Cloud Load Balancer Pricing in India: Fixed Fees, Data Charges and Hidden Costs

September 1, 2026

13 min read

Quick Answer: Cloud load balancer pricing is rarely just an hourly fee. AWS, Azure and Google Cloud combine a base or rule charge with usage-based meters such as capacity units or processed data. Internet egress, public IPs, cross-zone traffic, WAF, NAT, logging and other networking services may be billed separately. For Indian buyers, compare the complete traffic path rather than the load balancer’s starting price.

Load balancers look simple on an architecture diagram: traffic enters, the load balancer distributes it across healthy servers, and the application stays available.

The bill is less simple.

A load balancer can create several separate charges as traffic passes through the cloud network. Depending on the provider and product, these may include:

Hourly load balancer or forwarding-rule charges
Data processing
Capacity units
New or active connections
Rule evaluations
Public IPv4 addresses
Cross-zone data transfer
Internet egress
NAT gateways
Web application firewalls
Logging and monitoring

This is why the load balancer itself may represent only a small part of the final networking cost.

If you are reviewing an application’s full cloud bill, also see the Cloud Pricing Hidden Costs in India guide.

Pricing note: Public pricing referenced in this article was checked on 1 September 2026. Cloud rates can vary by region, billing account, currency, taxes and product configuration. USD prices are left in USD rather than converted to INR because exchange rates change. See the INR vs USD Cloud Billing Guide for the additional impact of currency conversion and tax treatment.

First, Compare the Right Type of Load Balancer

Not every product called a “load balancer” performs the same job.

At a high level:

Type	Common Layer	Typical Use
Network Load Balancer	Layer 4	TCP/UDP, high-throughput network traffic
Application Load Balancer	Layer 7	HTTP/HTTPS, host routing, path routing, APIs
Gateway Load Balancer	Network/security layer	Firewalls and network appliances
Managed appliance/capacity service	Varies	Fixed-capacity enterprise load balancing

This matters when comparing prices.

For example, AWS Application Load Balancer is a Layer 7 product, while Azure Standard Load Balancer primarily operates at Layer 4. Azure Application Gateway or Front Door may be more relevant for some Layer 7 use cases.

Similarly, Indian provider offerings may bundle a defined amount of compute, throughput or concurrent connections rather than use the hyperscaler model of a small fixed fee plus detailed traffic meters.

The prices below therefore show how different providers charge for load balancing, not an exact feature-for-feature comparison.

Cloud Load Balancer Pricing at a Glance

Provider / Service	Fixed Pricing Model	Usage-Based Component	Cost to Watch
AWS Application Load Balancer	Regional hourly LB fee	LCU-hours	Data transfer, cross-AZ paths, IPv4, WAF
Azure Standard Load Balancer	Hourly rule charge	Data processed	Bandwidth, public IP, NAT
Google Cloud Load Balancing	Forwarding-rule charge	Data processed	Egress, internal proxy instances, NAT
AceCloud Load Balancer	Hourly / monthly	Plan dependent	IP and network resources
E2E Networks Load Balancer	Hourly / monthly appliance plan	Capacity based	Security add-ons, plan limits
Yotta Yntraa LBaaS	Monthly capacity tier	Capacity based	One-time charge, VIPs, throughput
Shakti Cloud Network LB	Monthly service charge	Plan / network dependent	Egress and network add-ons

The important difference is the billing model.

Hyperscalers generally start with a relatively low fixed charge and add usage-based networking costs.

Some Indian cloud offerings instead sell a defined amount of load-balancing capacity for a more predictable monthly fee.

AWS Application Load Balancer Pricing

AWS Application Load Balancer pricing has two main components:

A charge for every hour or partial hour the load balancer runs
A charge for Load Balancer Capacity Units, or LCUs

For the AWS Mumbai region, the Application Load Balancer hourly rate is approximately $0.0239 per hour, while LCU usage is charged at $0.008 per LCU-hour.

At 730 hours per month:

Fixed ALB cost ≈ $17.45/month

That is only the starting point.

How AWS LCUs Work

AWS calculates Application Load Balancer usage across four dimensions:

New connections
Active connections
Processed bytes
Rule evaluations

The highest LCU-consuming dimension determines the usage charge for that period.

For processed bytes, one LCU includes 1 GB per hour when targets are EC2 instances, containers or IP addresses.

The first 10 processed rules per request are excluded from the rule-evaluation calculation.

Example: 10 TB of Byte-Heavy Traffic

Assume processed bytes are the dominant LCU dimension and the load balancer handles approximately 10,000 GB during the month.

At $0.008 per LCU-hour:

10,000 × $0.008 ≈ $80

Add the fixed load balancer charge:

$80 + $17.45 ≈ $97.45

That still does not necessarily represent the complete networking bill.

Data transfer, public IPv4, AWS WAF and other services can create additional charges depending on the architecture.

This is why an AWS ALB with a fixed cost of less than $20 per month can produce a much larger finished bill.

For a broader view of AWS pricing against another hyperscaler, see the AWS vs Azure cloud comparison.

Azure Standard Load Balancer Pricing

Azure Standard Load Balancer uses a more direct billing model.

The commonly listed Standard regional pricing is:

First five load-balancing or outbound rules: $0.025/hour
Additional rules: $0.01 per rule/hour
Data processed: $0.005/GB
Inbound NAT rules: Free

At 730 hours:

Base rule charge ≈ $18.25/month

If the load balancer processes 10,000 GB:

Data processing ≈ $50

That brings the simplified load-balancer portion to roughly:

$68.25/month

But bandwidth is separate.

Microsoft specifically notes that bandwidth charges can apply in addition to Standard Load Balancer data-processing charges.

So an outbound request can create:

Load balancer data-processing cost + outbound bandwidth cost

depending on the traffic path.

What Happened to Azure Basic Load Balancer?

Microsoft retired Basic Load Balancer on 30 September 2025.

Standard Load Balancer is therefore the appropriate baseline for new deployments.

There is one 2026 nuance worth knowing: Microsoft says existing Basic Load Balancers may continue operating after the retirement date, but they are unsupported and no longer covered by SLA guarantees.

For new infrastructure, that makes Standard the relevant option to model.

Google Cloud Load Balancing Pricing

Google Cloud also separates the forwarding rule from processed traffic.

For common regional load-balancing configurations, including Mumbai and Delhi, public pricing lists:

First five forwarding rules: $0.025/hour
Additional forwarding rules: $0.01/hour each
Inbound data processed: $0.008/GiB
Outbound data processed: $0.008/GiB

At 730 hours, the initial forwarding-rule charge is approximately:

$18.25/month

Traffic then adds another meter.

If total billable inbound and outbound traffic equals 10,000 GiB:

10,000 × $0.008 ≈ $80

Internet data transfer out can still apply separately.

This distinction matters because a workload can incur both:

Load-balancer processing + internet egress

Internal Application Load Balancers Have Another Cost

Google Cloud’s regional internal Application Load Balancers use managed proxy instances.

Google allocates at least three proxy instances per load balancer region, even when the load balancer has little or no traffic.

At a $0.025 per-proxy hourly reference:

3 × $0.025 = $0.075/hour

Over 730 hours:

Minimum proxy component ≈ $54.75/month

That is before applicable forwarding-rule and data-processing charges.

So an idle load balancer is not always a free load balancer.

Cross-Zone Traffic Can Cost More Than Expected

Load balancers are commonly used to distribute workloads across multiple Availability Zones or failure domains.

That improves resilience.

It can also change the bill.

AWS Network Load Balancer provides a useful example.

AWS documents an inter-zone data-transfer charge of $0.01/GB at each side of the transfer when traffic crosses Availability Zones in applicable NLB scenarios.

That means an exchange crossing an AZ boundary can effectively create:

$0.01/GB at the sender + $0.01/GB at the receiver

AWS published additional guidance in April 2026 specifically on reducing Network Load Balancer inter-zone transfer costs.

The exact behaviour depends on:

Load balancer type
Client location
Target location
Availability Zone
VPC design
Public vs private routing
Cross-zone configuration

Application Load Balancers do not produce exactly the same cross-zone charges in every scenario.

Do not apply one AWS networking-cost assumption to every Elastic Load Balancing product.

This is also why availability decisions should be evaluated together with cost. The Cloud SLA Comparison Guide for India explains why a higher infrastructure SLA only helps when the complete architecture is designed to qualify for it.

Indian Cloud Providers Use Different Pricing Models

Indian providers can make load-balancer billing easier to understand because some use hourly, monthly or capacity-based pricing rather than several traffic dimensions.

However, these products are not always technically equivalent to AWS ALB, Azure Standard Load Balancer or Google Cloud Load Balancing.

Compare the underlying service before comparing the number on the price list.

AceCloud Load Balancer Pricing

AceCloud currently lists its Linux Load Balancer for the Noida region at:

₹1.84/hour
₹1,328/month

AceCloud notes that pricing can vary for other regions.

This is a simpler fixed starting point than an LCU-style model, but buyers should still verify whether public IPs, bandwidth or other networking resources are billed separately for the final architecture.

E2E Networks Load Balancer Pricing

E2E Networks exposes its load-balancer plans through its public API documentation.

Its E2E-LB-2 Delhi configuration currently includes:

4 vCPU
6 GB RAM
10 GB disk
Up to 50,000 concurrent connections
₹2/hour
₹1,460/month

Optional BitNinja protection is listed at ₹760/month.

This is a different model from AWS LCUs or Azure per-GB processing.

E2E is effectively exposing a defined load-balancer appliance configuration with a known amount of backing capacity.

Yotta Yntraa Load Balancer Pricing

Yotta’s Yntraa Cloud publishes capacity-based Load Balancer as a Service plans.

Its 250 Mbps tier includes:

250 Mbps throughput
1 VIP
100 SSL transactions per second
Up to 70,000 concurrent connections

For that tier, the public page lists:

₹10,000 monthly recurring charge (MRC)
₹20,000 one-time charge (OTC)

Additional VIPs can be purchased separately.

Yotta also lists a 99.5% uptime SLA for the service and availability in Navi Mumbai and Noida.

This is a useful example of why comparing only monthly prices can be misleading: the offering is sold around defined capacity rather than per-GB processing.

Shakti Cloud Network Load Balancer

Shakti Cloud lists a Layer 4 Network Load Balancer at:

₹36,700 per unit / CSP / port per month

Its pricing page separately lists networking components such as public IPs and ingress/egress charges.

Again, this is not directly comparable to an AWS ALB or a $0.025/hour forwarding rule.

It represents a different service and capacity model.

Fixed Fees Are Only One Part of Load Balancer TCO

When comparing load balancers, model the complete traffic path.

Cost Component	Why It Matters
Load balancer base fee	Hourly, monthly or forwarding-rule charge
Data processing	Can grow directly with traffic
Capacity units	AWS LCU/NLCU-style consumption
Internet egress	Often separate from LB processing
Cross-zone traffic	Multi-AZ architecture can create transfer charges
Public IPv4	Public-facing architectures may require chargeable IPs
NAT Gateway	Private backends may create NAT processing and hourly costs
WAF / security	Security policies may have request and rule charges
CDN	Can reduce origin traffic but adds its own pricing
Logging	Access logs, metrics and log storage can add cost
Certificates	Usually small or free in some setups, but not universally
Private connectivity	Peering, Private Link or dedicated connectivity may be separate
Taxes and FX	Important when an Indian account is billed in USD

This is the part of cloud load-balancer pricing that buyers should spend the most time modelling.

A low base price does not guarantee a low total cost.

Example: Why the Traffic Path Matters

Consider two simplified designs.

Architecture A

Load balancer:

₹1,500/month

But the application also generates:

Paid egress
Cross-zone transfer
Public IPv4 charges
NAT processing
WAF charges
High-volume logs

Architecture B

Load balancer:

₹10,000/month

But the plan includes more predictable capacity and avoids some metered network components.

Architecture B can still produce the lower finished bill.

That does not mean fixed-capacity services are always cheaper.

It means the correct comparison is:

Total application traffic cost

rather than:

Load balancer hourly rate

A Simple Load Balancer Cost Checklist

Before choosing a provider, answer these questions:

Is this a Layer 4 or Layer 7 load balancer?
What is the fixed hourly or monthly fee?
Is processed data charged?
Are inbound and outbound bytes both counted?
Are connections or capacity units metered?
Are additional routing rules charged?
Does the architecture need paid public IPs?
Is internet egress separate?
Can traffic cross Availability Zones?
Is cross-zone traffic chargeable?
Is a NAT Gateway required?
Is WAF or DDoS protection separate?
Are access logs and metrics chargeable?
Does a CDN change the traffic path?
Is GST included?
Is billing in INR or USD?
Are there one-time setup charges?
What happens when traffic is near zero?

For the wider procurement process, use the Cloud Provider Selection Checklist for India.

Which Load Balancer Pricing Model Is Easier to Budget?

There is no single cheapest model.

Usage-based hyperscaler pricing can work well when:

Traffic is low or highly variable
Global cloud services are already being used
Advanced cloud-native routing is required
The team can monitor network costs closely

Fixed or capacity-based pricing can work well when:

Traffic is relatively predictable
Budget predictability matters
The required capacity tier is known
Local billing and support are important
The bundled network economics are competitive

The correct choice depends on the full architecture.

A load balancer should therefore be evaluated together with compute, networking, security, bandwidth and availability requirements—not as an isolated line item.

FAQs

How much does a cloud load balancer cost per month?

The fixed portion can range from roughly $17–$20 per month on some hyperscaler configurations to much higher fixed-capacity plans. The final cost depends on processed data, connections, rules, bandwidth, cross-zone traffic, security services and other network resources.

Does a load balancer fee include bandwidth?

Usually not completely. AWS, Azure and Google Cloud can apply separate data-transfer or internet-egress charges in addition to load-balancer processing or capacity charges. Always check the full traffic path.

Does an idle load balancer still cost money?

Often, yes. AWS load balancers incur their hourly charge while provisioned. Azure Standard Load Balancer can avoid the hourly load-balancer charge when no rules are configured. Some Google internal Application Load Balancers allocate a minimum number of proxy instances even with little or no traffic.

Does cross-zone load balancing cost extra?

It can. The exact charge depends on the provider and load-balancer type. AWS Network Load Balancer, for example, can create inter-AZ data-transfer charges when clients, load-balancer interfaces or targets communicate across Availability Zones.

Is AWS ALB cheaper than Azure or Google Cloud Load Balancing?

There is no reliable answer from the base fee alone. AWS uses LCUs, Azure charges rules and processed data, and Google Cloud charges forwarding rules and processed traffic. Feature sets also differ. Compare the expected traffic, product type and surrounding network services.

Which cloud load balancer is cheapest in India?

There is no universal cheapest option. A low hourly rate can become expensive with high egress or cross-zone traffic, while a higher fixed-capacity plan can be economical at predictable utilisation. Calculate total monthly network cost for the actual workload.

Final Takeaway

The fixed load-balancer fee is usually the easiest part of the calculation.

The larger risk is the traffic around it.

Before choosing a load balancer, model:

Base fee + processed traffic + bandwidth + cross-zone transfer + IPs + NAT + security + logging + taxes

Then compare that finished amount against the required performance, availability and routing features.

Use the getInfra.cloud cloud comparison tool to compare provider-level pricing and infrastructure differences, but verify the exact load-balancer configuration and current rate directly with the provider before deployment.