AWS Lambda vs Google Cloud Run: pricing
AWS Lambda is cheaper for this workload (about $3.05/mo vs $15/mo). AWS Lambda is faas (request + gb-second) ($0.20 / 1M) and Google Cloud Run is serverless containers (vcpu-s + gib-s + request) ($0.40 / 1M). For 5M requests/month at 256 MB, 150 ms each plus 25 GB egress, the rough monthly totals are $3.05 and $15 respectively. Snapshot June 2026 — verify on the vendor's pricing page.
Data as of June 2026.
AWS Lambda vs Google Cloud Run side by side
| Cost factor | AWS Lambda | Google Cloud Run |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Google Cloud |
| Pricing model | FaaS (request + GB-second) | Serverless containers (vCPU-s + GiB-s + request) |
| Per 1M requests | $0.20 / 1M | $0.40 / 1M |
| Per GB-second | $0.0000167 / GB-s | $0.0000025 / GB-s |
| Free tier | 1,000,000 requests/month + 400,000 GB-s/month, perpetual (does not expire after 12 months). | 180,000 vCPU-seconds + 360,000 GiB-seconds + 2,000,000 requests per month free (in free-tier regions). Bills CPU and memory separately. |
| Scale to zero | Yes | Yes |
| Egress | $0.09/GB | varies |
| Regions | 30+ AWS regions worldwide. | 40+ Google Cloud regions; free tier in us-central1/us-east1/us-west1. |
Sources: Amazon Web Services pricing · Google Cloud pricing.
Sample monthly cost
A rough monthly total for a sample workload: 5,000,000 requests/month, each ~150 ms at 256 MB of memory, plus 25 GB of egress. Computed after each platform's free tier; excludes platform minimums and regional variation, so treat it as a starting point:
| Component | AWS Lambda | Google Cloud Run |
|---|---|---|
| Compute (after free tier) | $0.80 | $15 |
| Egress (25 GB) | $2.25 | varies |
| Estimated total / month | $3.05 | $15 |
Verdict
On cost for this sample workload, AWS Lambda is cheaper for this workload (about $3.05/mo vs $15/mo). But price is not the only factor: AWS Lambda (mature, deepest aws ecosystem (api gateway, sqs, dynamodb, eventbridge)) versus Google Cloud Run (run any container, scale to zero, no per-cluster fee). Read each platform's full breakdown — AWS Lambda and Google Cloud Run — and model your own workload in the calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Is AWS Lambda or Google Cloud Run cheaper?
For a sample workload of 5M requests/month at 256 MB, 150 ms each plus 25 GB egress, AWS Lambda is cheaper for this workload (about $3.05/mo vs $15/mo). This is illustrative and after each platform's free tier; your real cost depends on memory, duration, egress and region. snapshot captured June 2026.
How do AWS Lambda and Google Cloud Run price requests?
AWS Lambda: $0.20 per 1M requests + $0.0000166667 per GB-second (x86). Arm/Graviton2 is ~20% cheaper. Billed per 1 ms. Memory is configurable 128 MB-10 GB and sets the GB-second rate. Google Cloud Run: Request-based billing (Tier 1): $0.000024/vCPU-s + $0.0000025/GiB-s + $0.40 per 1M requests. CPU only billed during request processing (or always-on for instance-based billing). Cloud Run functions (former 2nd-gen Cloud Functions) now bill on this model. Snapshot June 2026 — verify on the vendor's pricing page.
Do AWS Lambda and Google Cloud Run scale to zero?
AWS Lambda: yes, no charge when idle. Google Cloud Run: yes, no charge when idle. Scale-to-zero saves money for spiky traffic but adds cold-start latency on the first request.
Which has the better free tier, AWS Lambda or Google Cloud Run?
AWS Lambda: 1,000,000 requests/month + 400,000 GB-s/month, perpetual (does not expire after 12 months). Google Cloud Run: 180,000 vCPU-seconds + 360,000 GiB-seconds + 2,000,000 requests per month free (in free-tier regions). Bills CPU and memory separately.
More comparisons
Last updated: 2026-06-21