Serverless Compute Cost Comparison
Compare the same monthly request volume across Cloudflare Workers Paid, AWS Lambda Event (us-east-1 x86) and Vercel Fluid. Scenario A (default): 15M req — Workers ~$8, Lambda ~$2.80, Vercel iad1 ~$16.54. Scenario B (I/O-heavy) shows Workers' CPU-billing advantage when waiting on DB/API. Estimates only; provider pages prevail.
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| Provider | Subscription | Requests / inv | Compute | Total / mo | Math |
|---|
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Scenario A (API-ish default): 15M requests — Workers 7 ms CPU → ~$8; Lambda 50 ms @ 512 MB → ~$2.80 (free-tier compute); Vercel Fluid iad1 10 ms active + 1 GB + 50 ms alive → ~$16.54. Scenario B (I/O-heavy): same 15M; Lambda 200 ms @ 1024 MB; Vercel 5 ms active / 200 ms alive — shows Workers' CPU-billing advantage when waiting on DB/API (Lambda wall-clock and Vercel provisioned memory keep charging). Narrative: Workers = request + CPU-ms (+ $5 floor); Lambda = request + GB-s wall time (+ free tier); Vercel Fluid = active CPU + provisioned memory + invocations. Static-asset heavy → Workers wins hard (assets free). Deep AWS event integrations → Lambda still fits. Next.js on Vercel → Fluid is the default path — compare before assuming “free on Hobby.” Soft-link: CDN pack and object-storage pack for the storage → CDN → functions funnel. Soft-link Workers AI calculator — inference tokens ≠ Workers request/CPU (different product).
Estimates only. Official list prices as of 2026-11-03 (Asia/Shanghai); provider pages prevail. Sources: Workers · Lambda · Vercel Fluid
Cloudflare Workers Cost Calculator · AWS Lambda Cost Calculator · Vercel Functions Cost Calculator · Serverless Postgres Cost Comparison · CDN Bandwidth Cost Comparison · Object Storage Cost Comparison · CI/CD Cost Comparison
More in this group
- Cloudflare Workers Cost Calculator Workers Paid requests + CPU-ms → monthly $.
- AWS Lambda Cost Calculator Lambda Event us-east-1 x86 requests + GB-s → monthly $.
- Vercel Functions Cost Calculator Vercel Fluid CPU + memory + invocations → monthly $.
- Serverless Postgres Cost Comparison Neon vs Supabase vs PlanetScale Postgres monthly $.
- Redis / Cache Cost Comparison Upstash vs ElastiCache vs Cloudflare KV monthly $.
- CDN Bandwidth Cost Comparison Bunny vs Cloudflare vs CloudFront vs Fastly monthly CDN $.
- Object Storage Cost Comparison R2 vs S3 vs B2 storage + egress monthly bill.
- Cloudflare Workers AI Cost Calculator Workers AI tokens + Neurons footnote.
How it works
- Which is cheapest on Scenario A (15M API-ish)?
- Default Scenario A: Lambda Event us-east-1 ≈ $2.80 (compute inside free tier), Workers Paid ≈ $8.00, Vercel Fluid iad1 ≈ $16.54. Lambda wins on this specific free-tier-friendly shape; results flip with longer wall time or higher memory.
- What does Scenario B (I/O-heavy) show?
- Same 15M requests, but Lambda 200 ms @ 1024 MB and Vercel 5 ms active / 200 ms alive. Workers still bills only CPU-ms, while Lambda wall-clock GB-s and Vercel provisioned memory keep charging during waits — highlighting Workers' advantage on DB/API-bound work.
- How do the three billing models differ?
- Workers = requests + CPU-ms (+ $5 floor, no wall-clock). Lambda = requests + GB-seconds of wall time (+ free tier). Vercel Fluid = active CPU + provisioned memory while alive + invocations.
- When does Workers win hard?
- Static-asset-heavy traffic (assets free & unlimited on Workers) and I/O-bound handlers where wall-clock would dominate on Lambda/Vercel memory. Deep AWS event integrations still favor Lambda; Next.js on Vercel still defaults to Fluid — compare before assuming Hobby is free.
- Is Workers AI included?
- No. Soft-linked separately: Cloudflare Workers AI bills inference tokens and is a different product from Workers request/CPU platform pricing. Also soft-link the CDN bandwidth and object-storage comparison packs for the storage → CDN → functions funnel.