SAP cloud migrations are among the most complex and expensive infrastructure projects an organisation undertakes. Getting the cost estimate right from the start prevents costly surprises mid-project. This guide covers every cost component of an SAP cloud migration in 2026.
SAP on Cloud — The Cloud Provider Landscape
All four major cloud providers support SAP HANA and S/4HANA, but with different strengths:
- AWS: Largest SAP customer base, deepest migration tooling, most migration partners
- Azure: Strong for Microsoft shops, SAP + Azure integration, hybrid identity
- GCP: Competitive pricing, strong on analytics integration
- OCI: Lowest compute cost, SAP HANA certified instances, Oracle DB expertise adjacent
SAP HANA Compute Costs — Cloud Provider Comparison
SAP HANA requires certified instance types. For a 1TB HANA production system (common mid-size SAP installation):
- AWS x2iedn.8xlarge (128 vCPU, 1TB RAM): $26.69/hr on-demand, $16.84/hr 1yr RI = $12,285/month
- Azure M96(d)s v3 (96 vCPU, 832GB RAM): $22.40/hr on-demand, $14.00/hr 1yr = $10,220/month
- GCP m3-ultramem-64 (64 vCPU, 976GB RAM): $18.54/hr on-demand with SUD = $13,469/month
- OCI X9-based BM.Standard.E5.192 (192 OCPU, 2.3TB RAM): ~$8,200/month — 33% cheaper than Azure
SAP Licensing Considerations
Cloud infrastructure is only part of the cost. SAP licensing remains significant:
- SAP S/4HANA subscription: Typically $150,000-500,000+/year depending on modules and users
- SAP RISE: SAP's managed cloud subscription bundles S/4HANA + infrastructure + AMS. Pricing varies widely — negotiate hard. Typically $200,000-1M+/year for enterprise.
- BYOL vs subscription: If you have existing SAP licences, BYOL on IaaS (AWS/Azure/GCP/OCI) is often significantly cheaper than RISE for large deployments
Migration Project Cost Components
Beyond infrastructure and licences, budget for:
- Assessment and planning: $50,000-150,000
- System conversion (brownfield) or new implementation (greenfield): $500,000-5M+ depending on complexity
- Data migration: $100,000-500,000 depending on data volume and cleansing required
- Testing (unit, integration, performance, UAT): $150,000-400,000
- Training: $50,000-200,000
- Cutover and hypercare: $50,000-150,000
- Parallel running period (6-12 months): Doubles infrastructure cost during transition
SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform) Costs
SAP BTP is increasingly central to S/4HANA implementations for integration, extensions and analytics. BTP pricing is complex but key components:
- Cloud Foundry compute: $0.013/hour per Application Runtime unit
- Integration Suite: $1,850-3,700/month depending on tier
- Analytics Cloud: $31-45 per user/month
- Data Intelligence: based on consumption
Total Budget Framework
For a mid-size SAP S/4HANA implementation (1,000 users, 1TB HANA):
- Infrastructure (5 years, Azure): $750,000
- SAP licences (5 years): $1,500,000
- Migration project: $1,200,000
- BTP and integration (5 years): $400,000
- AMS/managed services (5 years): $600,000
- Total 5-year cost: ~$4.45M
How to Model Your SAP Cloud Costs
Use TCOIQ's SAP Calculator to model your specific HANA sizing requirements across all cloud providers. Input your HANA memory requirement and SAPS (SAP Application Performance Standard) and get a side-by-side cost comparison instantly.