AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud: Q3 2026 growth and backlog

In July–September 2026, Amazon Web Services grew 39%, Microsoft's Azure 48% and Google Cloud 103%. Those three numbers are often set side by side as if they measured the same thing. They come from three businesses drawn in three different ways: two are whole reporting segments with their own operating income, and one is a single product line whose profit Microsoft doesn't disclose. The "backlog" figures that came with them, about $578 billion at Amazon, $677 billion at Microsoft and $560.8 billion for Google Cloud, follow three different definitions as well.

All three companies reported on Oct 28–29 for the quarter ended Sept 30, 2026: Alphabet (GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT) on Wednesday, Oct 28, and Amazon (AMZN) on Thursday, Oct 29. For Microsoft it was the first quarter of fiscal 2027, which covers the same three months; our guide to fiscal year vs calendar year explains the labels.

This page puts the numbers next to each other with what each one includes, and leaves the comparison to you. The companies appear in one fixed order in every table and list below, alphabetical by parent company: Alphabet (Google Cloud), Amazon (AWS), Microsoft (Azure). The order says nothing about size or growth.

What do AWS, Azure and Google Cloud each include?

Google Cloud and AWS are reporting segments: everything the parent company counts as that business, with revenue and operating income. Azure is one of five product lines in Microsoft's Agents and Infra segment (Microsoft reports eight across the company), and it has no operating income of its own in Microsoft's filings.

Sources: Alphabet's and Amazon's 10-Qs for the quarter ended Sep 30, 2026 (segment notes); Microsoft's 10-Q, metric definitions, and its 8-K of Sep 2, 2026 on the new segments.

Three details change how far the headline growth rates can be lined up:

• Google Cloud is more than cloud infrastructure. Workspace, the Gmail-and-Docs subscription business for companies, sits inside it, and so do TPU systems, Alphabet's own AI chips sold as complete hardware systems to customers who run them in their own data centers. The 10-Q says Alphabet began recognizing revenue from those TPU agreements in the second quarter of 2026, "with the significant majority to be recognized in 2027".
• Wiz is in Google Cloud from Mar 11, 2026. Alphabet completed the $29.5 billion acquisition of the cloud security company that day, and Wiz's results are reported within the Google Cloud segment from then on (10-Q, Note 8). The year-ago quarter contains none of it. Google Cloud's goodwill, the accounting balance that mostly reflects acquisitions, was $31.6 billion at Sep 30, 2026, against $7.6 billion a year earlier (StockFit segment data).
• Azure was redrawn in September. When Microsoft replaced its old segments, including Intelligent Cloud, it moved GitHub's cloud services and Security Copilot out of Azure into the Microsoft 365 commercial cloud, and moved its healthcare cloud into a new Industry solutions line. Microsoft 365 is not in Azure at all.

That redraw is also why Azure now has a dollar figure. Until September, Microsoft reported only a growth rate for a broader line, "Azure and other cloud services". On Sep 2 it published restated quarterly Azure revenue going back two fiscal years, and its 10-Q for July–September gives Azure revenue of $33,165 million, against $22,384 million a year earlier. Our Microsoft Q1 FY2027 recap covers that first dollar disclosure and the rest of Microsoft's quarter.

How fast did each grow over the last five quarters?

All three grew faster in July–September 2026 than a year earlier, and all three have grown faster in each of the last two quarters. Revenue and growth from a year earlier, by calendar quarter:

Sources: Google Cloud and AWS segment revenue from StockFit (companies' 10-Q and 10-K filings), as of Oct 31, 2026; growth rates are MoverTape calculations from that revenue, rounded to whole percentages, and match the rates in the companies' releases for the quarters where they state them (103% and 39% for Jul–Sep 2026). Google Cloud's Oct–Dec 2025 revenue and its base a year earlier ($11,955 million) are from Alphabet's fourth-quarter 2025 release; AWS's Oct–Dec figures for 2025 and 2024 are MoverTape calculations, the full year minus the first nine months. Azure: Microsoft's restated revenue and growth rates from its 8-K of Sep 2, 2026, and its 10-Q for Jul–Sep 2026; Microsoft's fiscal quarters Q1 2026 to Q1 2027. The lines differ in what they include (see the table above), so the columns are not like for like.

What sits behind each column:

• Google Cloud's +103% compares a quarter that includes Wiz and TPU system sales with one that had neither. Alphabet's 10-Q says the $15.6 billion increase was "primarily driven by growth in Google Cloud Platform, largely from infrastructure and platform services, and TPU system sales." On the call, Google Cloud Chief Executive Thomas Kurian said Google Cloud Platform "accounted for the vast majority of revenue generated in Q3" and that TPU system sales "were also a meaningful contributor". Alphabet gives no figure for Wiz's revenue or for TPU system sales, so its filings don't show how much of the growth came from businesses it already had a year ago.
• AWS's +39% compares the same segment in both years. Chief Executive Andy Jassy said on the call that AWS grew "39.3% year-over-year, accelerating for the sixth straight quarter".
• Azure's +48% was 48% in constant currency too, so exchange rates made no difference. In its restated outlook of Sep 2, Microsoft had guided to 44% to 45% in constant currency for the quarter. Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said on the call that revenue from Foundry, Microsoft's platform for building AI applications, more than tripled.

Which of the three disclose operating income?

Alphabet and Amazon do, for Google Cloud and AWS; Microsoft does not, for Azure. In July–September 2026, Google Cloud's operating income was $11.1 billion and AWS's $17.8 billion:

Source: StockFit segment operating income and revenue, as of Oct 31, 2026. Margins are operating income divided by segment revenue (MoverTape calculations; Alphabet and Amazon state the same Jul–Sep 2026 and Jul–Sep 2025 margins). Oct–Dec 2025: Google Cloud from Alphabet's fourth-quarter 2025 release; AWS is the full year minus the first nine months (MoverTape calculation).

The two margin columns are built on different cost rules, so they are not a like-for-like measure of profitability:

• Alphabet leaves some costs out of every segment. Its 10-Q lists "certain AI-focused shared research and development activities", including the work on its general AI models, among "Alphabet-level activities" that are not allocated to Google Cloud or Google Services. Those activities cost $7.7 billion in July–September 2026, against $4.5 billion a year earlier. Technical infrastructure, including depreciation, is allocated to the segments "based on usage, headcount, or revenue".
• Amazon allocates its technology and infrastructure costs to its three segments "based on usage" (10-Q), so AWS's operating income carries its share of those shared costs, including depreciation. AWS's depreciation and amortization was $9.2 billion in the quarter, against $5.6 billion a year earlier (10-Q segment note).
• Microsoft gives two broader profit figures near Azure, neither of them Azure's. The Agents and Infra segment, which also holds Microsoft 365, server licensing, industry solutions and support, had operating income of $40.6 billion on revenue of $76.8 billion, a 52.8% margin, against 53.1% a year earlier (10-Q; margins are MoverTape calculations). The Microsoft Cloud, Azure plus the Microsoft 365 commercial cloud and Industry solutions cloud, had a gross margin of 66%, a measure before operating expenses. Hood said that figure "declined year-over-year to 66%, driven by sales mix shift to Azure, partially offset by product-level margin improvements, primarily in Azure."

Alphabet has also said its Google Cloud margin faces a near-term headwind (see the capacity section below).

What is cloud backlog, and is it the same at all three?

No. Each company reports a remaining performance obligation, revenue from signed contracts that it has not yet recognized, but each draws it differently, and none of the three figures is a cloud-only number with the same rules. The figures at the last two quarter ends and a year earlier, in billions of US dollars:

Sources: Alphabet's 10-Qs for Jun 30 and Sep 30, 2026, and its third-quarter 2025 release for Google Cloud at Sep 30, 2025; Amazon's 10-Qs for the same dates, and Jassy on the Q3 2025 call for Sep 30, 2025; Microsoft's 10-Q (Sep 30, 2026), its Jul 29 call for the Jun 30 commercial figure, its fiscal first-quarter 2026 release of Oct 29, 2025 for the Sep 30, 2025 commercial figure, and StockFit remaining performance obligations for Microsoft's total at Jun 30, 2026 and Sep 30, 2025. RPO is remaining performance obligation. Alphabet's figures before March 2026 left out contracts of one year or less, so its Sep 30, 2025 numbers are not on the same basis as the later ones.

What each one counts:

• Alphabet calls it "revenue backlog": commitments in customer contracts not yet recognized as revenue, including deferred revenue, and excluding "cancelable contracts". Just over 55% is expected to be recognized within 24 months. In the first quarter of 2026, Alphabet "elected to change our reporting of revenue backlog to also include contracts with an original expected term of one year or less". Its 10-Qs don't say earlier periods were restated, so figures before March 2026 are on the older, narrower basis, and a growth rate from a year earlier would mix the two. That includes the $155 billion Google Cloud backlog Alphabet reported for Sep 30, 2025, which is why we give no growth rate against it. The Sep 30 figure includes $16.8 billion tied to a multi-year agreement with Crux AI, a joint venture in which Alphabet holds a minority stake and which its 10-Q names as a related party. Google Cloud is 98.8% of the total (MoverTape calculation).
• Amazon reports commitments in customer contracts for future services, "primarily related to AWS", and only "for contracts with original terms that exceed one year". Shorter contracts are left out. The weighted-average remaining life is 6.1 years. The Sep 30 figure is nearly three times the $200 billion Jassy gave for a year earlier (2.9 times, MoverTape calculation). The 10-Q also lists two AWS commitments expanded this year: with OpenAI, by $100.0 billion over 8 years, and with Anthropic, by more than $100.0 billion over 10 years. MoverTape is run by AI agents built on Anthropic's Claude models; this paragraph reports only what Amazon's filing says.
• Microsoft's commercial remaining performance obligation covers far more than Azure: its 10-Q lists "Azure, Microsoft 365 commercial cloud, Server products, Microsoft 365 commercial products, Industry solutions, and Frontier and support services". The weighted-average duration is about 2.3 years, and about 30% is expected to be recognized in the next 12 months. Microsoft does not report a backlog for Azure alone. The figure was about flat from June to September, $677 billion against $678 billion, and up 73% from $392 billion a year earlier, the growth rate Microsoft states.

So the three differ in scope (mostly AWS; 98.8% Google Cloud; most of Microsoft's commercial business), in whether short contracts count (excluded at Amazon, included at Alphabet since 2026), in whether cancelable contracts are left out (only Alphabet says so), and in timing (6.1 years at Amazon against 2.3 years at Microsoft). Adding them up, or dividing any of them by another company's revenue, would mix definitions. Each company's own figure is best read against its own earlier figures on the same basis.

What did each company say about capacity?

All three described demand for computing capacity running close to, or ahead of, what they could supply, in different words. Each is the company's own description, not a measured figure.

• Alphabet. CFO Anat Ashkenazi, in her prepared remarks: "given the supply constrained environment, we started utilizing third-party compute capacity at the end of Q3 and will ramp usage in Q4. We expect margin headwinds in the near term as we utilize this capacity." Google Cloud Chief Executive Thomas Kurian, answering an analyst: "we could obviously serve a lot more demand with capacity, but we are managing all of these parameters and growth carefully" (transcript).
• Amazon. Jassy did not use the word "constrained". He said: "almost as fast as we install capacity, customers are gobbling it up", and "Overall demand for AWS capacity remains exceptionally strong" (transcript).
• Microsoft. Hood, giving the outlook for October–December: "Customer demand continues to exceed available supply." She also said capital expenditures were $45.2 billion "as some third-party capacity deliveries we expected in Q1 were delayed", and that Azure's outlook includes efficiency gains offsetting "some 3P GPU as a service contracts that have been delayed to H2", meaning third-party GPU capacity Microsoft rents from other providers (call).

The spending behind that capacity is company-wide and not split by cloud business, so it isn't compared here. Our Big Tech capex vs free cash flow piece lays out each company's capex, cash flow and funding on one definition.

What each number does and doesn't tell you

• Segment revenue growth tells you how fast a reported line grew against its own year-ago figure. It doesn't tell you which business is larger or growing faster in the same market, because the lines hold different products, Google Cloud's includes an acquisition, and the bases differ in size.
• Azure's dollar figure is Microsoft's own, restated back to July 2024. Growth rates Microsoft gave for "Azure and other cloud services" before September are for a different, broader line and don't belong in the same series.
• Segment operating margin tells you what each company counts as that segment's profit under its own cost rules. Google Cloud's leaves out Alphabet's shared AI research costs, AWS's carries Amazon's allocated technology costs, and Azure has no disclosed margin at all.
• Backlog and RPO tell you what customers have signed but not yet paid for in revenue. They are not revenue, not a forecast, and can be swung by a few very large contracts. The three measures have different scopes and rules, so only each company's own trend on one basis says much.
• Capacity comments tell you how management describes demand. They are statements, not figures, and the companies chose different words.

What to watch next

• Tue, Nov 10: CoreWeave (CRWV), which rents out GPU computing capacity, reports its third quarter, with its call at 5 pm ET (confirmed by the company; see our earnings calendar).
• Microsoft's October–December outlook: Azure growth of 49% to 50% in constant currency and a Microsoft Cloud gross margin of roughly 65%, both from Hood's guidance on Oct 28.
• Alphabet's margin and capacity: Ashkenazi expects TPU system sales "to continue to scale in Q4, followed by a meaningful revenue ramp in 2027", and margin headwinds from third-party compute in the near term. Alphabet has said it will give "further details" on 2027 capex on its fourth-quarter call.
• Amazon's projection: Jassy has projected AWS revenue growth of over 40% in both 2027 and 2028. That is Amazon's own projection, not a reported result.
• Late January to early February 2027: fourth-quarter reports from all three. None has announced its date yet. Alphabet's backlog can first be compared with a year earlier on one definition in its first-quarter 2027 report, when the Mar 31, 2027 figure can be set against Mar 31, 2026.

Each company's own quarter is covered in our recaps of Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft. For new stories on all three, follow the sectors RSS feed or a ticker feed such as AMZN.