Azure Blob Storage vs Google Cloud Storage
Azure Blob Storage 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 | Azure Blob Storage | Google Cloud Storage | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | $0.018/GB-mo | $0.020/GB-mo | 1.1× Azure Blob Storage |
| Data transfer out | $0.087/GB | $0.120/GB | 1.4× Azure Blob Storage |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | — |
Source: Microsoft 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 | Azure Blob Storage | 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. | $9.06 | $12 | Azure Blob Storagesaves $3.34/mo (27%) |
| Growing SaaSA funded product serving a few thousand daily users, with an image-heavy frontend and two application servers. | $96 | $130 | Azure Blob Storagesaves $34/mo (26%) |
| Media-heavy siteA publisher or video product where delivery dominates the bill and compute is almost an afterthought. | $906 | $1,240 | Azure Blob Storagesaves $334/mo (27%) |
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
Azure Blob Storage
by Microsoft
Microsoft's object store with hot, cool, cold, and archive tiers. Moving between tiers carries its own transaction cost that is easy to miss when modelling the bill.
Free tier: 5 GB of hot block 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 Azure Blob Storage or Google Cloud Storage cheaper in 2026?
- Azure Blob Storage is cheaper in all 3 modelled workloads.
- What is the difference in egress cost between Azure Blob Storage and Google Cloud Storage?
- Azure Blob Storage charges $0.087 per GB against Google Cloud Storage's $0.120, roughly 1.4× cheaper. Egress usually dominates the bill once traffic is measured in terabytes.
- Which has the better free tier, Azure Blob Storage or Google Cloud Storage?
- Both publish one. Azure Blob Storage: 5 GB of hot block 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.