--- source_url: "https://agentdeals.dev/serverless-free-tier-comparison-2026?utm_source=openai" title: Serverless Free Tier Comparison 2026 — AWS Lambda vs Cloud Functions vs Azure Functions vs Workers — AgentDeals mirrored_at: 2026-08-21T13:02:24.521Z host: agentdeals.dev cited_in_42a: true mirror_canonical: "https://index.42a.ai/agentdeals.dev/serverless-free-tier-comparison-2026__q__utm_source_openai" --- > **Original source:** https://agentdeals.dev/serverless-free-tier-comparison-2026?utm_source=openai [AgentDeals](https://agentdeals.dev/) Published 2026-04-01 · Last updated 2026-08-21 · Data verified from our index of 1,571 developer tools · 10+ serverless platforms compared 10+ Serverless Platforms Workers Best Edge / Low Latency Lambda Most Invocations Free Cloud Run Most Generous Overall **Quick verdict:** **AWS Lambda** leads on raw invocation count (1M/month free) and has the largest ecosystem. **Google Cloud Run** is the most generous overall with 2M requests, 360K GB-seconds, and 1 GB free egress. **Cloudflare Workers** dominates edge computing with 100K requests/day, sub-5ms cold starts, and the unique advantage of **CPU-time billing** (you don’t pay for I/O waits). **Azure Functions** matches Lambda at 1M requests/month with a consumption-based model. **The critical distinction most developers miss:** Cloudflare Workers bills by **CPU time** while AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, and Azure Functions bill by **wall-clock time** (including time spent waiting for network I/O, database queries, and external API calls). For I/O-heavy workloads, this can mean 10-50x cheaper effective compute on Workers. This single billing model difference matters more than headline invocation counts. ### Jump to section 1. [Main Comparison Table](#main-comparison) 2. [Traditional FaaS (Lambda, Cloud Functions, Azure Functions)](#traditional-faas) 3. [Edge Compute (Workers, Vercel Edge, Deno Deploy)](#edge-compute) 4. [Full-Service Serverless (Cloud Run, App Runner)](#full-service) 5. [Specialized Serverless (Val Town, DBOS, Inngest, Trigger.dev)](#specialized) 6. [The Billing Gotcha: CPU-Time vs Wall-Clock-Time](#billing-gotcha) 7. [Best for Each Use Case](#best-for) 8. [Hidden Costs and Gotchas](#hidden-costs) 9. [Pricing Change Timeline](#changes) 10. [Data Source](#data-source) ## Main Comparison Table Side-by-side comparison of the top serverless free tiers. All data verified against official pricing pages. Platform Free Invocations Free Compute Memory / CPU Timeout Billing Model Cold Start Always Free? [AWS Lambda](https://agentdeals.dev/vendor/aws) MOST INVOCATIONS 1M / month 400K GB-sec/mo 128 MB – 10 GB 15 min max Wall-clock time 100–500ms (cold) Yes (Always Free) [Google Cloud Functions](https://agentdeals.dev/vendor/google-cloud) 2M / month 400K GB-sec + 200K GHz-sec 128 MB – 32 GB 9 min (1st gen) / 60 min (2nd gen) Wall-clock time 200–800ms (cold) Yes (Always Free) [Azure Functions](https://agentdeals.dev/vendor/azure) 1M / month 400K GB-sec/mo 1.5 GB max (Consumption) 5 min (default) / 10 min (max) Wall-clock time 200–1000ms (cold) Yes (Always Free) [Google Cloud Run](https://agentdeals.dev/vendor/google-cloud) MOST GENEROUS 2M / month 360K GB-sec + 180K vCPU-sec Up to 32 GB / 8 vCPU 60 min max Wall-clock time (request-based) 100–500ms (cold) Yes (Always Free) [Cloudflare Workers](https://agentdeals.dev/vendor/cloudflare-workers) BEST EDGE 100K / day (~3M/mo) 10ms CPU time / invocation 128 MB RAM 30s (HTTP) / 15 min (Cron) **CPU time only** <5ms (near-zero) Yes [Vercel Edge Functions](https://agentdeals.dev/vendor/vercel) 1M edge requests/mo 4 hrs Active CPU/mo 128 MB (Edge) / 1 GB (Serverless) 25s (Hobby) Wall-clock time (credit-based) <5ms (Edge) / 250ms (Serverless) Yes (Hobby) [Deno Deploy](https://agentdeals.dev/vendor/deno-deploy) 1M / month 15 hrs CPU time/mo 512 MB RAM No hard limit CPU time <10ms (near-zero) Yes [Val Town](https://agentdeals.dev/vendor/val-town) 100K runs/day 1 min wall clock / run Managed (V8 isolates) 1 min per run Run-based <50ms Yes [DBOS](https://agentdeals.dev/vendor/dbos) 1M service calls/mo 1 microVM (512 MB, 1 vCPU) 512 MB / 1 vCPU No hard limit Service call-based Scale-to-zero (seconds) Yes Inngest 50K executions/mo 100K events/mo Runs on your serverless Configurable retries Execution-based Depends on host Yes (Hobby) Trigger.dev $5 free compute/mo 20 concurrent runs Managed compute No hard limit Compute time-based Warm pool available Yes **Key takeaway:** The main comparison table reveals two distinct models. **Traditional FaaS** (Lambda, Cloud Functions, Azure Functions) bills by wall-clock time with generous monthly invocation counts. **Edge platforms** (Workers, Deno Deploy) bill by CPU time with near-zero cold starts. **Cloud Run** bridges the gap as a container-based serverless with the most generous free tier overall. For background jobs, **Inngest** and **Trigger.dev** offer serverless workflow orchestration rather than raw compute. ## Traditional FaaS The big three cloud providers’ serverless compute offerings. These are the most mature platforms with the largest ecosystems, but they all bill by wall-clock time. Provider Free Invocations Free Compute Ecosystem Languages Best For AWS Lambda LARGEST ECOSYSTEM 1M / month 400K GB-sec API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3, SQS, SNS, EventBridge Node.js, Python, Go, Java, .NET, Rust, Ruby AWS-native backends, event-driven architectures Google Cloud Functions MOST FREE INVOCATIONS 2M / month 400K GB-sec + 200K GHz-sec Cloud Run, Firestore, Pub/Sub, Cloud Storage Node.js, Python, Go, Java, .NET, Ruby, PHP GCP-native, Firebase integrations Azure Functions 1M / month 400K GB-sec Cosmos DB, Service Bus, Event Grid, Storage Node.js, Python, Java, .NET, PowerShell Microsoft/.NET shops, enterprise integrations **AWS Lambda vs Google Cloud Functions vs Azure Functions:** All three offer similar free compute (400K GB-seconds). **Google Cloud Functions** leads on invocations (2M vs 1M). **AWS Lambda** has the largest ecosystem and most third-party integrations. **Azure Functions** is the natural choice for .NET/Microsoft shops. **Important:** All three charge for **API Gateway** separately — Lambda invocations are free, but the API Gateway to expose them adds $3.50/million requests (AWS). Google Cloud Functions includes HTTP triggers for free; Azure Functions uses Azure Functions Premium for custom domains. ## Edge Compute Serverless platforms that run code at the edge (CDN PoPs worldwide). Near-zero cold starts, global distribution, but more constrained runtimes. Provider Free Tier Cold Start Runtime Storage Best For Cloudflare Workers BEST EDGE 100K req/day, 10ms CPU/req <5ms V8 isolates (JS/TS/Wasm) KV: 1 GB, D1: 5 GB, R2: 10 GB APIs, edge logic, full-stack apps Vercel Edge Functions 1M edge req/mo, 4 hrs CPU <5ms V8 isolates (JS/TS) Blob: 1 GB, KV: via Vercel KV Next.js middleware, edge API routes Deno Deploy 1M req/mo, 15 hrs CPU, 100 GB egress <10ms Deno runtime (JS/TS, Web APIs) KV: 1 GB (450K reads/mo) Deno/Fresh apps, Web API-native code **Cloudflare Workers leads the edge:** The combination of 100K daily requests, near-zero cold starts, and integrated storage (KV, D1, R2, Durable Objects, Queues) makes Workers the most complete edge platform. **Vercel Edge Functions** are ideal if you’re already on Vercel/Next.js. **Deno Deploy** offers the most developer-friendly experience with native TypeScript, Web APIs, and built-in KV storage. All three use V8 isolates for instant startup — a fundamentally different architecture from container-based FaaS. ## Full-Service Serverless Container-based serverless that runs any Docker image — more flexibility than FaaS, with scale-to-zero on the free tier. Provider Free Tier Container Support Concurrency Egress Best For Google Cloud Run BEST CONTAINER SERVERLESS 2M req/mo, 360K GB-sec, 180K vCPU-sec Any Docker image Up to 1000 concurrent per instance 1 GB North America free Containerized APIs, microservices AWS App Runner No always-free tier (trial credits only) Any Docker image or source code Configurable Standard AWS egress Simple container deployments on AWS **Cloud Run is the clear winner here** — it’s the only container-based serverless with a genuinely generous always-free tier. You can run any Docker image, handle up to 1000 concurrent requests per instance, and the 2M requests/month free tier is competitive with any FaaS. **AWS App Runner** doesn’t have an always-free tier, making it a non-starter for free-tier comparisons. For containerized workloads that need more than FaaS constraints allow, Cloud Run is the answer. ## Specialized Serverless Purpose-built serverless platforms for specific workloads — scripting, durable workflows, background jobs, and orchestration. Provider Free Tier Specialty Durability Best For Val Town 100K runs/day, unlimited public vals Script-as-a-service, shareable functions SQLite storage, blob storage Quick scripts, prototypes, public APIs, MCP servers DBOS 1M service calls/mo, 1 microVM Durable workflow orchestration Built-in (transactional, exactly-once) Transactional workflows, reliable background processing Inngest 50K executions/mo, 100K events Event-driven workflow orchestration Built-in retries, step functions Background jobs, scheduled tasks, event-driven workflows Trigger.dev $5 free compute/mo, 20 concurrent Background jobs with managed compute Durable execution, retries Long-running background jobs, scheduled tasks Cloudflare Durable Objects 100K requests/day (on Workers free) Stateful serverless compute Strongly consistent, WebSocket hibernation Real-time collaboration, stateful edge computing **Val Town** is the easiest way to get serverless functions running — write a function, get a URL, share it with anyone. Great for prototyping and small tools. **DBOS** solves a hard problem: durable, exactly-once execution with transactional guarantees. **Inngest** and **Trigger.dev** both handle background jobs but with different models — Inngest is event-driven (runs on your serverless), Trigger.dev provides managed compute. **Cloudflare Durable Objects** uniquely enables stateful serverless at the edge. ## The Billing Gotcha: CPU-Time vs Wall-Clock-Time This is the most important and least understood difference between serverless platforms. It can change your effective cost by 10-50x. ### Wall-clock-time billing (AWS Lambda, Cloud Functions, Azure Functions, Cloud Run) You pay for the **total elapsed time** of your function, including time spent **waiting** for database queries, HTTP requests, file I/O, and external API responses. A function that takes 500ms but spends 480ms waiting for a database query still costs 500ms of compute. ### CPU-time billing (Cloudflare Workers, Deno Deploy) You pay only for **actual CPU cycles** used. Time spent waiting for I/O is **free**. That same function that takes 500ms but only uses 20ms of CPU time costs only 20ms. For I/O-heavy workloads (most web APIs), this is dramatically cheaper. **Concrete example:** An API endpoint that queries a database (200ms), calls an external API (150ms), and does 10ms of processing: • **AWS Lambda:** Billed for ~360ms wall-clock time at 128 MB = 0.000046 GB-seconds • **Cloudflare Workers:** Billed for ~10ms CPU time only At scale (1M requests/month), this difference is significant. The Lambda function uses ~46 GB-seconds per million requests. The Workers function uses ~10,000ms (10 seconds) of total CPU per million requests — well within the free tier’s 10ms-per-request limit. **For I/O-heavy APIs, Workers can be effectively 10-50x cheaper than Lambda.** ## Best for Each Use Case ### When to Pick Each Serverless Platform **API backends (high traffic) → AWS Lambda or Google Cloud Run** Lambda for event-driven microservices in the AWS ecosystem. Cloud Run for containerized APIs with the most generous free tier (2M req/month). Both handle production-scale traffic. [Cloud comparison →](https://agentdeals.dev/cloud-free-tier-comparison-2026) **Edge / low-latency APIs → Cloudflare Workers** 100K requests/day with sub-5ms cold starts, globally distributed. CPU-time billing makes I/O-heavy workloads dramatically cheaper. Integrated KV, D1, R2, and Durable Objects storage. [View Workers details →](https://agentdeals.dev/vendor/cloudflare-workers) **Quick scripts and prototypes → Val Town or Deno Deploy** Val Town: write a function, get a URL. 100K runs/day free with MCP integration. Deno Deploy: full TypeScript runtime with Web APIs, 1M requests/month. Both offer instant deployment with no build step. **Next.js / Vercel projects → Vercel Edge Functions** Seamless integration with Next.js middleware and edge API routes. 1M edge requests/month on the Hobby plan. Use Vercel’s serverless functions for Node.js APIs, edge functions for latency-sensitive routes. **Existing cloud customers → Match your IaaS** On AWS? Use Lambda. On GCP? Use Cloud Functions or Cloud Run. On Azure? Use Azure Functions. The free tiers are similar enough that ecosystem integration and team expertise matter more than marginal differences in invocation limits. **Background jobs and workflows → Inngest or Trigger.dev** Inngest: event-driven workflow orchestration with 50K executions/month free. Trigger.dev: managed compute for long-running background jobs with $5 free compute/month. Both handle retries, scheduling, and durable execution. [Hosting alternatives →](https://agentdeals.dev/hosting-alternatives) **Durable / transactional workflows → DBOS** 1M service calls/month with exactly-once execution guarantees. Ideal for payment processing, multi-step workflows, and anything where partial failure is unacceptable. Open-source DBOS Transact library available for TypeScript, Python, Go, Java, Kotlin. **Stateful edge computing → Cloudflare Durable Objects** Strongly consistent state at the edge with WebSocket hibernation. 100K requests/day on the free Workers plan. Unique capability — no other edge platform offers per-object consistency guarantees. Serverless free tiers have several non-obvious costs that can surprise you. Here’s what to watch for. ### API Gateway fees (AWS Lambda) **AWS Lambda** invocations are free, but exposing them via **API Gateway** costs $3.50 per million requests (REST API) or $1.00 per million (HTTP API). For 1M Lambda invocations/month, the API Gateway bill can exceed $1-3.50. **Google Cloud Functions** and **Azure Functions** include HTTP triggers at no extra cost — a significant advantage over Lambda for HTTP workloads. ### Egress charges Most serverless platforms charge for outbound data transfer beyond free tiers. **AWS:** 100 GB free (first 12 months), then $0.09/GB. **GCP:** 1 GB/month free (North America). **Azure:** 100 GB/month free. **Cloudflare Workers:** Unlimited egress (no bandwidth charges). **Deno Deploy:** 100 GB/month free. For bandwidth-heavy workloads, Workers’ unlimited egress is a major differentiator. ### Cold start mitigation costs **AWS Lambda** Provisioned Concurrency eliminates cold starts but costs $0.015/GB-hour — not free tier eligible. **Azure Functions Premium** keeps instances warm but starts at ~$0.173/vCPU-hour. **Edge platforms** (Workers, Deno Deploy) avoid this entirely with V8 isolate architecture — cold starts under 5ms without any warm-up configuration. ### Vercel credit-based pricing complexity **Vercel** restructured to a credit-based model in 2026. The Hobby plan includes 4 hours Active CPU and 360 GB-hours Provisioned Memory — but understanding how credits map to actual usage requires monitoring the Vercel dashboard. Serverless functions and edge functions consume credits differently, and overage charges apply automatically. [Vercel details →](https://agentdeals.dev/vendor/vercel) ### Workers CPU-time limit per invocation **Cloudflare Workers** free tier limits each invocation to **10ms CPU time**. This is CPU time, not wall-clock time, so I/O waits don’t count — but CPU-intensive tasks (heavy JSON parsing, image processing, crypto) can hit this limit. Paid Workers ($5/month) increases to 30 seconds CPU time per invocation. For most API workloads, 10ms CPU is sufficient. ## Pricing Change Timeline Recent serverless-related pricing changes from our tracker. See the [full timeline](https://agentdeals.dev/changes) for all 287 tracked changes. Date Provider Change Impact Oct 7, 2026 AWS AWS Proton end of support. Infrastructure-as-code provisioning service being retired. All environments, services, and templates will stop working. MEDIUM Sep 30, 2026 AWS AWS App Mesh end of support. Service mesh for ECS/EKS being fully retired. All configurations, virtual nodes, and routes will stop functioning. MEDIUM Jun 30, 2026 AWS AWS Fargate Platform Version 1.3.0 end of support. Tasks on PV 1.3.0 will stop running. Migration to Platform Version 1.4.0+ required. MEDIUM Apr 30, 2026 AWS AWS App Runner closed to new customers. Service enters maintenance mode with no new features. AWS recommends migrating to Amazon ECS Express Mode for simplified container deployment. HIGH Apr 30, 2026 AWS Node.js 20 AWS Lambda runtime 3-phase deprecation begins. Phase 1 (April 30): no new function creation. Phase 2 (June 30): no function updates. Phase 3 (August 30): no invocations. HIGH Apr 20, 2026 AWS AWS WorkSpaces Thin Client end of availability. AWS stopping sales of Thin Client devices. Existing devices continue working but no new hardware can be purchased. LOW Apr 19, 2026 DBOS DBOS Cloud free tier (1 Firecracker microVM per app, 1M service calls/mo) no longer appears on dbos.dev/pricing. Only the open-source DBOS Transact library remains free; managed cloud is paid-only starting at Pro $99/mo. Description updated accordingly; vendor remains in index under the open-source tier. MEDIUM Apr 13, 2026 LambdaTest Rebranded to TestMu AI (testmuai.com), freemium plan preserved LOW Apr 13, 2026 Amazon Kiro (AWS Startups) AWS Startups offers up to 1 year of free Kiro Pro+ (worth $480/year). Three tiers: Starter (up to 2 users), Growth (up to 50 users), Scale (up to 100 users). Eligible: early-stage to Series B companies. MEDIUM Mar 25, 2026 Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL Aurora PostgreSQL Serverless added to AWS Free Tier — managed PostgreSQL-compatible database now available at no cost with up to 4 ACUs per cluster and 1 GB storage. Part of AWS Free Plan (6 months + credits) HIGH Feb 4, 2026 Cloudflare Queues added to Workers free plan — message queuing now free MEDIUM Feb 1, 2026 Vercel New Pro projects now default to Turbo build machines (30 vCPUs, 60GB memory) at $0.126/minute — 9x more expensive than Standard machines ($0.014/min). Pro plan still $20/seat/month with $20 usage credit, but real-world build costs for moderate teams can hit $400+/month. Standard machines still available but must be manually selected. MEDIUM ## Data Source **Powered by AgentDeals.** All pricing data is sourced from our index of 1,571 developer tool free tiers, verified against official pricing pages. We track pricing changes across all major serverless providers. Data is updated continuously as providers announce changes. **Related guides:** [Cloud Free Tier Comparison](https://agentdeals.dev/cloud-free-tier-comparison-2026) · [Hosting Alternatives](https://agentdeals.dev/hosting-alternatives) · [Free DevOps Stack](https://agentdeals.dev/free-devops-stack) · [Free Tier Risk Index](https://agentdeals.dev/free-tier-risk) **Query serverless pricing programmatically** via our [MCP tools](https://agentdeals.dev/setup) — compare serverless providers, track pricing changes, or plan your infrastructure stack from your AI coding assistant. ### Get this data in your AI editor Compare serverless free tiers, track pricing changes, and plan your infrastructure stack — all from your AI coding assistant. `claude mcp add agentdeals -- npx -y agentdeals` Works with Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, Windsurf → [Full setup guide](https://agentdeals.dev/setup) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is the best free serverless service in 2026? Based on our comparison of 0 serverless services, Serverless stands out for its free tier generosity. However, the best choice depends on your specific requirements — this comparison breaks down limits, scaling costs, and lock-in risk for each provider. ### Which serverless free tier is most generous? Free tier generosity varies by use case. Some providers offer more storage, others more compute or API calls. Our comparison table above shows exact limits side-by-side so you can evaluate based on what matters most for your workload. ### Are free serverless services reliable enough for production? 0% of the 0 serverless services we track have stable pricing histories. For production use, prioritize providers rated "stable" in our analysis and review the hidden costs section to avoid surprises at scale. ### How do serverless free tiers compare on limits? Each provider structures free tier limits differently — some cap storage, others cap requests or compute hours. Our comparison table provides exact numbers for each provider. Check the growth cost analysis section to understand what you'll pay when you exceed free tier limits. ## Related Comparisons ## Related Guides