execution). For an endpoint that runs 200 ms wall-clock but only 15 ms of CPU, Workers can be an order of magnitude cheaper on compute.
Where Lambda wins
- Pure CPU-bound work with little I/O wait — the meter difference shrinks.
- Staying inside the free tier — Lambda’s perpetual 400k GB-s and 1M requests cover a lot, with no $5/mo minimum.
- Deep AWS integration — if your data and queues already live in AWS, Lambda avoids egress between services.
Where Workers wins
- Egress-heavy APIs — Workers charges nothing for outbound data; Lambda’s ~$0.09/GB adds up fast.
- I/O-bound endpoints — the CPU-ms meter ignores wait time.
- Global low latency — Workers runs at 330+ edge locations with near-zero cold start.
Bottom line
If your traffic is small, Lambda’s free tier is the cheapest place to start. As you scale, egress and I/O wait usually decide it — and on both counts Workers tends to win, as long as you’re past the $5/mo minimum. Model your real numbers in the calculator.