Tools
Serverless vs VM cost
Serverless is cheaper until it isn't. It wins on spiky, low-volume traffic and loses to an always-on VM once load is steady. Enter your workload to find the crossover for your numbers.
Workload
Rates
- Serverless / month
- $0
- VM / month
- $0
- Cheaper
- —
Default rates approximate a common serverless tier; set your provider's real numbers. Ignores free tiers, egress, and cold starts.
The crossover
Serverless bills only for what runs, so at low or bursty volume you pay almost nothing while a VM bills 730 hours a month whether busy or idle. As steady traffic climbs, the per-request meter overtakes the flat VM rent. The right answer is rarely religious; it is wherever your real request volume sits on this curve. For the model-inference version of the same question, see self-host vs API.