AWS Lambda vs Azure Functions
AWS Lambda and Azure Functions cannot be scored on the same axes — one of them does not publish a rate for everything serverless functions bills on.
List prices checked
Rate cards side by side
Only the axes at least one of them bills on. A dash means that provider does not charge for it.
| Billing axis | AWS Lambda | Azure Functions | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | — |
Source: Amazon Web Services pricing (May 2026) · Microsoft pricing (May 2026). Published list prices only — committed-use discounts, regional variation, and per-request charges are not included. Not yet independently re-checked against the vendor’s page.
Monthly cost for three real workloads
The rate cards applied to identical usage. This is where the winner changes.
| Workload | AWS Lambda | Azure Functions | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Side projectA personal site or small app with modest traffic, a few gigabytes of assets, and one small always-on process. | — | — | Not comparable |
| Growing SaaSA funded product serving a few thousand daily users, with an image-heavy frontend and two application servers. | — | — | Not comparable |
| Media-heavy siteA publisher or video product where delivery dominates the bill and compute is almost an afterthought. | — | — | Not comparable |
Workload definitions are identical on every comparison page, so figures here can be read against any other pair in the same category.
What each one is for
AWS Lambda
by Amazon Web Services
The service that created the category, billed on requests plus memory-time. The permanent free tier absorbs a surprising amount of production traffic before a bill appears.
Free tier: 1M requests and 400,000 GB-seconds per month, always free
Azure Functions
by Microsoft
Microsoft's event-driven compute, with a consumption plan matching Lambda's economics and premium plans that trade scale-to-zero for predictable latency.
Free tier: 1M executions and 400,000 GB-seconds per month
Common questions
- Is AWS Lambda or Azure Functions cheaper in 2026?
- Neither can be scored across all three workloads, because at least one of them does not publish a rate for every axis this category bills on.
- Which has the better free tier, AWS Lambda or Azure Functions?
- Both publish one. AWS Lambda: 1M requests and 400,000 GB-seconds per month, always free. Azure Functions: 1M executions and 400,000 GB-seconds per month.
- What do these estimates not include?
- Committed-use and reserved discounts, regional price variation, per-request API charges, support plans, and minimum retention periods. All of those move real invoices, sometimes by a lot. These figures compare published list prices for the same workload, which is the comparison the rate cards alone cannot give you.