Cloud Costs: Why AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Bills Grow

Most cloud bills don’t grow because the server got bigger. They grow because three things are billed separately, and one of them scales with your traffic.

Why does a hyperscaler bill keep climbing?

AWS, Azure and Google Cloud bill the server, the disk and outbound transfer as separate line items, and egress is billed per GB. Compute is the line people plan for. Transfer is the one that moves when a site gets busy, a backup restores or a video goes out.

Here’s one scenario we track: a server with a 50 GB disk pushing 6,144 GB of transfer a month in US East. For that scenario, AWS comes to $572.14/mo as of November 2026, and $552.96 of it is transfer. The same scenario is $561/mo on Azure and $703.19/mo on Google Cloud, as of November 2026. On ADTAQ it’s $20.70/mo.

How does moving to a flat-priced VPS work?

A VPS rolls compute, disk and a transfer allowance into one monthly price. Our NVMe VPS is $5/GB RAM, from $10/mo, and 1 Gig is the standard port. Transfer is an allowance, not a meter: go over it and the port is throttled, never billed. Extra transfer is $1.50/TB if you want more headroom.

The move itself is ordinary Linux work. Size the VPS for the workload, copy the data across, point DNS at the new server, then shut off the old instance once traffic has moved.

This section is where that work gets written down. Over time you’ll find guides on moving workloads off EC2 and S3, Azure virtual machines and Compute Engine, plus plain explanations of how egress and bandwidth fees are calculated and why they catch people out. Hyperscaler figures here always carry the date they were checked.

When you’re ready to size something, compare NVMe VPS plans and dial it in.

Part of the ADTAQ blog.

Topics in Cloud Costs

  • AWS Alternatives

    Moving workloads off AWS EC2 and S3 to a flat-priced VPS.

    No guides yet

  • Azure Alternatives

    Moving workloads off Azure virtual machines to a flat-priced VPS.

    No guides yet

  • Google Cloud Alternatives

    Moving workloads off Google Compute Engine to a flat-priced VPS.

    No guides yet

  • Bandwidth Fees

    How hyperscaler egress and bandwidth fees work and why they surprise people.

    No guides yet

Latest in Cloud Costs

No guides here yet. The first ones are being written now.

Frequently asked questions.

Egress is billed per GB on the big clouds, so the cost grows with every GB that leaves your servers. In a scenario with a 50 GB disk and 6,144 GB of transfer a month in US East, the transfer line alone is $552.96/mo on AWS as of November 2026. On ADTAQ, transfer is an allowance: over it, the port is throttled, never billed, and extra transfer is $1.50/TB.

It depends on how much data your workload sends out, because that's where hyperscaler bills tend to grow. For a 50 GB disk and 6,144 GB of monthly transfer in US East, AWS totals $572.14/mo as of November 2026, with the server line at $15.18/mo. The same scenario on an ADTAQ NVMe VPS is $20.70/mo. Price your own workload on both before you decide.

Going over your transfer allowance on ADTAQ slows the port rather than adding charges: the port is throttled, never billed. If you'd rather keep full speed, extra transfer is $1.50/TB. That's the main difference from hyperscaler billing, where egress is billed per GB and the line item keeps growing with every GB that leaves.