AWS vs Azure vs GCP Migration Cost Comparison (2026)

We compared 6 real migration scenarios across AWS, Azure, and GCP. The cloud you choose changes your 3-year bill by up to $400,000+ for a mid-market estate. Here's what we found.

Reference Scenario

100 servers (mixed Linux/Windows) · 20TB data · 12-month migration · Mixed strategy

Cost Component AWS Azure GCP
Compute (monthly, post-migration)$58K$62K$51K
Storage (monthly, post-migration)$4K$4K$4K
Egress during migration (20TB)$18K$18K$16K
Partner/consulting (12 months)$180K$165K$155K
Migration toolingFree (90 days)FreeFree
Support plan (annual)$84K$74K$68K
Hybrid licence discount—-$155K Windows—
Sustained-use discount——-$184K auto
3-Year Total Cost of Ownership$2.9M$2.6M$2.5M

Azure total assumes Azure Hybrid Benefit applied (Windows Server licences with Software Assurance owned). GCP total includes automatic sustained-use discounts. AWS total uses on-demand pricing. All estimates assume East US/East US 2 regions. Consulting assumes mid-market rates.

Decision Framework

When to choose each provider

AWS

Choose AWS when:

  • ✓Green-field cloud-native workloads
  • ✓Widest service breadth needed
  • ✓Largest pool of AWS-certified talent
  • ✓Global multi-region deployments
  • ✓Startup or scale-up ecosystems

Consider alternatives if:

  • • Microsoft-heavy environments (choose Azure)
  • • Compute cost sensitivity (choose GCP)
  • • Small teams without AWS experience
Azure

Choose Azure when:

  • ✓Existing Windows Server / SQL Server estate
  • ✓Active Directory / hybrid identity scenarios
  • ✓Microsoft 365 integration
  • ✓Hybrid cloud (on-prem + cloud)
  • ✓Enterprise with existing Microsoft EAs

Consider alternatives if:

  • • Pure Linux/open-source stacks (AWS or GCP)
  • • Data/ML-first workloads (consider GCP)
  • • Avoiding Microsoft vendor lock-in
GCP

Choose GCP when:

  • ✓Data/analytics/ML workloads (BigQuery, Vertex AI)
  • ✓Kubernetes-native architectures (GKE)
  • ✓Compute cost sensitivity (sustained-use discounts)
  • ✓Teams already using Google Workspace
  • ✓Avoiding upfront Reserved Instance commitments

Consider alternatives if:

  • • Requiring widest cloud service breadth (use AWS)
  • • Windows-heavy workloads (use Azure)
  • • Organisations needing largest partner ecosystem

Cloud-to-Cloud Migration

Switching between cloud providers

Cloud-to-cloud migrations (AWS to Azure, Azure to GCP, etc.) are growing as organisations reassess their original cloud choices. The key difference: egress fees from the source cloud are unavoidable, and re-architecture costs are typically higher.

AWS → Azure

Egress cost:

AWS charges $0.05–$0.09/GB outbound

Re-architecture focus:

AD/identity, load balancers, IAM → Azure Entra

50TB, 200 servers: $200K–$400K all-in

Azure → AWS

Egress cost:

Azure charges $0.087/GB outbound

Re-architecture focus:

Entra → AWS IAM, Azure SQL → RDS, etc.

50TB, 200 servers: $200K–$380K all-in

AWS → GCP

Egress cost:

AWS charges $0.05–$0.09/GB outbound

Re-architecture focus:

EC2 → GCE, EKS → GKE, RDS → Cloud SQL

50TB, 200 servers: $180K–$360K all-in

* Cloud-to-cloud estimates assume 50TB data volume, 200 servers, 6-month migration, mixed strategy. Egress fees from source cloud are unavoidable. Use physical data transfer (Snowball/Data Box) to reduce egress for large datasets.

FAQ

Provider comparison questions

Is AWS or Azure cheaper to migrate to?+
Neither is universally cheaper — it depends on your workload type. AWS is often cheaper for Linux/compute-heavy workloads. Azure is typically cheaper for Microsoft shops (SQL Server, Windows Server) that can apply Azure Hybrid Benefit, saving up to 40% on compute. For a standard 100-server, 20TB migration, AWS 3-year TCO is approximately $2.89M vs Azure at $2.62M (with Hybrid Benefit) vs GCP at $2.48M (with sustained-use discounts).
How much does it cost to switch from AWS to Azure?+
Switching from AWS to Azure (cloud-to-cloud migration) for 50TB of data and 200 servers typically costs $120,000–$400,000. Key costs: AWS egress fees ($4,000–$18,000 for 50TB), re-architecture for Azure-specific services ($20,000–$100,000), consulting ($100,000–$250,000), and parallel running (2–4 months). Total for 50TB, 200 servers: approximately $200,000–$400,000.
What is the cheapest cloud provider to migrate to?+
GCP is typically the cheapest for compute-heavy workloads over 3 years (due to sustained-use discounts), Azure is cheapest for Microsoft-heavy shops (Azure Hybrid Benefit), and AWS is often cheapest for greenfield cloud-native workloads with the most extensive service breadth. The cheapest migration is usually lift-and-shift to whatever cloud you choose, with the right reserved instance strategy.
How much does AWS to Azure migration cost?+
AWS to Azure migration for 200 servers and 50TB costs approximately $200,000–$400,000. Breakdown: AWS egress ($0.05–$0.09/GB depending on volume) for 50TB = $4,000–$18,000; Azure setup, networking, and identity migration = $30,000–$60,000; re-architecture for Azure services = $20,000–$100,000; consulting fees (6-month project at $150–$300/hour) = $120,000–$200,000.
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MigrationCost.com is not affiliated with AWS, Azure, or GCP. All figures are estimates for budgeting guidance. Provider pricing is subject to change without notice.