Head to head
Amazon S3 vs Google Cloud Storage pricing compared
Google Cloud Storage Standard wins the byte-normalized low-egress workload because its storage is cheaper and its request allowances reduce the bill. Amazon S3 Standard wins after internet downloads pass the egress crossover because its first paid transfer rate is lower. A comparison that gives both vendors the same numeric capacity without converting GB and GiB is not comparable. Sources: Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing and Google Cloud: Storage pricing; retrieved 2026-07-25 15:34:44+00:00.
Price both against your own workload, including the day you restore.
Worked scenarios
Each scenario states its inputs and every receipt line, so the totals can be checked rather than trusted. The winner is not the same in every one, which is the point of the comparison.
Byte-normalized 10 TB archive month with no downloadGoogle Cloud Storage is lower
Stored decimal GB: 10,000 · Google Cloud billed GiB: 9,313.225746 · Internet egress decimal GB: 0 · Google Cloud egress GiB: 0 · Class A requests: 0 · Class B requests: 0 · Source deleted, overwritten, moved, or transitioned: no · Billing period: one month · Currency: USD · AWS class: S3 Standard · AWS region: us-east-1 · Google Cloud class: Standard · Google Cloud region: us-east1
| Meter | Amazon S3 | Google Cloud Storage |
|---|---|---|
| storage in GB | $230.0010,000 decimal GB x $0.023 = $230.00.Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing | does not apply |
| egress, retrieval, and requests | not chargedThere is no download or request usage, and S3 Standard retrieval is not charged.Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing | not chargedThere is no download or request usage, and Standard retrieval is not charged.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| minimums and fixed fees | does not applyS3 Standard has no minimum duration, capacity commitment, or separate fixed fee.Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing | does not applyGCS Standard has no minimum duration, capacity commitment, or separate fixed fee.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| storage in GiB | does not apply | $186.1610,000 decimal GB / 1.073741824 GB per GiB = 9,313.225746 GiB. (9,313.225746 GiB - 5 GiB free) x $0.02 = $186.1645, rounded to $186.16.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| Total | $230.00 | $186.16 |
Lower bill: Google Cloud Storage. GCS wins by $43.84 after normalizing both storage inputs to the same number of bytes. S3/GCS source inputs: Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing and Google Cloud: Storage pricing; retrieved 2026-07-25 15:34:44+00:00.
Byte-normalized normal month with 1 TB downloadedGoogle Cloud Storage is lower
Stored decimal GB: 10,000 · Google Cloud billed GiB: 9,313.225746 · Internet egress decimal GB: 1,000 · Google Cloud egress GiB: 931.322575 · Class A requests: 500,000 · Class B requests: 2,000,000 · Source deleted, overwritten, moved, or transitioned: no · Billing period: one month · Currency: USD · AWS class: S3 Standard · AWS region: us-east-1 · Google Cloud class: Standard · Google Cloud region: us-east1
| Meter | Amazon S3 | Google Cloud Storage |
|---|---|---|
| storage | $230.0010,000 GB x $0.023 = $230.00.Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing | $186.16(9,313.225746 GiB - 5 GiB free) x $0.02 = $186.1645, rounded to $186.16.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| internet egress | $81.00(1,000 GB - 100 GB free) x $0.09 = $81.00.Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing | $99.76(931.322575 GiB - 100 GiB free) x $0.12 = $99.7587, rounded to $99.76.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| Class A operations | $2.50500,000 / 1,000 x $0.005 = $2.50.Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing | $2.48(500,000 - 5,000 free) / 1,000 x $0.005 = $2.475.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| Class B operations | $0.802,000,000 / 1,000 x $0.0004 = $0.80.Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing | $0.78(2,000,000 - 50,000 free) / 1,000 x $0.0004 = $0.78.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| retrieval | does not apply | not chargedGCS Standard retrieval is not charged.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| early deletion | does not apply | does not applyThe download is read-only, so early deletion does not apply.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| Total | $314.30 | $289.18 |
Lower bill: Google Cloud Storage. GCS wins by $25.12. Its storage advantage is still larger than its higher byte-normalized egress line at 1,000 decimal GB downloaded. S3/GCS source inputs: Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing and Google Cloud: Storage pricing; retrieved 2026-07-25 15:34:44+00:00.
Byte-normalized egress crossover at 2,152.49 GBno comparable winner
Stored decimal GB: 10,000 · Google Cloud billed GiB: 9,313.225746 · Internet egress decimal GB: 2,152.493752 · Google Cloud egress GiB: 2,004.666023 · Class A requests: 0 · Class B requests: 0 · Source deleted, overwritten, moved, or transitioned: no · Billing period: one month · Currency: USD · AWS class: S3 Standard · AWS region: us-east-1 · Google Cloud class: Standard · Google Cloud region: us-east1
| Meter | Amazon S3 | Google Cloud Storage |
|---|---|---|
| storage | $230.0010,000 GB x $0.023 = $230.00.Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing | $186.16(9,313.225746 GiB - 5 GiB free) x $0.02 = $186.1645.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| internet egress | $184.72(2,152.493752 GB - 100 GB free) x $0.09 = $184.7244.Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing | $228.56(2,004.666023 GiB - 100 GiB free) x $0.12 = $228.5599.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| retrieval and requests | not chargedS3 Standard retrieval is not charged and there are no requests.Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing | not chargedGCS Standard retrieval is not charged and there are no requests.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| Total | $414.72 | $414.72 |
No winner: at least one side cannot be priced here, and an unpriced side is not a cheap side. The byte-normalized receipts tie at $414.72. Below this download volume GCS wins; above it S3's lower first paid egress rate wins. S3/GCS source inputs: Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing and Google Cloud: Storage pricing; retrieved 2026-07-25 15:34:44+00:00.
Byte-normalized 3 TB recovery monthAmazon S3 is lower
Stored decimal GB: 10,000 · Google Cloud billed GiB: 9,313.225746 · Internet egress decimal GB: 3,000 · Google Cloud egress GiB: 2,793.967724 · Class A requests: 0 · Class B requests: 0 · Source deleted, overwritten, moved, or transitioned: no · Billing period: one month · Currency: USD · AWS class: S3 Standard · AWS region: us-east-1 · Google Cloud class: Standard · Google Cloud region: us-east1
| Meter | Amazon S3 | Google Cloud Storage |
|---|---|---|
| storage | $230.0010,000 GB x $0.023 = $230.00.Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing | $186.16(9,313.225746 GiB - 5 GiB free) x $0.02 = $186.1645.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| internet egress | $261.00(3,000 GB - 100 GB free) x $0.09 = $261.00.Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing | $323.28(2,793.967724 GiB - 100 GiB free) x $0.12 = $323.2761.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| retrieval and requests | not chargedS3 Standard retrieval is not charged and there are no requests.Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing | not chargedGCS Standard retrieval is not charged and there are no requests.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| early deletion | does not applyThe recovery is read-only, so early deletion does not apply.Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing | does not applyThe recovery is read-only, so early deletion does not apply.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| Total | $491.00 | $509.44 |
Lower bill: Amazon S3. S3 wins by $18.44. At 3,000 decimal GB downloaded, GCS's higher byte-normalized egress charge has overtaken its storage advantage. S3/GCS source inputs: Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing and Google Cloud: Storage pricing; retrieved 2026-07-25 15:34:44+00:00.
Unnormalized 10,000-unit inputno comparable winner
AWS stored GB: 10,000 · Google Cloud stored GiB: 10,000 · Internet egress vendor units: 0 · Class A requests: 0 · Class B requests: 0 · Source deleted, overwritten, moved, or transitioned: no · Billing period: one month · Currency: USD · AWS class: S3 Standard · AWS region: us-east-1 · Google Cloud class: Standard · Google Cloud region: us-east1
| Meter | Amazon S3 | Google Cloud Storage |
|---|---|---|
| known storage subtotal | $230.0010,000 GB x $0.023 = $230.00.Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing | $199.90(10,000 GiB - 5 GiB free) x $0.02 = $199.90.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| unit comparability | not comparableAWS's captured record uses GB, so this input represents 10,000 decimal GB.Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing | not comparableGCS's captured record uses GiB, so this input represents 10,737.41824 decimal GB.Google Cloud: Storage pricing |
| Total | not comparableKnown storage subtotal: $230.00. The vendor-unit input is not the same byte capacity as 10,000 GiB. | not comparableKnown storage subtotal: $199.90. The vendor-unit input is not the same byte capacity as 10,000 GB. |
No winner: at least one side cannot be priced here, and an unpriced side is not a cheap side. No winner is named because 10,000 GB and 10,000 GiB are different capacities. Comparing the two known subtotals without normalizing bytes would be arithmetically neat and decision-wrong. Sources: Amazon Web Services: S3 pricing and Google Cloud: Storage pricing; retrieved 2026-07-25 15:34:44+00:00.