AKS wins the control-plane comparison outright: it's free. EKS and GKE Standard both charge $0.10/hour — $73/month per cluster — though GKE hands back a ~$74/month credit that covers one zonal or Autopilot cluster, effectively cancelling it for small setups.
| Control plane | Notable | |
|---|---|---|
| AKS | free | + free cross-AZ transfer; ~$108/mo cheaper than EKS on a 3-node cluster |
| GKE | $0.10/hr, offset by ~$74/mo credit | Autopilot bills per pod — cheaper below ~60% utilization |
| EKS | $0.10/hr ($73/mo) | $0.60/hr ($438/mo) for extended support after 14 months |
But the control plane is under 10% of a real Kubernetes bill. The rest — compute nodes, persistent storage, cross-AZ egress, load balancer IPs, observability, managed add-ons, support tiers — accrues separately on every platform, and that's where the platforms actually diverge.
AKS's free control plane plus free cross-AZ data transfer adds up to roughly $108/month less than EKS on a modest three-node cluster. GKE Autopilot's pod-based billing beats provisioned VMs whenever your average utilization sits below ~60%, which describes a lot of clusters. And EKS has a trap worth circling: once a Kubernetes version hits extended support (about 14 months after release), the control plane jumps to $0.60/hour — $438/month — until you upgrade.
For a small team just picking a managed Kubernetes: AKS if you're anywhere near the [Microsoft](/entry/playwright-vs-cypress-vs-puppeteer-end-to-end-testing-and-where-cypress-charges) ecosystem or want the lowest baseline cost. GKE if your utilization is spiky and Autopilot's per-pod model fits. EKS if you're already all-in on AWS — just set a calendar reminder to upgrade Kubernetes versions before extended-support pricing kicks in.