Cloud-native, serverless & distributed SQL · AWS vs Google Cloud
Amazon Aurora Serverless v2 vs Spanner
Aurora Serverless v2 has no direct counterpart.
Spanner with its managed autoscaler adjusts compute capacity automatically, but it doesn't pause to zero, and Cloud SQL instances don't autoscale compute.
Side-by-side comparison
| Aspect | Amazon Web Services | Google Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Service | Amazon Aurora Serverless v2 | Spanner |
| Lifecycle | Generally available | Generally available |
| What it is | Aurora capacity that scales in 0.5-ACU steps between a minimum and maximum you set, and can scale to 0 ACUs with automatic pause and resume. | Globally distributed, strongly consistent relational database with GoogleSQL and PostgreSQL dialects, up to 99.999% availability, and compute measured in processing units or nodes. |
| Pricing model | Per ACU-hour consumed plus storage and I/O (or I/O-Optimized). | Spanner bills compute capacity (processing units or nodes) per hour by edition and region, plus storage. |
| Docs | Amazon Aurora Serverless v2 docs | Spanner docs |
| Pricing page | Amazon Aurora Serverless v2 pricing | Spanner pricing |
Key differences
- Spanner compute is measured in processing units and can be very small, but there is always a minimum capacity.
- Spanner is a different engine (GoogleSQL or PostgreSQL dialect), not a drop-in MySQL/PostgreSQL.
Pricing summary
Pricing models only. No prices are quoted because they change by region and over time.
- AWS
- Per ACU-hour consumed plus storage and I/O (or I/O-Optimized). Amazon Aurora Serverless v2 pricing →
- GCP
- Spanner bills compute capacity (processing units or nodes) per hour by edition and region, plus storage. Spanner pricing →
And on Azure?
Partial match Azure's equivalent is Azure SQL Database serverless, SQL database in Microsoft Fabric. AWS vs Azure comparison →
FAQ
What is the Google Cloud equivalent of Amazon Aurora Serverless v2?
Aurora Serverless v2 has no direct counterpart. Spanner with its managed autoscaler adjusts compute capacity automatically, but it doesn't pause to zero, and Cloud SQL instances don't autoscale compute.
How does pricing compare between Amazon Aurora Serverless v2 and Spanner?
AWS: Per ACU-hour consumed plus storage and I/O (or I/O-Optimized). Google Cloud: Spanner bills compute capacity (processing units or nodes) per hour by edition and region, plus storage. Check the official pricing pages for current rates.
What is the Azure equivalent?
Azure SQL Database serverless and SQL database in Microsoft Fabric (partial match). Microsoft maps Amazon Aurora Serverless v2 to Azure SQL Database serverless (and SQL database in Microsoft Fabric).