A complete head-to-head of GCP and AWS compute services. We cover VMs (IaaS), container orchestration, serverless, GPU/TPU, and Arm-based instances, with 2026 pricing and a service matrix to help you decide which one to pick.
| Category | GCP | AWS |
|---|---|---|
| VM (IaaS) | Compute Engine | EC2 |
| Container Orchestration | GKE | EKS |
| Container Serverless | Cloud Run | Fargate |
| Function | Cloud Functions | Lambda |
| PaaS | App Engine | Elastic Beanstalk |
| Batch | Batch / Dataflow | Batch |
| Bare Metal | Bare Metal Solution | EC2 Bare Metal |
| HPC | Cluster Toolkit | ParallelCluster |
| Spec | GCE (e2-standard-4) | EC2 (t3.xlarge) |
|---|---|---|
| 4 vCPU + 16 GB | $0.134/h | $0.166/h |
| Sustained Use Discount | Up to 30% automatic discount | — |
| 1-year Committed Use | 37% discount | Savings Plan: 31% |
| Spot | Up to 91% discount | Up to 90% discount |
| Item | GKE | EKS |
|---|---|---|
| Control Plane Pricing | $0.10/h (Standard) / $0.10 + per-Pod billing (Autopilot) | $0.10/h |
| Autopilot | Excellent (per-Pod billing) | EKS Fargate (limited) |
| Managed Upgrades | Automatic via Release Channels | Manual (Auto Upgrade since 2024) |
| Workload Identity | Excellent | IRSA (IAM Roles for SA) |
| Multi-cloud | GKE Enterprise (Anthos) | EKS Anywhere |
| Item | Cloud Run | Fargate |
|---|---|---|
| Form Factor | HTTP / event-driven | ECS Task / EKS Pod |
| Max Execution Time | 60 min | Unlimited |
| Scale to Zero | Excellent | Yes (ECS only) |
| Pricing | Request + vCPU/memory-second | vCPU/memory-hour |
| Free Tier | 2M requests / month | — |
| UX | Simple | Requires ECS/EKS configuration |
| Item | Cloud Functions 2nd gen | Lambda |
|---|---|---|
| Max Execution Time | 60 min (HTTP / Event) | 15 min |
| Max Memory | 16 GB | 10 GB |
| Concurrency | 1-1000 (configurable concurrency) | 1 request per worker |
| Event Sources | Eventarc 90+ | EventBridge 200+ |
| Free Tier / month | 2M requests | 1M requests |
| Cold Start | A few seconds (avoidable via Min Instances) | ms to s (reduced with SnapStart) |
| Item | GCP | AWS |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA H100 | A3 instance | P5 |
| NVIDIA L4 | G2 instance | G6 |
| Dedicated AI Chip | TPU v5e / v5p / Trillium | Trainium / Inferentia 2 |
| Pricing (H100, on-demand) | ~$11/h (A3-highgpu-1g) | ~$12.30/h (P5.48xlarge / 8 GPUs) |
| ML-specific Framework | Vertex AI Training | SageMaker |
| Item | GCP Axion / Tau T2A | AWS Graviton 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation | Axion (GA 2024) | Graviton 4 (GA 2024) |
| vCPU Pricing | ~30% cheaper than x86 | ~20-30% cheaper than x86 |
| Compatibility | Linux Arm64 | Linux Arm64 |
| Adoption | Growing rapidly | Very widespread |
Which is cheaper, Compute Engine or EC2?
List prices are broadly comparable. GCE tends to come out slightly cheaper once you combine Sustained Use Discount (automatic), Committed Use Discount, and Spot VMs. AWS counters with Reserved Instances and Savings Plans.
Which is easier to operate, GKE or EKS?
GKE Autopilot is fully managed, whereas EKS still requires you to manage nodes. GCP is the birthplace of Kubernetes (via Borg) and its UX is generally cleaner.
Should I pick Cloud Run or Lambda?
Lambda has a 15-minute max execution time; Cloud Run goes up to 60 minutes. Cloud Run wins on container flexibility, Lambda wins on AWS ecosystem integration.
What is the difference between Fargate and Cloud Run?
Fargate makes ECS/EKS pods serverless. Cloud Run is an HTTP/event-driven serverless container. Cloud Run has a simpler UX; Fargate's edge is K8s compatibility.
What is the difference between App Engine and Elastic Beanstalk?
Both are legacy PaaS offerings. For new workloads, Cloud Run or ECS Fargate is the recommended choice. Stick with these only if you have existing assets on them.
Which has the broader GPU/TPU lineup?
AWS offers a wide lineup including P5 (H100) and G6 (L4), plus Inferentia via Bedrock. GCP counters with A3 (H100), G2 (L4), and TPU v5e/v5p, giving it a strong edge for large-scale ML training.
What about Arm-based instances?
AWS has Graviton 4 (up to 30% cheaper per vCPU). GCP counters with Axion (GA in 2024) and Tau T2A. AWS still has the more mature Arm adoption story.
Which cloud leads on serverless overall?
AWS Lambda + Step Functions + EventBridge is the more mature ecosystem. GCP's Cloud Run + Workflows + Eventarc is catching up fast, and GCP wins on container-based consistency.
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* Google Cloud and AWS are trademarks of their respective owners. Always check the official sites for the latest pricing.
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