Choosing a cloud is one of the first technical decisions a new Indian company makes, and it is hard to undo. All three major providers now run at least two regions in India, and their startup programmes offer between $1,000 and $350,000 in credits depending on stage and funding. This guide compares credits, India regions and real on-demand prices checked on 7 November 2026.
The short answer
For most small Indian companies the cloud choice comes down to three things: which credits you can actually qualify for, whether you need two Indian regions for disaster recovery or data residency, and which ecosystem your team already knows. Raw compute prices for entry-level machines are close between AWS Mumbai and Azure Central India, so pricing alone rarely decides it.
A bootstrapped founder with no institutional investor usually qualifies for AWS Activate Founders or the standard Microsoft for Startups offer, both in the low thousands of dollars. A venture-backed company that has raised a priced or SAFE round can apply for the much larger Google Cloud Scale tier or AWS Activate Portfolio through its investor.
Startup credits side by side
Credits are the biggest financial difference in year one. Google Cloud's Scale tier pays 100% of usage up to $100,000 in the first year and then 20% of spend up to another $100,000 in year two, for a total of up to $200,000. AI-first startups get up to $250,000 in year one, taking the ceiling to $350,000.
AWS Activate Founders starts at $1,000 and can reach $5,000 for self-funded startups, while Portfolio offers up to $200,000 through an Activate Provider such as a VC or accelerator. Microsoft offers up to $5,000 to any eligible startup and says credits can grow to $150,000 over time with verified progress and Azure usage.
| Programme | Entry offer | Top offer | Key condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS Activate | $1,000 (Founders, up to $5,000) | Up to $200,000 (Portfolio) | Pre-Series B, founded in the last 10 years |
| Google for Startups Cloud | $2,000 (Start tier) | Up to $350,000 (AI startups, Scale) | Institutional pre-seed to Series A funding, under 5 years old |
| Microsoft for Startups | Up to $5,000 | Up to $150,000 over time | Investor Network referral for higher offers |
India regions and availability zones
AWS runs Asia Pacific (Mumbai) and Asia Pacific (Hyderabad). The Hyderabad region launched in November 2022 with three availability zones, and AWS said it planned to invest $4.4 billion (₹36,300 crore) in India by 2030. Google Cloud opened Mumbai (asia-south1) in 2017 with three zones and added Delhi NCR (asia-south2) as its second Indian region in 2021.
Azure lists four Indian regions: Central India (Pune), India South Central (Hyderabad), South India (Chennai) and West India (Mumbai). Only Central India and India South Central offer three availability zones. Microsoft has also announced a $17.5 billion investment in Indian cloud and AI infrastructure across 2026 to 2029.
| Provider | India regions | Availability zones |
|---|---|---|
| AWS | Mumbai, Hyderabad | Hyderabad: 3 |
| Google Cloud | Mumbai, Delhi NCR | Mumbai: 3, Delhi: 3 |
| Azure | Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai | Pune: 3, Hyderabad: 3, others none |
Entry-level compute prices in India
We pulled on-demand Linux prices from the AWS Price List for Mumbai (published 7 November 2026) and from the Azure Retail Prices API for Central India on the same date. Monthly figures assume 730 hours. At the bottom end the two are nearly identical: an AWS t4g.micro and an Azure B2pts v2 both cost $0.0056 an hour, about $4.09 a month.
Google Cloud publishes Indian region prices on its pricing calculator, but we could not retrieve them in a verifiable form for this update, so we leave them out rather than guess. Check the calculator for asia-south1 and asia-south2 before you commit.
| Machine | vCPU / RAM | Hourly (USD) | Monthly at 730 h |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS t4g.micro (Mumbai) | 2 / 1 GiB | $0.0056 | $4.09 |
| AWS t4g.small (Mumbai) | 2 / 2 GiB | $0.0112 | $8.18 |
| AWS t4g.medium (Mumbai) | 2 / 4 GiB | $0.0224 | $16.35 |
| Azure B1s (Central India) | 1 / 1 GiB | $0.0112 | $8.18 |
| Azure B2s (Central India) | 2 / 4 GiB | $0.0448 | $32.70 |
| Azure D2s v5 (Central India) | 2 / 8 GiB | $0.101 | $73.73 |
Managed database and network costs
Databases and networking often cost more than the servers. On AWS Mumbai, a single-AZ RDS PostgreSQL db.t4g.micro costs $0.021 an hour (about $15.33 a month), and a managed NAT gateway adds $0.056 an hour plus $0.056 per GB processed. Every public IPv4 address is billed at $0.005 an hour.
On Azure Central India, a Burstable B1ms PostgreSQL Flexible Server costs $0.0245 an hour, about $17.89 a month. Data leaving AWS Mumbai to the internet is free for the first 100 GB each month, aggregated globally, and then $0.1093 per GB for the next 10 TB.
How to decide
Pick the provider where you can get the largest credit you genuinely qualify for, then check that its Indian regions match your residency and recovery needs. If your customers are enterprises already on Microsoft 365, Azure can shorten security reviews. If you are building AI-heavy products and have institutional funding, Google's AI tier is the largest headline offer.
Avoid splitting a small product across clouds. One account, one region and infrastructure as code from day one will save more money than chasing small price differences. Running two clouds doubles the identity setup, monitoring, billing reviews and security work for a team that is probably still under ten people, and it splits your credits so neither balance lasts as long.
- Bootstrapped: AWS Activate Founders or Microsoft for Startups standard offer
- Institutionally funded, AI-first: Google for Startups Scale AI
- Need two Indian regions with zones: AWS (Mumbai and Hyderabad) or Azure (Pune and Hyderabad)
- Microsoft-heavy customers: Azure
Common mistakes to avoid
Credits expire. Microsoft says startup credits are time-bound and cannot be extended once issued, and Google's Scale credits run over two years. Plan your architecture so that the bill after credits is affordable, not just the bill during them. Keep a simple monthly forecast of what you would pay at list prices, and review it each quarter as usage grows.
Another frequent mistake is leaving idle resources running. A forgotten NAT gateway in Mumbai costs about $40.88 a month before any traffic. XDQ Labs sets up budget alerts and tagging on day one for the startups it builds for, and that habit is worth copying whichever cloud you choose.
Frequently asked questions
Which cloud is cheapest for startups in India?
For entry-level Linux machines, AWS Mumbai and Azure Central India list near-identical prices: $0.0056 an hour for the smallest Arm instances on both, checked on 7 November 2026. The real difference is credits, which range from $1,000 to $350,000 depending on the programme and your funding stage.
Does AWS have a data centre region in India?
Yes. AWS runs two Indian regions, Asia Pacific (Mumbai) and Asia Pacific (Hyderabad). Hyderabad launched in November 2022 with three availability zones, and AWS said it planned to invest $4.4 billion in India by 2030.
How many Azure regions are there in India?
Microsoft lists four: Central India in Pune, India South Central in Hyderabad, South India in Chennai and West India in Mumbai. Central India and India South Central each have three availability zones; the other two do not offer zones.
Can a bootstrapped startup get Google Cloud credits?
Google's Start tier offers $2,000 to startups founded in the past two years with a working product. The larger Scale tier needs institutional pre-seed to Series A funding; angel, grant and friends-and-family money does not qualify for Scale.
Sources
- Scale at startup speed on Google Cloud (early-stage startups), Google Cloud, 2026
- Google for Startups Cloud Program, Google Cloud, 2026
- AWS Activate: startup credits, Amazon Web Services, 2026
- Microsoft for Startups overview, Microsoft Learn, 2026
- Azure startup programs and credits, Microsoft Learn, 2026
- Startup credit validity and extensions (Microsoft Q&A), Microsoft Learn, 2026
- Azure regions list, Microsoft Learn, 2026
- AWS launches second infrastructure region in India, to support 48,000 jobs, Business Standard, 2022
- AWS launches second cloud infrastructure region in India, iTnews Asia, 2022
- Wait over: Google opens first cloud region in India, DataCenterNews Asia, 2017
- Google opens Delhi cloud region, its second in India, DatacenterDynamics, 2021
- Microsoft to invest $17.5 billion in India to build cloud and AI infrastructure, YourStory, 2025
- AWS Price List: Amazon EC2, Asia Pacific (Mumbai), Amazon Web Services, 2026
- Azure Retail Prices API (Central India meters), Microsoft Azure, 2026
- AWS Price List: Amazon RDS and Aurora, Asia Pacific (Mumbai), Amazon Web Services, 2026
- AWS Price List: Amazon VPC (public IPv4), Asia Pacific (Mumbai), Amazon Web Services, 2026
- AWS Price List: AWS Data Transfer, Asia Pacific (Mumbai), Amazon Web Services, 2026
