GCP Egress Fees vs Hetzner Traffic Costs: The Complete Comparison

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Google Cloud Platform (GCP) has the most complex egress pricing of the three major hyperscalers. Particularly important: GCP calculates in GiB, not GB. In this article, we analyze the GCP egress pricing structure and compare it with Hetzner.

What Counts as GCP Egress?
GCP Egress Pricing Structure
GiB vs GB: The Hidden Cost Trap
Hetzner Traffic Comparison
Calculation Examples
How to Reduce GCP Egress?
Conclusion

What Counts as GCP Egress?

GCP distinguishes several traffic categories. Here we focus on Internet Egress:

What counts:

Compute Engine to Internet
Cloud Storage to Internet
Cloud SQL to external clients
Cloud Run to Internet
GKE to Internet

What does NOT count (here):

Inter-Region Traffic (separate pricing)
Intra-Zone Traffic (free)
Traffic to Google Services
Cloud CDN Delivery (separate pricing)

GCP Egress Pricing Structure

GCP offers only 1 GiB/month free – significantly less than AWS/Azure with 100 GB.

Internet Data Transfer (Premium Tier, to Europe)

Volume per Month	Price per GiB
0–1 GiB	Free
1 GiB – 1 TiB	$0.12
1 TiB – 10 TiB	$0.11
From 10 TiB	$0.085

Source: GCP VPC Network Pricing

Standard Tier (Cheaper Alternative)

GCP also offers a Standard Tier with cheaper prices but worse network performance:

Volume per Month	Price per GiB
0–1 GiB	Free
From 1 GiB	$0.085

Disadvantage: Traffic leaves Google's network earlier, which can lead to higher latency.

Important Note: Price Change February 2024

Google adjusted Premium Tier prices as of February 1, 2024. Old calculations may be outdated.

GiB vs GB: The Hidden Cost Trap

Attention: GCP calculates in GiB (Gibibyte), not GB (Gigabyte)!

Unit	Bytes	Ratio
1 GB	1,000,000,000	Base
1 GiB	1,073,741,824	+7.37%

What this means:

10 TB (decimal) = 9.31 TiB (binary)
If you think you're transferring 10 TB, GCP charges you only ~9.31 TiB
Sounds positive, but the prices per GiB are also higher

Effective price comparison:

AWS: $0.09/GB = $0.09/GB
GCP: $0.12/GiB = $0.112/GB (converted)

GCP is thus the most expensive of the three hyperscalers for egress.

Hetzner Traffic Comparison

Hetzner Cloud Server (EU)

Volume	Price
20 TB included	€0
Each additional TB	€1.19/TB (~$1.30/TB)

The Hetzner Principle

"We calculate monthly traffic only using outgoing traffic. We do not count incoming and internal traffic." – Hetzner Docs

Calculation Examples

Scenario 1: Small Web App (500 GB/month)

Provider	Calculation	Cost/Month
GCP (Premium)	465 GiB × $0.12	$56
Hetzner	Included	€0

Savings: 100%

Scenario 2: E-Commerce (5 TB/month)

Provider	Calculation	Cost/Month
GCP (Premium)	4.66 TiB × $0.11	$512
Hetzner	Included	€0

Savings: 100%

Scenario 3: SaaS Platform (25 TB/month)

Provider	Calculation	Cost/Month
GCP (Premium)	22.7 TiB × ~$0.095 (blended)	$2,160
Hetzner	5 TB overage × €1.19	~€6

Savings: 99.7%

Scenario 4: Video Streaming (100 TB/month)

Provider	Calculation	Cost/Month
GCP (Premium)	90.9 TiB × ~$0.088 (blended)	$8,000
Hetzner	80 TB overage × €1.19	~€95

Savings: 98.8%

How to Reduce GCP Egress?

If migration isn't (yet) possible:

1. Use Standard Tier

If latency isn't critical, Standard Tier can be ~30% cheaper.

2. Deploy Cloud CDN

Cloud CDN has its own (cheaper) egress prices for caching.

3. Enable Compression

gzip/brotli for Cloud Run and API responses.

4. Cloud Storage Classes

Nearline/Coldline have different egress structures – check for archiving.

5. Regional Buckets

Traffic from the "wrong" bucket location costs extra.

6. Migrate to Hetzner

For traffic-intensive workloads, the most effective solution.

GCP vs AWS vs Azure Egress

GCP is the most expensive hyperscaler for egress:

Volume	AWS	Azure	GCP (Premium)	GCP (Standard)
10 TB	$920	$891	~$1,020	~$790
50 TB	$4,165	$4,015	~$4,400	~$3,950
100 TB	$7,750	$7,415	~$8,000	~$7,600

All three remain 80-100x more expensive than Hetzner.

When is Migration Worth It?

Migration to Hetzner is particularly worthwhile for:

>1 TB egress/month: Savings become significant from here
No GCP-specific services: If primarily using Compute/Cloud SQL/Storage
EU-focused users: Latency to DE data centers acceptable
Predictable traffic: No extreme burst peaks

Conclusion

GCP has the most complex and expensive egress pricing of the three major hyperscalers. The combination of GiB calculation and higher base prices makes GCP the most expensive provider for traffic-intensive workloads.

Hetzner offers a dramatically cheaper alternative with 20 TB included and €1.19/TB overage – savings of 95-99% possible.

Next Steps

We analyze your GCP bill and show you specifically how much you can save through migration.

Request free GCP cost analysis now

FAQ

How much does 1 TB egress cost at GCP?

In Premium Tier, 1 TB at GCP costs approximately $112 ($0.12 × 931 GiB).

What's the difference between Premium and Standard Tier?

Premium Tier uses Google's global backbone network. Standard Tier leaves the Google network earlier and uses local ISPs – cheaper but with variable latency.

Why does GCP calculate in GiB?

GCP uses binary units (GiB/TiB), while AWS/Azure use decimal units (GB/TB). This makes direct price comparisons more complicated.

Is the GCP free tier for egress useful?

With only 1 GiB/month, the free tier is practically useless for real workloads. AWS/Azure offer 100 GB free.

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