Cloud region pricing · Prices checked July 2026
AWS pricing: us-east-1 (US) vs eu-west-1 (EU)
AWS general-purpose VMs cost about 11% more in eu-west-1 (EU) than in us-east-1 (US) on-demand, and the markup holds steady across sizes.
Price by size: US vs EU
| Size | us-east-1 ($/mo) | eu-west-1 ($/mo) | EU premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 vCPU / 8 GiB | $70.08 | $78.11 | +11.5% |
| 4 vCPU / 16 GiB | $140.16 | $156.22 | +11.5% |
| 8 vCPU / 32 GiB | $280.32 | $312.44 | +11.5% |
| 16 vCPU / 64 GiB | $560.64 | $624.88 | +11.5% |
On-demand Linux list price, 730 hours/month, before reserved/committed-use discounts. Prices checked July 2026.
When is the EU region worth it?
The main reasons to run in eu-west-1 despite the ~11% pricing are non-financial: data residency and GDPR compliance for EU customer data, and lower latency for European users. Those requirements almost always outweigh a single-digit-percent compute premium.
If your users and data are US-centric, us-east-1 is the cheaper default. Either way, compute is one line item — egress, managed databases, and load balancers also vary by region. Model the full picture with the calculator, which supports a US/EU region toggle.
Frequently asked questions
Is AWS more expensive in Europe than the US?
Yes. AWS general-purpose VMs cost about 11% more in eu-west-1 (EU) than in us-east-1 (US) on-demand. The markup is consistent across sizes.
Which AWS region is cheapest for compute?
Of the two most common regions, us-east-1 (US) is cheaper than eu-west-1 (EU) for these general-purpose VMs — by roughly 11%. US regions are generally AWS's lowest-priced.
Should I pay the EU premium?
Choose the EU region when data residency (GDPR), compliance, or user latency in Europe requires it — those usually outweigh a 11% compute premium. If your users and data are US-centric, the US region is the cheaper default.
Prices checked July 2026. See our methodology for regional sources and mapping rules, or compare other providers on the region pricing overview.
Compare regions across your whole stack
The free SpendArk calculator has a US/EU toggle and prices AWS, Azure, GCP, DigitalOcean, and Hetzner across compute, database, storage, and networking.
Open the cloud cost calculator →