Google Cloud egress pricing: Premium vs Standard tier
GCP is the most expensive hyperscaler at headline rate, but cheaper than AWS for non-latency-sensitive workloads if you choose Standard Tier networking. Most comparisons miss the Standard Tier; getting it right matters.
Premium: $0.12/GB first 1 TB. Standard: $0.085/GB. Source →
How much does GCP egress cost?
Google Cloud charges $0.12/GB for the first 1 TB of internet egress at Premium Tier (the default), dropping to $0.11/GB for 1-10 TB and $0.08/GB above 10 TB. That works out to $1,137 for 10 TB/month, the most expensive of the three hyperscalers. Standard Tier is cheaper at $0.085/GB (roughly $853 for 10 TB), and it is the only band where GCP undercuts AWS.
Premium Tier includes only the first 1 GiB free per month; Standard Tier includes 200 GiB. Cross-zone traffic within a region costs $0.01/GB each way, the same as AWS and Azure, so there is no multi-zone advantage.
Model your egress volume → or compare against AWS and Azure →.
Verified vs cloud.google.com/vpc/network-pricing, July 2026
Premium tier (default)
Google backbonePremium entry rate
10 TB band
high-volume
Standard tier (opt-in)
public internetafter 200 GiB free
mid-volume band
high-volume
[01]Calculate your GCP egress
Calculator uses Premium Tier rates by default. Standard Tier rates are 30-40% lower across all bands.
Open the dedicated GCP egress cost calculator → for worked dollar examples at 1 TB to 150 TB and the full tier breakdown.
[02]Premium or Standard tier?
Premium uses Google's private backbone. Standard exits via public internet from the source region. The choice is per-region or per-load-balancer.
Use Premium
- · User-facing APIs serving global traffic
- · Real-time interactive applications (gaming, finance, video calls)
- · Workloads needing global anycast IPs and intelligent routing
- · Anywhere consistent low-latency matters
Use Standard
- · Batch processing, ETL, data analytics pipelines
- · Backups, archives, log shipping
- · Internal APIs and machine-to-machine traffic
- · Anywhere latency-tolerant traffic dominates volume
Hybrid setups are common: Premium for the front door, Standard for backend data movement. Configure per-region or per-load-balancer.
The “GCP free cross-zone” myth
A widely repeated claim says GCP does not charge for traffic between zones in the same region. It is wrong. GCP charges $0.01/GB each direction for cross-zone VM-to-VM traffic, the same as AWS cross-AZ and Azure cross-zone. Only same-zone traffic on internal IPs is free.
So none of the three hyperscalers has a cross-zone advantage. For multi-zone HA architectures (databases with replicas across zones, services load-balanced across zones, queue traffic between workers), budget $0.01/GB each way on all of them. A workload doing 50 TB / month of internal cross-zone traffic pays roughly $1,000/month in cross-zone fees on GCP, AWS and Azure alike. GCP’s real saving is its Standard Tier internet egress rate, covered above.
[03]Per-service notes
Compute Engine
Standard internet egress tiers. Premium Tier default; Standard configurable.
Cloud Storage
Same internet pricing. Cloud CDN integration cheaper than direct egress.
Cloud CDN
Tier-based. Cache fill from origin within same region is free.
Dedicated Interconnect
$1,700-$13,500/mo per port (10-100 Gbps) plus $0.02/GB egress.
Partner Interconnect
Variable upfront cost with similar per-GB rates to Dedicated.
Cloud VPN
Per-tunnel hourly + standard outbound egress.
GKE / Cloud Run
Standard egress tiers. Cross-zone within a region is $0.01/GB each way, same as AWS/Azure.
GCP vs AWS vs Azure
Premium is the most expensive hyperscaler. Standard undercuts both AWS and Azure on internet egress. Cross-zone is $0.01/GB each way on all three, so the win is Standard Tier, not multi-zone. Compare your specific volume.
[04]Frequently asked
Q.01How much does Google Cloud charge for egress?
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GCP charges $0.12/GiB for the first 1 TiB of internet egress at Premium Tier (after the first 1 GiB free), dropping to $0.11/GiB for 1-10 TiB and $0.08/GiB above 10 TiB to North American destinations. Standard Tier is cheaper: after the first 200 GiB free each month, $0.085/GiB to 10 TiB, $0.065/GiB to 150 TiB, and $0.045/GiB above that. Note that GCP charges $0.01/GiB each direction for cross-zone traffic within a region, the same as AWS and Azure.
Q.02What is the difference between GCP Premium and Standard Tier?
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Premium Tier routes traffic over Google's private global backbone, providing lower latency, higher reliability, and faster failover. It is the default and what most workloads use. Standard Tier routes through public internet ISPs from the source region, which costs less but has higher latency and less consistent performance. Standard Tier is suitable for backups, batch processing, internal APIs, and any workload that is not latency-sensitive. Choose Standard Tier per-region or per-load-balancer.
Q.03Is GCP cheaper than AWS for egress?
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GCP Premium Tier is more expensive than AWS at all volume levels ($0.12/GB vs $0.09/GB starting). However, GCP Standard Tier at $0.085/GB is slightly cheaper than AWS for non-latency-sensitive workloads. That Standard Tier rate is GCP's real edge. There is no cross-zone advantage: GCP charges $0.01/GB each way for cross-zone traffic, the same as AWS cross-AZ and Azure cross-zone. So GCP only wins on internet egress where Standard Tier applies, not on multi-zone internal traffic.
Q.04Does GCP charge for cross-zone traffic?
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Yes. GCP charges $0.01/GiB each direction for VM-to-VM traffic between zones in the same region (so $0.02/GiB round trip), the same as AWS cross-AZ and Azure cross-zone. Only same-zone traffic on internal IPs is free. For multi-zone architectures (databases with replicas across zones, services load-balanced across zones), budget for this: it is cheap per GB but adds up on heavy internal traffic. GCP also charges for traffic between regions and to the internet.
Q.05What is the GCP free tier for data transfer?
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GCP's data transfer free allowances are smaller and more fragmented than AWS or Azure's flat 100 GB. The Premium Tier rate table includes only the first 1 GiB per month free; Standard Tier networking includes the first 200 GiB per month free per account. The Always Free programme separately gives Compute Engine 1 GB per month of egress (North America to worldwide, excluding China and Australia) and Cloud Storage 100 GB per month from US regions (us-east1, us-west1, us-central1).
Q.06What is GCP Cloud Interconnect pricing?
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Dedicated Interconnect costs $1,700-$13,500/month per port (10 Gbps to 100 Gbps) plus $0.02/GB for egress through the interconnect. Partner Interconnect is variable based on the partner but typically lower upfront cost with similar per-GB rates. For high-volume hybrid workloads (>20 TB/mo egress), Interconnect is significantly cheaper than internet egress. Cloud Router charges may also apply for BGP sessions.