Egress Costs in AI Providers in Brazil: Oracle vs. Global Giants in 2026

In May 2026, a São Paulo-based SME paid R$ 12,000 in egress fees to AWS — 3 times its compute cost. This is the silent drama of anyone contracting AI services in the cloud in Brazil. While compute prices plummet, data egress fees remain the most expensive trap.

The major providers — AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle — are cutting compute and storage prices like never before. However, the real villain is hidden in the fine print: data egress. For a Brazilian SME, this fee can represent 30% of the monthly cloud bill (Source: AWS Pricing Calculator, 2026). And it only appears when you try to leave.

Technological lock-in has become the most profitable business in the sector. And your company is paying for it.

The Low Price That Hides the Trap

The logic is perverse. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google reduce the cost of hardware and AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) to attract customers. In Brazil, the competition is even more aggressive, with initial credits and volume discounts. But the gate only opens inward.

The cost of moving data between clouds — or out of them — remains prohibitive. On AWS, each GB transferred to the internet costs up to US$ 0.09. On Google Cloud, the price dropped 40% in 2026, but it is still charged for egress (Source: Google Cloud Pricing, 2026). Azure followed the same path. The problem is that a medium-sized company processing 10 TB of data per month pays over US$ 900 just to move out what it has already processed.

"Egress is the exit fee for your business. The big techs know that once you're in, it's cheaper to pay than to leave." — Carlos Menezes, senior analyst at IDC Brasil, in an interview with NeuralPulse.

This dependency is not accidental. Providers designed their platforms to be "addictive." Orchestration tools, proprietary databases, and exclusive APIs create a technical tangle. Migrating a workload from one data center to another takes, on average, 8 months in Brazil. And it costs 15% of the annual IT budget (Source: IDC Brasil, 2026).

Comparative Table: How Much Does It Cost to Leave the Cloud in 2026?

To make it clear, I've organized the main egress costs among the four giants. The values are for data transfer to the internet (public egress) in Brazil.

Source: Official public prices from each provider in June 2026. Own calculations based on AWS Pricing, Azure Pricing, Google Cloud Pricing, Oracle Cloud Pricing.

Oracle Cloud is the exception. It offers 10 TB of free egress per month. After that, the price goes up. But even so, it's a fraction of what AWS charges. The question remains: why don't companies migrate en masse?

Because migrating isn't just copying files. It involves rewriting integrations, training teams, and often refactoring entire systems. The lock-in is technical, not just financial.

The Hidden Cost of AIaaS: Technological Dependency and Scalability

AI as a Service (AIaaS) promises scalability without upfront investment. And it delivers. But the providers' business model is anchored in retention. The more you use machine learning APIs, the more your data gets trapped in proprietary formats.

A practical example: your company trains a recommendation model using AWS SageMaker. The model works. But if you want to migrate to Google's Vertex AI, you'll have to redo the entire data pipeline. The exit cost isn't just financial — it's operational.

For Brazilian SMEs, this is suffocating. An IDC survey shows that 60% of medium-sized companies in the country have an IT budget below R$ 2 million per year (Source: IDC Brasil, 2026). Spending 15% of that on a migration is unfeasible. They become hostages.

"The technological dependency generated by AIaaS is the new digital colonialism. The provider dictates the rules, and the customer pays to stay." — Ana Paula Rocha, IT governance specialist, in an article published in MIT Technology Review Brasil (Source: MIT Technology Review Brasil, 2026).

Some local providers, like Locaweb and UOL Host, try to surf this dissatisfaction. They offer free egress and lower prices. But they fall short in scale and in the offering of advanced AI services. For a startup that needs powerful GPUs to train models, the local cloud still doesn't replace the giants.

How to Escape the Trap (or Avoid Falling Into It)

The first rule is: read the contract with an eye on egress. Negotiate volume discounts before signing. Large clients can get reduced rates. SMEs, not always.

The second rule: diversify. Use multiple providers for different workloads. Put cold storage in one, processing in another. This reduces dependency and forces suppliers to compete for you.

The third rule: demand portability. Choose services based on open standards (Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, S3-compatible). Avoid proprietary databases and closed APIs. The initial cost may be slightly higher, but future freedom is worth every penny.

Finally, calculate the real TCO. Don't just look at the compute hour price. Add storage, egress, migration, and training costs. An honest spreadsheet reveals that, often, the "more expensive" provider in the short term is the cheapest in the long term.

The cloud war in Brazil is far from over. While entry prices drop, egress fees remain as walls. Your company might save money initially. But if you don't plan your exit, you'll pay dearly to stay trapped.

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