AWS S3 vs Google Cloud Storage
AWS S3 is cheaper across every workload modelled here.
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 S3 | Google Cloud Storage | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | $0.023/GB-mo | $0.020/GB-mo | 1.2× Google Cloud Storage |
| Data transfer out | $0.090/GB | $0.120/GB | 1.3× AWS S3 |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | — |
Source: Amazon Web Services pricing (May 2026) · Google 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 S3 | Google Cloud Storage | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Side projectA personal site or small app with modest traffic, a few gigabytes of assets, and one small always-on process. | $9.46 | $12 | AWS S3saves $2.94/mo (24%) |
| Growing SaaSA funded product serving a few thousand daily users, with an image-heavy frontend and two application servers. | $102 | $130 | AWS S3saves $29/mo (22%) |
| Media-heavy siteA publisher or video product where delivery dominates the bill and compute is almost an afterthought. | $946 | $1,240 | AWS S3saves $294/mo (24%) |
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 S3
by Amazon Web Services
The reference implementation every competitor is compatible with. Storage is mid-priced and egress is the most expensive in the category, which is the entire reason the S3-compatible market exists.
Free tier: 5 GB of standard storage for 12 months
Google Cloud Storage
by Google
Google's object store, priced slightly under S3 on storage and above it on egress. Worth using when the compute reading the data already sits in the same region.
Free tier: 5 GB-month always free in US regions
Common questions
- Is AWS S3 or Google Cloud Storage cheaper in 2026?
- AWS S3 is cheaper in all 3 modelled workloads.
- What is the difference in egress cost between AWS S3 and Google Cloud Storage?
- AWS S3 charges $0.090 per GB against Google Cloud Storage's $0.120, roughly 1.3× cheaper. Egress usually dominates the bill once traffic is measured in terabytes.
- Which has the better free tier, AWS S3 or Google Cloud Storage?
- Both publish one. AWS S3: 5 GB of standard storage for 12 months. Google Cloud Storage: 5 GB-month always free in US regions.
- 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.