Direct answer: at official list prices on 9 November 2026 (USD, excluding tax/discounts), cloud workflow orchestration is billed in different units: AWS Step Functions Standard $0.000025 per state transition ($0.025/1,000, 4,000 free/month), Express $1.00 per million requests + $0.00001667/GB-second; Azure Logic Apps Consumption $0.000025 per built-in action, $0.000125 per standard connector, $0.001 per enterprise connector, Standard plan $0.1997/vCPU-hour + $0.0143/GiB-hour; GCP Workflows $0.01/1,000 internal steps (5,000 free/month) and $0.025/1,000 external steps (2,000 free/month). For 1 million workflows × 10 steps/month: AWS Standard about $250/month, AWS Express about $11.42, Azure Consumption about $250 (all built-in) or $450 (8 built-in + 2 standard connectors), GCP about $100 (all internal) or $130 (8 internal + 2 external), Azure Standard about $182.32 (1 vCPU/3.5GiB, capacity must be benchmarked). At 100 million × 10 steps/month: AWS Standard about $25,000, Express about $1,141.88, Azure about $25,000/$45,000, GCP about $10,000/$13,000.
This guide is for integration/platform, SRE, data engineering and FinOps teams. It compares AWS Step Functions, Azure Logic Apps and GCP Workflows: billing units, 1M/100M workflow TCO, Standard/Express/Consumption/Standard-plan choices, retry and connector costs, hidden costs and a 90-day checklist. Prices come from the three official pricing pages and the Azure Retail Prices API (all accessed 9 November 2026). Official price facts, editorial calculations and exclusions are kept separate. This is not procurement advice.
(1) Watch the unit: AWS Standard bills state transitions, Azure Consumption bills actions/connectors, GCP bills internal/external steps; the same 10 steps have different rates and free allowances. (2) Express and Standard are different products: Express bills requests + GB-seconds and is far cheaper for short, high-frequency runs; Standard bills transitions and fits long-running/auditable workflows. (3) Retries cost money: each AWS retry is another transition, GCP failed/retried steps count, Azure actions bill per execution; connectors/external steps/logs add more.
Billing models: transitions, actions, internal/external steps
AWS Step Functions Standard bills state transitions, counting each step execution and each retry; Express bills requests + execution duration (GB-seconds), rounded to 100ms and billed in 64MB chunks. Azure Logic Apps Consumption bills built-in actions + standard/enterprise connector actions, with triggers/actions/connectors counted separately; the Standard plan bills vCPU-hours + GiB-hours + storage and suits single-tenant/VNET/custom connectors. GCP Workflows splits steps into internal (variables, conditions, subworkflows, standard library/connectors) and external (calls outside Google Cloud/custom domains, callback waits), billed per 1,000-step increments; failures/retries count.
| Item | AWS Step Functions | Azure Logic Apps | GCP Workflows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard/Consumption | $0.000025/transition (4,000 free/month) | Built-in $0.000025/action; standard connector $0.000125; enterprise $0.001 | Internal $0.01/1,000; external $0.025/1,000 |
| High-throughput/short | Express: $1.00/million requests + $0.00001667/GB-s | Consumption per action; Standard fixed vCPU/memory | Per step; no separate “Express” tier |
| Fixed compute | None (serverless) | Standard: $0.1997/vCPU-h + $0.0143/GiB-h | None (serverless) |
| Free allowance | 4,000 transitions/month | None (usage-based) | 5,000 internal, 2,000 external/month |
| Retries | Each retry is a transition | Action executions billed | Failures/retries count as steps |
Sources: AWS Step Functions pricing page, Azure Logic Apps pricing page and Azure Retail Prices API (eastus, 9 November 2026), Google Cloud Workflows pricing page (9 November 2026). Editorial summary; regions/currency/features/discounts follow the official pages.
Unit prices: official list prices
AWS (US East): Standard $0.000025/transition ($0.025/1,000, 4,000 free); Express $1.00/million requests and $0.00001667/GB-second. Azure (eastus): Consumption built-in $0.000025/action, standard connector $0.000125, enterprise connector $0.001, data retention $0.12/GB-month; Standard plan vCPU $0.1997/hour, memory $0.0143/GiB-hour; ISE Base $6.64/hour, Scale $3.32/hour; Integration Account Basic $300/month, Standard/Premium $1,000/month. GCP: internal $0.01/1,000, external $0.025/1,000, with 5,000/2,000 free.
| Item | Price (USD) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| AWS Standard | $0.000025/transition | $0.025/1,000; 4,000 free; retries extra |
| AWS Express requests | $1.00/million | Per execution; console tests count |
| AWS Express duration | $0.00001667/GB-second | 64MB chunks; 100ms rounding |
| Azure built-in actions | $0.000025 each | Consumption |
| Azure standard/enterprise connectors | $0.000125 / $0.001 each | Connector calls separate |
| Azure Standard plan | $0.1997/vCPU-h + $0.0143/GiB-h | Single-tenant/VNET/custom connectors |
| GCP internal/external steps | $0.01 / $0.025 per 1,000 | 5,000/2,000 free; retries count |
Sources: three official pricing pages and Azure Retail API (9 November 2026). Monthly prices use 730 hours/30 days; tax/discounts/logs/storage excluded.
TCO: 1 million and 100 million workflows (10 steps each)
At 10 steps/run and 730 hours/month: 1 million runs/month = 10 million steps. AWS Standard 10M × $0.000025 = $250; AWS Express requests $1.00 + duration (64MB×10s×1M = 625,000 GB-s × $0.00001667) ≈ $11.42; Azure all built-in 10M × $0.000025 = $250, 8 built-in + 2 standard connectors = $200 + $250 = $450; GCP all internal 10M × $0.00001 = $100, 8 internal + 2 external = $80 + $50 = $130; Azure Standard 1 vCPU/3.5GiB ≈ $182.32 (capacity must be benchmarked). At 100 million runs/month = 1 billion steps: AWS Standard $25,000, Express $1,141.88, Azure $25,000/$45,000, GCP $10,000/$13,000.
| Option (10 steps/run) | 1M runs/month | 100M runs/month |
|---|---|---|
| AWS Standard | about 250 | about 25,000 |
| AWS Express | about 11.42 | about 1,141.88 |
| Azure Consumption (all built-in) | about 250 | about 25,000 |
| Azure Consumption (8 built-in + 2 standard connectors) | about 450 | about 45,000 |
| GCP (all internal) | about 100 | about 10,000 |
| GCP (8 internal + 2 external) | about 130 | about 13,000 |
| Azure Standard (1 vCPU/3.5GiB) | about 182.32* | about 182.32* |
Editorial calculation: 10 steps/actions/transitions per run; AWS Express at 64MB and 10s/run; Azure Standard = 0.1997×730 + 0.0143×3.5×730 ≈ 182.32; no free allowance/tax/discounts. * Azure Standard is a fixed-capacity price; whether one vCPU handles 1M/100M runs depends on workflow complexity—benchmark and scale out.
Break-even: Standard plan, Express, internal/external steps
Azure Consumption vs Standard plan: 1 vCPU/3.5GiB fixed cost is about $182.32/month; divided by $0.000025 per built-in action ≈ 7.29 million built-in actions/month. Above that, and if one vCPU can carry the load, Standard may be cheaper—but actual throughput must be benchmarked. AWS Express vs Standard: at 10 steps/run and 64MB, Standard costs about $0.00025/run; Express costs about $0.000001 + duration; Express is cheaper while average duration is below about 239 seconds (~4 minutes), and Standard may win for longer runs. GCP internal steps cost $0.00001 vs external $0.000025, so internal is 2.5x cheaper; keep calls inside the VPC where possible.
| Comparison | Formula | Conclusion |
|---|---|---|
| Azure Consumption vs Standard | 182.32 ÷ 0.000025 | About 7.29M built-in actions/month; benchmark capacity |
| AWS Express vs Standard | (0.00025 − 0.000001) ÷ 0.000001042/s | Average < about 239s → Express; longer → Standard |
| GCP internal vs external | 0.00001 vs 0.000025 | Internal 2.5x cheaper; reduce external calls |
| Azure built-in vs standard connector | 0.000025 vs 0.000125 | Connector 5x; prefer built-in |
| Azure standard vs enterprise connector | 0.000125 vs 0.001 | Enterprise 8x; use only when needed |
Editorial calculation: 64MB/10s/10-step assumptions; free allowance/logs/storage/tax/discounts excluded; actual throughput, memory and connector mix change results.
Hidden costs: retries, connectors, logs and fixed plans
Common add-ons: retries/failures (AWS retries count as transitions, GCP failed/retried steps count, Azure actions bill per execution), connectors (Azure standard $0.000125, enterprise $0.001; AWS/GCP external calls may also incur downstream service charges), data retention (Azure $0.12/GB-month), logs/monitoring (CloudWatch, Log Analytics, Cloud Logging separate), fixed plans (Azure Standard vCPU/memory, ISE $6.64/hour, Integration Account $300/$1,000 per month), payload/data size (Express GB-seconds, Standard payload limits), cross-region/egress and engineering/operations.
| Cost item | Trigger | Control |
|---|---|---|
| Retries/failures | Error handling/compensation | Reduce futile retries; idempotent design |
| Connectors | Standard/enterprise connectors | Prefer built-in actions; batch calls |
| Data retention | Run history/payloads | Set retention by compliance; clean old data |
| Logs/monitoring | CloudWatch/Log Analytics/Cloud Logging | Sampling/retention/metric filters |
| Fixed plans | Azure Standard/ISE/Integration Account | Size by throughput; avoid idle capacity |
| Payload size | Large payload/long duration | External storage + references; split flows |
| Cross-region/egress | Cross-region calls/data | Same-region deployment; compress/batch |
Sources: three pricing pages and Azure Retail API (9 November 2026). Editorial summary; billing/availability follows official pages and bills.
How to choose: workflow shape, ecosystem and throughput
Start with workflow shape: high-frequency short/event-driven/retryable → AWS Express / GCP Workflows / Azure Consumption; long-running, human approval, standard state machine → AWS Standard; Microsoft ecosystem/many SaaS connectors → Logic Apps; GCP data/infrastructure orchestration → Workflows; high steady throughput with single-tenant/VNET/custom connectors → Azure Standard (benchmark capacity first). Then model cost as “steps/actions/transitions × monthly runs”, including retries, connectors, external steps, logs and fixed plans; finally weigh compliance/regions/team skills.
| Scenario | Prefer | Check first |
|---|---|---|
| High-frequency short/event-driven | AWS Express, GCP Workflows, Azure Consumption | Duration/GB-seconds, retries |
| Long-running/human approval/state machine | AWS Standard | Transitions, execution history |
| Microsoft ecosystem/connectors | Azure Logic Apps | Standard/enterprise connector calls |
| GCP data/infrastructure orchestration | GCP Workflows | Internal/external step ratio |
| High steady throughput/single-tenant/VNET | Azure Standard plan | vCPU/memory capacity, benchmark |
| Compliance/audit/long retention | Standard/long-term storage per cloud | Log/data retention cost |
Editorial selection framework, not a vendor recommendation; features/compliance/regional availability follow official docs and business requirements.
90-day checklist
Use the first 90 days to close “workflow inventory → step/retry baseline → like-for-like pricing → pilot → cutover → review.” Weeks 1-2: inventory workflows, trigger frequency, average steps/duration, retry rate, connectors; weeks 2-4: model 1M/100M runs and compare Standard/Express/Consumption/Workflows; weeks 4-6: pilot 1–2 critical flows, measure throughput/latency/failure recovery; weeks 6-8: evaluate fixed plans/connectors/log costs; weeks 8-10: cut over, monitor retries and cost; weeks 10-12: review and optimize steps/batching/caching. Do not compare only the per-1,000 rate.
FAQ
How is AWS Step Functions billed?
Standard bills $0.000025 per state transition ($0.025/1,000, 4,000 free/month) and retries count; Express bills $1.00/million requests + $0.00001667/GB-second, rounded to 100ms and billed in 64MB chunks.
How is Azure Logic Apps billed?
Consumption: built-in $0.000025/action, standard connector $0.000125, enterprise connector $0.001; data retention $0.12/GB-month. Standard plan: $0.1997/vCPU-hour + $0.0143/GiB-hour, plus storage/network.
How is GCP Workflows billed?
Internal steps $0.01/1,000 (5,000 free/month), external steps $0.025/1,000 (2,000 free/month); failures/retries count and billing is per 1,000-step increment.
What does 1M runs × 10 steps cost?
Editorial estimates: AWS Standard about $250; Express about $11.42; Azure all built-in about $250, 8 built-in + 2 standard connectors about $450; GCP all internal about $100, 8 internal + 2 external about $130; Azure Standard 1 vCPU/3.5GiB about $182.32 (benchmark capacity).
What about 100M runs × 10 steps?
AWS Standard about $25,000; Express about $1,141.88; Azure about $25,000/$45,000; GCP about $10,000/$13,000. At high throughput, Express/fixed plans/internal steps matter most.
Is Express always cheaper than Standard?
No. At 10 steps/64MB, Express is cheaper while average duration is below about 239 seconds (~4 minutes); longer runs or standard state-machine/audit needs favor Standard.
When is Azure Standard cheaper than Consumption?
At 1 vCPU/3.5GiB fixed cost of about $182.32/month, the break-even is about 7.29M built-in actions/month; whether one vCPU can carry it depends on workflow complexity—benchmark and scale out, don't rely on the formula alone.
How much do connectors/retries add?
Azure standard connectors cost $0.000125/action and enterprise $0.001 (5x/40x built-in); AWS/GCP retries count as transitions/steps. Model retry rate, connector calls and external steps—they often drive the bill more than the unit price.
Research method and limitations
This article separates “official price facts” from “editorial calculations.” AWS Standard/Express prices and examples come from the AWS Step Functions pricing page (US East); Azure Consumption/Standard/connectors/data retention/ISE/Integration Account come from the Azure Logic Apps pricing page and Azure Retail Prices API (eastus, 9 November 2026); GCP internal/external step prices and free allowances come from the Google Cloud Workflows pricing page (9 November 2026). TCO, break-even, hidden costs and the 90-day checklist are editorial.
Eight limitations: (1) public list prices only, excluding tax/discounts/commitments; (2) US East/US regions only; (3) assumes 10 steps/run, 64MB and 10s/run; (4) free allowance/logs/storage/tax/discounts excluded; (5) not all connector/external-step/retry combinations are included; (6) no real throughput/latency/failure-recovery benchmark; (7) the Azure Standard 1 vCPU/3.5GiB capacity assumption needs validation; (8) prices/features change, so recheck official pages and bills before purchase.
Sources and basis
- AWS, Step Functions Pricing: aws.amazon.com/step-functions/pricing. Standard/Express, free allowance, examples. Accessed 9 November 2026.
- Microsoft Azure, Logic Apps Pricing: azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/logic-apps. Consumption/Standard/connectors/ISE/Integration Account. Accessed 9 November 2026.
- Azure Retail Prices API (productName contains Logic Apps, eastus): prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices. Actions/connectors/Standard/reservation prices. Accessed 9 November 2026.
- Google Cloud, Workflows Pricing: cloud.google.com/workflows/pricing. Internal/external steps, free allowance, examples. Accessed 9 November 2026.
Data cut-off 9 November 2026; prices/availability follow the AWS/Azure/Google official pages and bills; this is not procurement, commercial or legal advice.