Google Cloud Run vs AWS Fargate: pricing
Google Cloud Run prices per request while AWS Fargate bills by resource-time, so they are hard to compare head-to-head. Google Cloud Run is serverless containers (vcpu-s + gib-s + request) ($0.40 / 1M) and AWS Fargate is serverless containers (vcpu-hour + gb-hour) (Not request-priced). Snapshot June 2026 — verify on the vendor's pricing page.
Data as of June 2026.
Google Cloud Run vs AWS Fargate side by side
| Cost factor | Google Cloud Run | AWS Fargate |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Google Cloud | Amazon Web Services |
| Pricing model | Serverless containers (vCPU-s + GiB-s + request) | Serverless containers (vCPU-hour + GB-hour) |
| Per 1M requests | $0.40 / 1M | Not request-priced |
| Per GB-second | $0.0000025 / GB-s | n/a |
| Free tier | 180,000 vCPU-seconds + 360,000 GiB-seconds + 2,000,000 requests per month free (in free-tier regions). Bills CPU and memory separately. | No always-free tier. Billed per second (1-minute minimum). On-demand US East: $0.04048/vCPU-hour + $0.004445/GB-hour. Fargate Spot up to ~70% cheaper; Savings Plans up to ~50%. |
| Scale to zero | Yes | No |
| Egress | varies | $0.09/GB |
| Regions | 40+ Google Cloud regions; free tier in us-central1/us-east1/us-west1. | All AWS regions (via ECS/EKS). |
Sources: Google Cloud pricing · Amazon Web Services 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 | Google Cloud Run | AWS Fargate |
|---|---|---|
| Compute (after free tier) | $15 | Usage-based |
| Egress (25 GB) | varies | $2.25 |
| Estimated total / month | $15 | Usage-based |
Verdict
On cost for this sample workload, Google Cloud Run prices per request while AWS Fargate bills by resource-time, so they are hard to compare head-to-head. But price is not the only factor: Google Cloud Run (run any container, scale to zero, no per-cluster fee) versus AWS Fargate (run long-lived containers without managing servers). Read each platform's full breakdown — Google Cloud Run and AWS Fargate — and model your own workload in the calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Cloud Run or AWS Fargate cheaper?
For a sample workload of 5M requests/month at 256 MB, 150 ms each plus 25 GB egress, Google Cloud Run prices per request while AWS Fargate bills by resource-time, so they are hard to compare head-to-head. 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 Google Cloud Run and AWS Fargate price requests?
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. AWS Fargate: On-demand (US East N. Virginia): $0.04048 per vCPU-hour + $0.004445 per GB-hour. A 0.25 vCPU / 0.5 GB task is ~$10.50/month always-on. No scale-to-zero by itself (tasks run until stopped). Spot up to 70% off. Snapshot June 2026 — verify on the vendor's pricing page.
Do Google Cloud Run and AWS Fargate scale to zero?
Google Cloud Run: yes, no charge when idle. AWS Fargate: no, it bills while running. Scale-to-zero saves money for spiky traffic but adds cold-start latency on the first request.
Which has the better free tier, Google Cloud Run or AWS Fargate?
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. AWS Fargate: No always-free tier. Billed per second (1-minute minimum). On-demand US East: $0.04048/vCPU-hour + $0.004445/GB-hour. Fargate Spot up to ~70% cheaper; Savings Plans up to ~50%.
More comparisons
Last updated: 2026-06-21