Cloud instance comparison · Prices checked July 2026
Azure Standard_B4ms vs GCP e2-standard-4
GCP e2-standard-4 is cheaper than Azure Standard_B4ms by $23.34/month (19.3% less), at matching specs of 4 vCPU and 16 GiB of memory. GCP e2-standard-4 runs $97.84/mo on-demand versus $121.18/mo for Azure Standard_B4ms, based on GCP's us-central1 and Azure's eastus baseline on-demand Linux pricing.
Specs & pricing side by side
| Spec | Azure Standard_B4ms | GCP e2-standard-4 |
|---|---|---|
| vCPU | 4 | 4 |
| Memory | 16 GiB | 16 GiB |
| Region (baseline) | eastus | us-central1 |
| Hourly (on-demand) | $0.1660 | $0.1340 |
| Monthly (730 hrs) | $121.18 | $97.84 |
| Price difference | GCP e2-standard-4 is $23.34/mo cheaper than Azure Standard_B4ms (19.3% less) | |
Which one should you pick?
Pick GCP e2-standard-4 if price is your primary constraint — it's $23.34/mo cheaper for the same 4 vCPU / 16 GiB profile, which adds up to $280.12/year at steady utilization.
Pick Azure Standard_B4ms if you're already committed to the Azure ecosystem — existing VPC/network setup, IAM policies, reserved capacity, or team expertise on Azure usually outweighs a 19% list-price gap on a single instance. Cross-provider migration cost rarely pays for itself on compute pricing alone.
Either way, this is a single-instance, on-demand comparison. Reserved/committed-use discounts (up to ~72% on both platforms) and your actual utilization pattern will move the real numbers — model your full workload with the calculator before deciding.
Frequently asked questions
Is Azure Standard_B4ms cheaper than GCP e2-standard-4?
GCP e2-standard-4 is cheaper. It costs $97.84/mo on-demand versus $121.18/mo for Azure Standard_B4ms — a difference of $23.34/mo (19.3%). Both instances offer 4 vCPU and roughly 16 GiB of memory, so the comparison is apples-to-apples on specs.
What are the specs of Azure Standard_B4ms?
Azure Standard_B4ms provides 4 vCPU and 16 GiB of memory, priced at $0.1660/hour on-demand ($121.18/month at 730 hours) in the eastus baseline region.
How much does Azure Standard_B4ms cost per month compared to GCP e2-standard-4?
At 730 hours/month, Azure Standard_B4ms costs $121.18 and GCP e2-standard-4 costs $97.84. That is a monthly difference of $23.34, or $280.12/year.
Are Azure Standard_B4ms and GCP e2-standard-4 dedicated or shared vCPU?
Both are burstable, shared-vCPU instances — they get a baseline CPU allocation and can burst above it, but sustained full-CPU performance is not guaranteed. This is an apples-to-apples comparison (both shared), but neither suits steady compute-bound workloads; for those, compare dedicated-vCPU families instead.
Prices checked July 2026. Baseline regions: Azure pricing uses eastus, GCP uses us-central1. All prices are on-demand Linux, list rate, before reserved/committed-use discounts. See our methodology for pricing sources, update cadence, and mapping rules.
Model your full stack, not just one instance
A single instance is one line item. Use the free SpendArk calculator to compare AWS, Azure, GCP, and DigitalOcean across your whole architecture — compute, database, storage, and networking together.
Open the cloud cost calculator →Related comparisons
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- AWS t3.xlarge vs GCP e2-standard-4
- AWS t3.large vs Azure Standard_B2ms
- AWS t3.large vs GCP e2-standard-2
For a deeper dive on Azure vs GCP pricing beyond a single instance, read our full pricing comparison guide.