Which is cheaper, Azure or OCI?

Azure is cheaper in 5 of 12 comparable categories, with an average price difference of 51.7%.

How do Azure and OCI compare for general purpose workloads?

For general purpose workloads: Azure: $11.53/mo, OCI: $27.01/mo. Azure is cheaper.

Azure vs OCI: Pricing Comparison (2026)

Updated Apr 6, 2026AzureOCI

Overall Winner

Azure

Azure Wins

OCI Wins

Ties

Pricing Analysis

Azure wins 5 of 12 price comparisons, averaging 51.7% lower prices in categories where it leads.

Prices range from $0.000004/hr to $2.92/hr across comparable tiers.

●Azure leads in Virtual Machines (3/3 tiers, avg 61% difference)
●Oracle Cloud leads in Blob Storage (1/2 tiers, avg 82% difference)
●Oracle Cloud leads in SQL Database (2/3 tiers, avg 52% difference)
●Oracle Cloud leads in Load Balancer (2/3 tiers, avg 40% difference)

Choose Azure

Best for Virtual Machines workloads

Choose Oracle Cloud

Best for Blob Storage workloads

Choose Oracle Cloud

Best for SQL Database workloads

Choose Oracle Cloud

Best for Load Balancer workloads

Side-by-Side Pricing

Comparing Azure and OCI across 12 equivalent tiers. On-demand hourly rates are shown in USD for the default region.

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Category	Azure Azure	OCI OCI	Diff	Cheapest
Virtual Machines - General Purpose - 2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM	$0.0158/hr Basic_A2 ($11.53/mo)	$0.0370/hr VM.Standard.E4.Flex.1 ($27.01/mo)	+57.3%	Azure
Virtual Machines - General Purpose - 16 vCPU, 64 GB RAM	$0.1540/hr Standard_D16_v3 ($112.42/mo)	$0.3680/hr VM.Standard.E5.Flex.8 ($268.64/mo)	+58.2%	Azure
Virtual Machines - Memory Optimized - 8 vCPU, 64 GB RAM	$0.1010/hr Standard_E8_v3 ($73.73/mo)	$0.3000/hr VM.Optimized3.Flex.4 ($219.00/mo)	+66.3%	Azure
Blob Storage - Storage - HDD - HDD LRS Overflow Snapshot Usage	$0.0000/hr HDD - HDD LRS Overflow Snapshot Usage ($0.01/mo)	$0.0000/hr B91633 ($0.00/mo)	+64.4%	Tie
Blob Storage - Storage - Cool RA-GZRS - Cool RA-GZRS Blob Inventory	$0.0025/hr Cool RA-GZRS - Cool RA-GZRS Blob Inventory ($1.82/mo)	$0.0000/hr B91628 ($0.03/mo)	+98.6%	OCI
SQL Database - Databases - Backup LRS - Backup LRS Data Stored	$0.0250/hr Backup LRS - Backup LRS Data Stored ($18.25/mo)	$0.0807/hr B95703 ($58.91/mo)	+69.0%	Azure
SQL Database - Databases - Premium - Data Stored	$0.3400/hr Premium - Data Stored ($248.20/mo)	$0.3360/hr B95712 ($245.28/mo)	+1.2%	OCI
SQL Database - Databases - SQLDB_GP_Compute_Gen5_32 - Zone Redundancy vCore	$2.9226/hr SQLDB_GP_Compute_Gen5_32 - Zone Redundancy vCore ($2,133.47/mo)	$0.3864/hr B99595 ($282.07/mo)	+86.8%	OCI
AKS - Compute - Standard - Standard Uptime SLA	$0.1000/hr Standard - Standard Uptime SLA ($73.00/mo)	$0.1000/hr B96545 ($73.00/mo)	0.0%	Tie
Load Balancer - Networking - Gateway - Gateway Data Processed	$0.0040/hr Gateway ($2.92/mo)	$0.0001/hr B93031 ($0.07/mo)	+97.5%	OCI
Load Balancer - Networking - Gateway - Gateway	$0.0125/hr Gateway ($9.13/mo)	$0.0113/hr B93030 ($8.25/mo)	+9.6%	OCI
Load Balancer - Networking - Gateway - Gateway Chain	$0.0100/hr Gateway ($7.30/mo)	$0.0113/hr B96485 ($8.25/mo)	+11.5%	Azure

When to Choose Azure Azure

✓Virtual Machines - General Purpose - 2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM - saves $15.48/mo (57.3% cheaper)
✓Virtual Machines - General Purpose - 16 vCPU, 64 GB RAM - saves $156.22/mo (58.2% cheaper)
✓Virtual Machines - Memory Optimized - 8 vCPU, 64 GB RAM - saves $145.27/mo (66.3% cheaper)
✓SQL Database - Databases - Backup LRS - Backup LRS Data Stored - saves $40.66/mo (69% cheaper)
✓Load Balancer - Networking - Gateway - Gateway Chain - saves $0.95/mo (11.5% cheaper)

When to Choose OCI OCI

✓Blob Storage - Storage - Cool RA-GZRS - Cool RA-GZRS Blob Inventory - saves $1.82/mo (98.6% cheaper)
✓SQL Database - Databases - Premium - Data Stored - saves $2.92/mo (1.2% cheaper)
✓SQL Database - Databases - SQLDB_GP_Compute_Gen5_32 - Zone Redundancy vCore - saves $1,851.43/mo (86.8% cheaper)
✓Load Balancer - Networking - Gateway - Gateway Data Processed - saves $2.85/mo (97.5% cheaper)
✓Load Balancer - Networking - Gateway - Gateway - saves $0.88/mo (9.6% cheaper)