Kubernetes cluster cost estimate

Say how much CPU and memory your pods ask for, and see what the same cluster costs each month on AKS, EKS, GKE and OKE, using each vendor's public list prices. A managed Kubernetes cluster: the cluster fee, worker nodes sized from the CPU and memory the pods ask for (or pods billed directly, with no nodes), a load balancer, persistent volumes, and traffic out to users on the internet.

RegionCurrency

Start from an example

Step 1 of 3: Workload

Step 01 / 03

Estimated monthly costIndia (Mumbai / Pune)

₹39,623a month

Oracle Cloud Lowest

Lowest of 4 at these inputs, 53.3% below the next.

Monthly total by provider

Each bar is one provider's monthly total, split into the rows of the table below. The same colour marks the same row everywhere.

Oracle Cloud

₹39,623Lowest

Managed Kubernetes cluster fee 17%
Block storage (general-purpose SSD) 2%
General-purpose VM 80%

Amazon Web Services

₹84,934

HTTP load balancer 2%
Internet data transfer 5%
Managed Kubernetes cluster fee 8%
Block storage (general-purpose SSD) 2%
General-purpose VM 82%

Google Cloud

₹98,060

HTTP load balancer 2%
Internet data transfer 6%
Managed Kubernetes cluster fee 7%
Block storage (general-purpose SSD) 2%
General-purpose VM 82%

Microsoft Azure

₹1,03,376

HTTP load balancer 19%
Internet data transfer 4%
Managed Kubernetes cluster fee 7%
Block storage (general-purpose SSD) 2%
General-purpose VM 68%

Monthly cost by provider and cost row, in INR, with each row's share of the provider's total
Provider	HTTP load balancer	Internet data transfer	Managed Kubernetes cluster fee	Block storage (general-purpose SSD)	General-purpose VM	Monthly total
Oracle Cloud			6,931.35 (17%)	807.08 (2%)	31,884.21 (80%)	39,622.64
Amazon Web Services	2,112.54 (2%)	4,151.21 (5%)	6,931.35 (8%)	1,731.89 (2%)	70,006.64 (82%)	84,933.63
Google Cloud	2,302.78 (2%)	5,697.00 (6%)	6,931.35 (7%)	2,278.80 (2%)	80,850.04 (82%)	98,059.96
Microsoft Azure	19,875.14 (19%)	4,557.60 (4%)	6,931.35 (7%)	2,005.34 (2%)	70,006.64 (68%)	1,03,376.07

Estimated monthly cost

Prices refreshed 4 Nov 2026 · Amounts are per month in INR.

Monthly cost by service line and provider, in INR
Service line	Oracle Cloud	Amazon Web Services	Google Cloud	Microsoft Azure
Managed Kubernetes cluster fee	6,931.35Oracle Kubernetes Engine (Enhanced cluster)	6,931.35Amazon EKS	6,931.35Google Kubernetes Engine (Standard, regional cluster)	6,931.35Azure Kubernetes Service (Standard tier)
Formula Oracle Cloud Oracle Kubernetes Engine (Enhanced cluster) OKE Enhanced cluster730 cluster-hour × ₹9.50 = ₹6,931.351 cluster × 730 hours Vendor price page Amazon Web Services Amazon EKS EKS cluster (standard support)730 cluster-hour × ₹9.50 = ₹6,931.351 cluster × 730 hours Vendor price page Google Cloud Google Kubernetes Engine (Standard, regional cluster) GKE regional cluster management fee730 cluster-hour × ₹9.50 = ₹6,931.351 cluster × 730 hours Vendor price page Microsoft Azure Azure Kubernetes Service (Standard tier) AKS Standard tier (uptime SLA)730 cluster-hour × ₹9.50 = ₹6,931.351 cluster × 730 hours Vendor price page
General-purpose VM	31,884.21OCI Compute (VM.Standard.E5.Flex)5 × E5.Flex 2 OCPU, 16 GB	70,006.64Amazon EC2 (M6i)5 × m6i.xlarge (4 vCPU, 16 GB)	80,850.04Google Compute Engine (N2)5 × n2-standard-4	70,006.64Azure Virtual Machines (Dsv5)5 × D4s v5 (4 vCPU, 16 GB)
Formula Oracle Cloud OCI Compute (VM.Standard.E5.Flex) E5 OCPU7,300 OCPU-hour × ₹2.85 = ₹20,794.055 VM(s) × 730 hours × 2 OCPU (4 vCPU) E5 memory58,400 GB-hour × ₹0.1899 = ₹11,090.165 VM(s) × 730 hours × 16 GB 5 × E5.Flex 2 OCPU, 16 GB Vendor price page Amazon Web Services Amazon EC2 (M6i) m6i.xlarge (4 vCPU, 16 GB)3,650 VM-hour × ₹19.18 = ₹70,006.645 VM(s) × 730 hours 5 × m6i.xlarge (4 vCPU, 16 GB) Vendor price page Google Cloud Google Compute Engine (N2) N2 vCPU14,600 vCPU-hour × ₹3.61 = ₹52,636.675 VM(s) × 730 hours × 4 vCPU N2 memory58,400 GB-hour × ₹0.4831 = ₹28,213.375 VM(s) × 730 hours × 16 GB 5 × n2-standard-4 Vendor price page Microsoft Azure Azure Virtual Machines (Dsv5) D4s v5 (4 vCPU, 16 GB)3,650 VM-hour × ₹19.18 = ₹70,006.645 VM(s) × 730 hours 5 × D4s v5 (4 vCPU, 16 GB) Vendor price page
Pod-billed Kubernetes compute	Not needed	Not needed	Not needed	Not needed
Formula Oracle Cloud Not needed Amazon Web Services Not needed Google Cloud Not needed Microsoft Azure Not needed
HTTP load balancer	0.00OCI Flexible Load Balancer10 Mbps	2,112.54Application Load Balancer0.82 LCUs on average	2,302.78Cloud Load Balancing (global external Application Load Balancer)	19,875.14Azure Application Gateway (Standard v2)0.84 capacity units on average
Formula Oracle Cloud OCI Flexible Load Balancer Load balancer hour730 LB-hour × ₹0.0000 = ₹0.0000730 hours Load balancer bandwidth7,300 Mbps-hour × ₹0.0000 = ₹0.000010 Mbps shape (1.87 Mbps average, minimum 10) × 730 hours 10 Mbps Vendor price page Amazon Web Services Application Load Balancer Load balancer hour730 LB-hour × ₹2.27 = ₹1,656.59730 hours Load balancer capacity unit (LCU)600.25 LCU-hour × ₹0.7596 = ₹455.950.82 GB processed an hour ÷ 1 GB = 0.82 LCUs × 730 hours 0.82 LCUs on average Vendor price page Google Cloud Cloud Load Balancing (global external Application Load Balancer) Forwarding rule (first five)730 rule-hour × ₹2.37 = ₹1,732.841 forwarding rule × 730 hours Inbound data processed100.25 GB × ₹0.9495 = ₹95.1952,560,000 requests × 2 KB Outbound data processed500 GB × ₹0.9495 = ₹474.75data out to users Vendor price page Microsoft Azure Azure Application Gateway (Standard v2) Gateway fixed cost730 gateway-hour × ₹26.59 = ₹19,407.78730 hours Capacity unit615.27 capacity-unit-hour × ₹0.7596 = ₹467.361.87 Mbps ÷ 2.22 Mbps = 0.84 capacity units × 730 hours 0.84 capacity units on average Vendor price page
Block storage (general-purpose SSD)	807.08OCI Block Volume (Balanced)	1,731.89Amazon EBS (gp3)	2,278.80Compute Engine balanced persistent disk	2,005.34Azure managed disks (Standard SSD, LRS)
Formula Oracle Cloud OCI Block Volume (Balanced) Block Volume storage200 GB-month × ₹2.42 = ₹484.25200 GB provisioned Block Volume performance units2,000 VPU-GB-month × ₹0.1614 = ₹322.83200 GB × 10 performance units Vendor price page Amazon Web Services Amazon EBS (gp3) gp3 storage200 GB-month × ₹8.66 = ₹1,731.89200 GB provisioned Vendor price page Google Cloud Compute Engine balanced persistent disk Balanced persistent disk200 GB-month × ₹11.39 = ₹2,278.80200 GB provisioned Vendor price page Microsoft Azure Azure managed disks (Standard SSD, LRS) Standard SSD E10 (128 GiB)2 disk-month × ₹1,002.67 = ₹2,005.34200 GB in disks of 128 GB = 2 disks Vendor price page
Internet data transfer	0.00OCI outbound data transfer	4,151.21AWS data transfer out	5,697.00Google Cloud network egress (Premium Tier)	4,557.60Azure bandwidth (Microsoft network routing)
Formula Oracle Cloud OCI outbound data transfer Data transfer out (from Asia Pacific)500 GB × ₹0.0000 = ₹0.0000500 GB a month Vendor price page Amazon Web Services AWS data transfer out Free data transfer out (all regions)100 GB × ₹0.0000 = ₹0.0000the first 100 GB a month are free Data transfer out to the internet400 GB × ₹10.38 = ₹4,151.21500 GB − 100 GB free Vendor price page Google Cloud Google Cloud network egress (Premium Tier) Data transfer out to India500 GB × ₹11.39 = ₹5,697.00500 GB a month Vendor price page Microsoft Azure Azure bandwidth (Microsoft network routing) Data transfer out to the internet500 GB × ₹0.0000 = ₹4,557.60500 GB a monthVolume tiers applied, so the cost is below quantity × unit price. Vendor price page
Monthly total	39,622.64Lowest	84,933.63+114.4%	98,059.96+147.5%	1,03,376.07+160.9%

Assumptions

Region: India (Mumbai / Pune)
Currency: INR
Prices: On-demand list prices
Hours a month: 730
Not included: Support plans, taxes, negotiated discounts

What this workload means

Worker nodes: 5 (CPU needs 5, memory needs 5, minimum 3)
Requests per month: 52,560,000
Data out to users: 500 GB
Load balancer traffic: 0.82 GB an hour

How the quantities were worked out

Prices are on demand, for 730 hours a month, with the cluster running all month.
Nodes are sized from the CPU and memory the pods request. A node keeps part of its CPU and memory for the system, using the allocatable amounts Google publishes for GKE on every cloud; the other clouds reserve similar amounts.
The cluster has at least the minimum number of nodes and is sized on the larger of the CPU need and the memory need. Pods are not packed perfectly, and unused space on a node is paid for.
In pod mode you pay for the CPU and memory pods request, with no nodes and no minimum. Oracle's virtual nodes can't be sized from its price list, so that cloud is incomplete in this mode.
One HTTP load balancer, sized as in the web app estimate (each request is about 2 KB and opens a new connection). Volumes are single-zone SSD, and Azure sells disks of 128 GB, so a volume is rounded up to whole disks.
The cluster fee is the level with an uptime commitment: AKS Standard tier, EKS standard support, GKE regional cluster and OKE Enhanced cluster. Where a cloud has no level without a fee, the free choice uses the standard fee. Google's monthly free credit and Amazon's extended-support surcharge are not included.
Container registry, logging and monitoring, NAT gateways, ingress add-ons, snapshots, spot nodes, reservations, support plans and taxes are not included.

Prices refreshed 4 Nov 2026