AWS Lambda Cost Calculator 2026: Serverless Pricing Compared
Serverless billing is notoriously hard to predict. This guide breaks down AWS Lambda, Vercel Functions, Cloudflare Workers and GCP Cloud Functions pricing with real cost tables so you can budget before you deploy.
How Serverless Pricing Works
Every serverless platform charges on two dimensions: invocations (how many times your function runs) and compute (GB-seconds = memory × duration). AWS Lambda gives 1M free invocations + 400K GB-sec free per month. Cloudflare Workers charges $0.50/M requests with no GB-sec fee.
2026 Serverless Cost Table
| Platform | Per invocation | Per GB-sec | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Workers | $0.50/M | $0.000012 | 100K req/day |
| AWS Lambda | $0.20/M | $0.0000166 | 1M req + 400K GB-sec |
| GCP Cloud Functions | $0.40/M | $0.000025 | 2M req + 400K GB-sec |
| Vercel Functions | $0.40/M | $0.000018 | 100GB-hr/month |
AWS Lambda: Best for AWS Ecosystem
Lambda integrates natively with API Gateway, S3, DynamoDB and EventBridge. At 10M invocations × 150ms × 256MB: approximately $1.67 compute + $1.80 invocation = $3.47/mo after free tier. Perfect for event-driven architectures.
Cloudflare Workers: Cheapest for High-Frequency APIs
Workers runs at the edge (200+ PoPs globally), starts at $5/mo for 10M requests, with no cold starts and sub-millisecond execution. For APIs under 50ms duration, Workers is often 10× cheaper than Lambda.
Real Cost: 10M Requests Per Month
| Platform | 1M req | 10M req | 100M req |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Workers | $0 | $5 | $50 |
| AWS Lambda (256MB/150ms) | $0 | $3.47 | $34.70 |
| GCP Cloud Functions | $0 | $4.10 | $41 |
| Vercel Functions | $0.40 | $4.00 | $40 |
FAQ
How much does AWS Lambda cost per million requests?
AWS Lambda costs $0.20 per million invocations after the free tier (1M/month). Compute costs add $0.0000166725 per GB-second. A 256MB function running 150ms costs ~$0.000000634 per invocation.
Is Cloudflare Workers cheaper than Lambda?
For short-duration, high-frequency functions: yes. Workers at $0.50/M requests with no GB-sec charge beats Lambda for APIs under 30ms. For longer compute (>500ms), Lambda may be cheaper.
What is serverless cold start cost?
Cold starts themselves are free — you only pay for execution time. But cold starts increase duration (50–500ms extra), which increases your GB-sec cost. Cloudflare Workers has no cold starts.
APICalculators Team · Free developer cost tools. Prices from official documentation, reviewed monthly.