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Cloud hosting · October 2026 Edition

Amazon Web Services vs Google Cloud

Eight of fourteen models named Amazon Web Services first on the direct prompt; one named Google Cloud. Amazon Web Services was named by fourteen of the fourteen models and Google Cloud by thirteen and Amazon Web Services carries 59 labels and Google Cloud 57, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Amazon Web Services

endorsed leader

Named in three categories this edition.

Google Cloud

accepted challenger

Named in twenty-three categories this edition.

First-choice share32%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate20%23%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#7A position in a field of 12; printed, not drawn.
Labels5957A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Amazon Web Services reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Microsoft Azure was named alongside these two in eight of the fourteen direct answers. Amazon Web Services vs Microsoft Azure · Amazon Web Services vs DigitalOcean Droplets · Amazon Web Services vs Hostinger

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the cloud hosting page.

By framing

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Amazon Web ServicesFirst choices, of fourteen modelsGoogle Cloud
Direct811 against Amazon Web Services · 1 against Google Cloud
Paraphrase801 against Amazon Web Services · 1 against Google Cloud
Comparative101
Budget-constrained004 against Amazon Web Services · 4 against Google Cloud
Scale-constrained00
Negative116 against Amazon Web Services · 7 against Google Cloud
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud were named in the same answer 158 times, of the 190 answers naming Amazon Web Services and the 253 naming Google Cloud. In those answers Google Cloud took the first choice one time and Amazon Web Services sixty-three.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.1 Fast
Mistral Small
DeepSeek V4 Flash
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 Flash
Kimi K2
GLM 4.7 FlashX
MiniMax M2.5
GPT-6 Luna
Muse Glimmer 30B
Amazon Web Services Google Cloud first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Amazon Web Services on the left and Google Cloud on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud stood in it.

Both were the first choice

1 of 14 modelsThe answer named them together, and the judge labeled each a first choice.
Mistral SmallAmazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure

Amazon Web Services first, Google Cloud an alternative

7 of 14 modelsGoogle Cloud was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
GPT-5.4 miniAmazon Web Services alternatives: Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
Gemini 3.5 FlashAmazon Web Services alternatives: Akamai Connected Cloud, Cloudways, DigitalOcean Droplets, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Render
Perplexity SonarAmazon Web Services alternatives: Atlantic.Net, Google Cloud, Hostinger
Grok 4.1 FastAmazon Web Services alternatives: Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
MiniMax M2.5Amazon Web Services, Azure
GPT-6 LunaAmazon Web Services alternatives: Azure, Google Cloud
Muse Glimmer 30BAmazon Web Services alternatives: Azure, DigitalOcean Droplets, Google Cloud, InMotion Hosting, Kamatera, Liquid Web

Neither was the first choice, one was named

4 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
DeepSeek V4 FlashMicrosoft Azure alternatives: Amazon Web Services, DigitalOcean Droplets, Google Cloud, Liquid Web
Qwen 3.7 FlashMicrosoft Azure alternatives: Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud
Kimi K2DigitalOcean Droplets, Vultr alternatives: Amazon Web Services, Atlantic.Net, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
GLM 4.7 FlashXMicrosoft Azure alternatives: Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud

Neither was named

2 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Claude Haiku 4.5Hyve Managed Hosting alternatives: Atlantic.Net, Kamatera
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Amazon Web Services leads by twelve points.
Amazon Web Services14%#2 of 14
Google Cloud2%#11 of 14
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Amazon Web Services leads by thirty points.
Amazon Web Services32%#1 of 12
Google Cloud2%#7 of 12
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
Amazon Web Services leads by forty-two points.
Amazon Web Services42%#1 of 8
Google Cloud0%#6 of 8
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Amazon Web Services

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.

“Avoid AWS and Azure for limited budgets” Kimi K2 · budget prompt · hard negative
“Raw hyperscalers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure if you want simple hosting for a small site or startup, because they are often too complex” Perplexity Sonar · negative prompt · soft negative
“AWS and Google Cloud both had multiple outages affecting core services and authentication/infrastructure components in recent history.” GPT-5.4 mini · negative prompt · soft negative
“As the first mover in the industry, AWS holds the largest market share. It offers the broadest selection of services and the most mature global infrastructure.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“the best cloud hosting providers for a mid-market B2B company are typically Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP)” Mistral Small · direct prompt · first choice
“Broadest services (240+), massive ecosystem, mature scalability/security. Pioneer/leader (30-31% market share). ... AWS wins most new workloads for breadth” Grok 4.1 Fast · direct prompt · first choice

What the models said about Google Cloud

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of five in this category shown.

“Raw hyperscalers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure ... require more self-management, and can become expensive” Perplexity Sonar · negative prompt · soft negative
“the major hyperscalers (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform) generally offer superior reliability” DeepSeek V4 Flash · negative prompt · first choice
“Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is known for its data analytics, AI/ML capabilities, and competitive pricing” Mistral Small · direct prompt · first choice
“GCP (3rd, fastest-growing ~28% YoY) | Data analytics, AI/ML, containers” Grok 4.1 Fast · comparative prompt · first choice
Also compared

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.