Azure Queue Storage vs Google Cloud Pub/Sub
A comparison of Azure Queue Storage and Google Cloud Pub/Sub built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
- Pick Azure Queue Storage if
- Azure-resident systems that want a queue billed like storage — operations plus depth, no plan to choose and no capacity to provision.
- Pick Google Cloud Pub/Sub if
- Google Cloud systems that want messaging without capacity planning — throughput is metered rather than provisioned, and 10 GiB a month costs nothing.
4 sourced criteria separate them:
- Pricing model
- Azure Queue Storage: Per 10,000 operations plus stored data, with the rate set by redundancy: LRS Class 1 operations are $0.004 per 10,000, ZRS and GRS cost more for the same call. There is no plan fee and no included allowance.
- Google Cloud Pub/Sub: Three meters: throughput at $40 per TiB counting both publish and subscribe, storage at $0.27 per GiB-month for anything retained beyond a day, and data transfer when throughput crosses a zone or region boundary. Pub/Sub Lite is a separate product priced on reserved capacity rather than usage.
- Included per month
- Azure Queue Storage: None included — every operation is billed. Class 1 operations are $0.004 per 10,000 on LRS in East US, which is $0.40 per million, matching Amazon SQS's standard rate exactly.
- Google Cloud Pub/Sub: 10 GiB of throughput free per billing account per calendar month, then $40 per TiB. Throughput counts bytes written to a topic plus bytes read from a subscription, so a message published once and read once is billed twice. BigQuery and Cloud Storage subscriptions are $50 per TiB and the 10 GiB does not apply to them; import topics run $50 or $80 per TiB by source.
- Maximum message size
- Azure Queue Storage: 64 KB per message. A queue may hold millions of messages, bounded only by the storage account's capacity rather than a queue-level ceiling.
- Google Cloud Pub/Sub: Pub/Sub bills on bytes rather than message count; the pricing page states no per-message size ceiling and prices throughput and storage instead.
- Message retention
- Azure Queue Storage: Messages in the queue are billed as stored data at $0.045 per GB-month on LRS, rather than granted as a retention window. Azure charges for depth, not for time.
- Google Cloud Pub/Sub: Retention is configurable and charged rather than granted: $0.27 per GiB-month for messages a topic is configured to retain, for snapshots, and for a subscription's backlog older than one day. A subscription's default retention is 7 days.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Azure Queue Storage 0
Google Cloud Pub/Sub 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Azure Queue Storage | Google Cloud Pub/Sub |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Pricing model | Per 10,000 operations plus stored data, with the rate set by redundancy: LRS Class 1 operations are $0.004 per 10,000, ZRS and GRS cost more for the same call. There is no plan fee and no included allowance. | Three meters: throughput at $40 per TiB counting both publish and subscribe, storage at $0.27 per GiB-month for anything retained beyond a day, and data transfer when throughput crosses a zone or region boundary. Pub/Sub Lite is a separate product priced on reserved capacity rather than usage. |
| Queues | ||
| Included per month | None included — every operation is billed. Class 1 operations are $0.004 per 10,000 on LRS in East US, which is $0.40 per million, matching Amazon SQS's standard rate exactly. | 10 GiB of throughput free per billing account per calendar month, then $40 per TiB. Throughput counts bytes written to a topic plus bytes read from a subscription, so a message published once and read once is billed twice. BigQuery and Cloud Storage subscriptions are $50 per TiB and the 10 GiB does not apply to them; import topics run $50 or $80 per TiB by source. |
| Maximum message size | 64 KB per message. A queue may hold millions of messages, bounded only by the storage account's capacity rather than a queue-level ceiling. | Pub/Sub bills on bytes rather than message count; the pricing page states no per-message size ceiling and prices throughput and storage instead. |
| Message retention | Messages in the queue are billed as stored data at $0.045 per GB-month on LRS, rather than granted as a retention window. Azure charges for depth, not for time. | Retention is configurable and charged rather than granted: $0.27 per GiB-month for messages a topic is configured to retain, for snapshots, and for a subscription's backlog older than one day. A subscription's default retention is 7 days. |
Where they differ.
Pricing model
- Azure Queue Storage
- Per 10,000 operations plus stored data, with the rate set by redundancy: LRS Class 1 operations are $0.004 per 10,000, ZRS and GRS cost more for the same call. There is no plan fee and no included allowance.
- Google Cloud Pub/Sub
- Three meters: throughput at $40 per TiB counting both publish and subscribe, storage at $0.27 per GiB-month for anything retained beyond a day, and data transfer when throughput crosses a zone or region boundary. Pub/Sub Lite is a separate product priced on reserved capacity rather than usage.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Azure Retail Prices API — Queues v2, eastus ↗
“"LRS Class 1 Operations", "10K", 0.004 [...] "ZRS Class 2 Operations", "10K", 0.004 [...] "GRS Class 1 Operations", "10K", 0.008”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — Google Cloud Pub/Sub ↗
“Throughput costs for message publishing and delivery [...] Data transfer costs associated with throughput that crosses a Google Cloud zone or region boundary [...] Storage costs associated with retaining messages [...] Pub/Sub Lite throughput and storage charges, by contrast, are based on reserved capacity.”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Included per month
- Azure Queue Storage
- None included — every operation is billed. Class 1 operations are $0.004 per 10,000 on LRS in East US, which is $0.40 per million, matching Amazon SQS's standard rate exactly.
- Google Cloud Pub/Sub
- 10 GiB of throughput free per billing account per calendar month, then $40 per TiB. Throughput counts bytes written to a topic plus bytes read from a subscription, so a message published once and read once is billed twice. BigQuery and Cloud Storage subscriptions are $50 per TiB and the 10 GiB does not apply to them; import topics run $50 or $80 per TiB by source.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Azure Retail Prices API — Queues v2, eastus ↗
“"productName": "Queues v2", "meterName": "LRS Class 1 Operations", "unitOfMeasure": "10K", "retailPrice": 0.004”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — Google Cloud Pub/Sub ↗
“the first 10 GiB of throughput [...] is free. After that, the price is $40 per TiB in all Google Cloud regions. [...] BigQuery subscriptions cost $50 per TiB [...] Import topics (for Cloud Storage, Azure Event Hubs, AWS MSK, or Confluent Cloud) cost $80 per TiB”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Maximum message size
- Azure Queue Storage
- 64 KB per message. A queue may hold millions of messages, bounded only by the storage account's capacity rather than a queue-level ceiling.
- Google Cloud Pub/Sub
- Pub/Sub bills on bytes rather than message count; the pricing page states no per-message size ceiling and prices throughput and storage instead.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Introduction to Azure Queue Storage — Microsoft Learn ↗
“A queue message can be up to 64 KB in size. A queue may contain millions of messages, up to the total capacity limit of a storage account.”
Read 2026-09-06 · official docs
- Pricing — Google Cloud Pub/Sub ↗
“Throughput is the total number of bytes written (publish throughput) to a Pub/Sub topic or read (subscribe throughput) from a subscription to a topic over an interval of time.”
Read 2026-09-06 · official docs
Message retention
- Azure Queue Storage
- Messages in the queue are billed as stored data at $0.045 per GB-month on LRS, rather than granted as a retention window. Azure charges for depth, not for time.
- Google Cloud Pub/Sub
- Retention is configurable and charged rather than granted: $0.27 per GiB-month for messages a topic is configured to retain, for snapshots, and for a subscription's backlog older than one day. A subscription's default retention is 7 days.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Azure Retail Prices API — Queues v2, eastus ↗
“"meterName": "LRS Data Stored", "unitOfMeasure": "1 GB/Month", "retailPrice": 0.045”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — Google Cloud Pub/Sub ↗
“Storage costs of $0.27 per GiB-month are charged for the following: A topic is configured to retain messages [...] an attached subscription with message retention duration set to the default of 7 days”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Which should you choose?
Choose Azure Queue Storage if…
Azure-resident systems that want a queue billed like storage — operations plus depth, no plan to choose and no capacity to provision.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose Google Cloud Pub/Sub if…
Google Cloud systems that want messaging without capacity planning — throughput is metered rather than provisioned, and 10 GiB a month costs nothing.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- Azure Queue Storage: Queued messages are billed as stored data, so a backlog costs money by the gigabyte-month, and there is no free allowance at all where SQS gives a million requests a month.
- Google Cloud Pub/Sub: Throughput counts bytes both in and out, so a message read once is billed twice, and retention is a storage charge rather than an included window — the headline $40 per TiB is not the whole bill.
Documented by only one.
These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.
Questions this comparison answers.
Should I choose Azure Queue Storage or Google Cloud Pub/Sub?
Pick Azure Queue Storage if Azure-resident systems that want a queue billed like storage — operations plus depth, no plan to choose and no capacity to provision.
Pick Google Cloud Pub/Sub if Google Cloud systems that want messaging without capacity planning — throughput is metered rather than provisioned, and 10 GiB a month costs nothing.