AWS EC2 vs Azure: GPU cloud pricing compared
AWS and Azure are the two largest hyperscaler GPU clouds and the default shortlist for any organisation with a multi-region cloud estate. Both publish list prices for H100 (P5 on AWS, ND H100 v5 on Azure) and both quote materially higher than the specialist clouds before negotiated discount. Integration depth (IAM, networking, MLOps surfaces) is the real reason teams pick one over a specialist.
Side-by-side
| Dimension | AWS EC2 | Azure |
|---|---|---|
| Headline H100 list rate (per GPU equiv) | $12.288/GPU-hr (p5.48xlarge on-demand) | $12.29/GPU-hr (ND96isr H100 v5 on-demand) |
| Cheapest published H100 path | $1.475/GPU-hr (A100 Capacity Blocks; H100 Capacity Blocks priced separately) | $9.00/GPU-hr (ND H100 v5 Spot per-GPU equiv) |
| Reservation path | Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, Capacity Blocks for ML | Reserved Instances (1, 3 year), Savings Plans |
| Networking | EFA on supported instances | InfiniBand on ND H100 v5 |
| Integration depth | Deepest in the category (IAM, SageMaker, S3, EFA) | Tightest Microsoft estate integration in the category |
Your data, identity, and tooling are already on AWS. You need SageMaker, S3, EFA networking, and a Savings Plan that covers more than GPU compute. You can negotiate a Spot or Capacity Blocks strategy.
Your estate is Microsoft-anchored (Entra ID, Azure AI Foundry, Synapse). You want ND H100 v5 with InfiniBand on the same control plane as the rest of your Azure infrastructure and you can negotiate Reserved Instances or a Savings Plan.
Worked example
Acme MLOps Co. (illustrative example, not a real company) needs an 8-GPU H100 cluster for 30 days at 18 hours per day (4,320 GPU-hours). At AWS EC2's published H100 rate ($12.288/GPU-hr, H100 80GB SXM (p5.48xlarge) On-demand, 8x per node, per-GPU equiv) that is roughly $53,084; at Azure's published H100 rate ($12.290/GPU-hr, H100 80GB (ND96isr H100 v5) On-demand, per-GPU equiv), roughly $53,093 for raw GPU compute, before storage, egress, and MLOps overhead.
Last verified June 2026.