September 25, 20245 minute read
AWS Lambda vs. Google Cloud functions: a comprehensive comparison
author
Yiren Lu@YirenLu
Solutions Engineer

Both AWS Lambda and Google Cloud Functions offer serverless execution environments for building and connecting cloud services. They allow developers to write single-purpose functions that are triggered by events or HTTP requests, enabling rapid development and scalable applications.

This article provides an in-depth comparison of these two services, examining key factors such as features, performance, pricing, and integration capabilities.

Key features comparison

Feature AWS Lambda Google Cloud Functions
Supported Languages Node.js, Python, Java, Ruby, C#, Go, PowerShell Node.js, Python, Go, Java, .NET, Ruby, PHP
Maximum Execution Time 900 seconds (15 minutes) 3,600 seconds (60 minutes) for 2nd gen
Pricing Model Per-request and per 1ms of execution time Per-request and per 100ms of execution time
Free Tier (monthly) 1 million requests, 400,000 GB-seconds (memory) 2 million requests, 360,000 GB-seconds (memory), 180,000 GHz-seconds (CPU)
Cold Start Mitigation Provisioned Concurrency Minimum Instances
VPC Support Yes Yes
Ecosystem Integration Deep integration with AWS services Deep integration with Google Cloud services
Event Triggers Wide range of AWS service triggers HTTP, Cloud Storage, Pub/Sub, Firestore, and 90+ via Eventarc
Monitoring CloudWatch Cloud Monitoring
Deployment Tools AWS CLI, AWS SAM, CloudFormation gcloud CLI, Cloud Console, Terraform
Maximum Memory 10 GB 32 GB
Maximum Concurrent Executions 1,000 per region 1,000 per function
GPU Support No Yes (in preview)

Event-driven capabilities

Both platforms offer robust event-driven architectures:

AWS Lambda

Supports a wide range of trigger types, including:

  • HTTP/HTTPS (via API Gateway)
  • Amazon S3, DynamoDB, SQS, SNS
  • AWS CloudWatch Events/EventBridge
  • AWS CloudWatch Logs, CodeCommit, Kinesis
  • AWS IoT, Alexa Skills Kit

Google Cloud Functions

Supports various trigger types:

  • HTTP triggers
  • Event triggers:
    • Pub/Sub, Cloud Storage, Firestore
    • Generalized Eventarc triggers (90+ event sources via Cloud Audit Logs)

Resource configuration and scaling

AWS Lambda

Google Cloud Functions

Cold start mitigation

Both AWS Lambda and Google Cloud Functions offer strategies to mitigate cold starts:

AWS Lambda

Google Cloud Functions

  • Minimum Instances: Keeps a specified number of instances warm and ready to serve requests.
  • CPU Allocation: Allocating more CPU can help reduce cold start times for compute-intensive functions.

Pricing structure

Both services use a pay-per-use model with some differences:

AWS Lambda

  • Charges in 1ms increments after the first 100ms
  • Pricing based on number of requests, memory allocated to the function, and execution duration

Google Cloud Functions

Pricing comparison

Service Free tier Compute pricing Request pricing Additional charges
AWS Lambda 1M free requests per month and 400,000 GB-seconds of compute time $0.0000166667 per GB-second (includes CPU and memory) $0.20 per 1M requests $0.09 per GB outbound data transfer
Google Cloud Functions 2M free requests, 180,000 vCPU-seconds, and 360,000 GB-seconds per month $0.00002400 per vCPU-second (CPU) and $0.00000250 per GB-second (memory) $0.40 per 1M requests $0.12 per GB outbound data transfer

Note:

  1. AWS Lambda pricing is based on the amount of memory you allocate to your function and the time it runs.
  2. Google Cloud Functions prices CPU and memory separately, allowing for more granular resource allocation.
  3. Prices shown are for Tier 1 regions in Google Cloud.
  4. Google Cloud Functions offers committed use discounts (CUD) for longer-term commitments, which can reduce costs further.
  5. For both services, actual costs may vary based on specific configuration and usage patterns.

GPU support

AWS Lambda

AWS Lambda does not offer native GPU support, but provides alternatives:

Google Cloud Functions

Please check the official pricing page for the most up-to-date and detailed information.

VPC support

VPC support is crucial for security and access to private resources:

AWS Lambda

  • Native VPC integration
  • Functions can run in private subnets
  • Direct access to VPC resources without public exposure
  • Security group association for traffic control
  • Automatic ENI management
  • Potential longer cold starts for VPC-connected functions

Google Cloud Functions

  • Native VPC support (2nd gen only)
  • Serverless VPC Access Connector feature for accessing VPC resources
  • Primarily facilitates outbound connections to VPC
  • Shared VPC support across projects

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