AWS Monthly Cost Estimator
Use this calculator to get an estimated monthly cost for common AWS services based on your usage projections. This tool helps you understand the potential expenses for EC2 instances, S3 storage, and data transfer out.
EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)
(e.g., t3.medium in us-east-1 is ~$0.0416/hr)
(e.g., gp2/gp3 in us-east-1 is ~$0.10/GB)
S3 (Simple Storage Service)
(e.g., first 50TB in us-east-1 is ~$0.023/GB)
(e.g., us-east-1 is ~$5.00 per million)
(e.g., us-east-1 is ~$0.40 per million)
Data Transfer Out
(e.g., after 1GB free, up to 10TB in us-east-1 is ~$0.09/GB)
Estimated Monthly AWS Cost:
Understanding Your AWS Monthly Costs
Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a vast array of cloud computing services, and understanding their pricing can be complex. This AWS Monthly Cost Estimator helps you get a preliminary idea of your potential expenses for some of the most commonly used services: EC2, S3, and Data Transfer Out.
How AWS Pricing Works
AWS operates on a "pay-as-you-go" model, meaning you only pay for the services you consume. Pricing varies significantly based on several factors:
- Service Type: Different services (compute, storage, database, networking) have different pricing structures.
- Region: Costs can vary by AWS region due to infrastructure, energy, and operational expenses.
- Usage Tiers: Many services offer tiered pricing, where the cost per unit decreases as your usage increases.
- Pricing Models: Options like On-Demand, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, and Spot Instances offer different cost efficiencies.
- Data Transfer: Inbound data transfer is generally free, while outbound data transfer (from AWS to the internet) is typically charged.
Services Covered in This Calculator
This estimator focuses on key components to give you a foundational understanding:
1. EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)
EC2 provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. Your EC2 costs are primarily driven by:
- Instance Type: The type of virtual server you choose (e.g., t3.medium, m5.large) dictates its hourly rate.
- Running Hours: The total time your instances are running.
- EBS Storage: The amount of Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes attached to your instances and their type (e.g., gp2, gp3, io1).
In this calculator, you input the number of instances, their estimated running hours per month, a generic hourly cost per instance, and the total EBS storage with its cost per GB.
2. S3 (Simple Storage Service)
S3 is object storage built to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere. S3 costs are influenced by:
- Storage Amount: The total volume of data stored (in GB).
- Storage Class: Different classes (Standard, Infrequent Access, Glacier) have different per-GB costs and retrieval fees. This calculator uses S3 Standard.
- Requests: The number of PUT, COPY, POST, GET, SELECT, and LIST requests made against your objects.
Here, you specify your S3 Standard storage in GB, its cost per GB, and the number of PUT/COPY/POST and GET/SELECT/LIST requests in millions, along with their respective costs per million.
3. Data Transfer Out
Data transfer refers to the movement of data into and out of AWS. While data transfer into AWS is generally free, data transferred out from AWS to the internet is charged. This is a significant cost component for many applications.
The calculator allows you to estimate the cost based on the total GB of data you expect to transfer out to the internet and the cost per GB.
How to Use the Calculator
- EC2 Instances: Enter the average number of EC2 instances you expect to run.
- EC2 Hours Per Month: For always-on instances, this is typically 730 hours (24 hours * 30.4 days). Adjust for instances that run only part-time.
- EC2 Instance Cost Per Hour: Find the on-demand hourly rate for your chosen instance type and region from the AWS pricing page.
- EBS Storage (GB): Estimate the total storage needed for your EC2 volumes.
- EBS Storage Cost Per GB: Use the monthly cost per GB for your chosen EBS volume type (e.g., gp2 or gp3).
- S3 Standard Storage (GB): Estimate the total data you'll store in S3 Standard.
- S3 Standard Storage Cost Per GB: Use the monthly cost per GB for S3 Standard in your region.
- S3 PUT/COPY/POST Requests (Millions): Estimate the number of write operations to S3.
- S3 PUT/COPY/POST Cost Per Million: Use the cost for these request types.
- S3 GET/SELECT/LIST Requests (Millions): Estimate the number of read operations from S3.
- S3 GET/SELECT/LIST Cost Per Million: Use the cost for these request types.
- Data Transfer Out (GB): Estimate the total data leaving AWS to the internet. Remember the first 1GB per month is usually free.
- Data Transfer Out Cost Per GB: Use the tiered pricing for data transfer out from your region.
Click "Calculate Monthly AWS Cost" to see your estimated total.
Understanding Your Results
The result provides a sum of the estimated costs for the services you've configured. Keep in mind that this is an estimate. Actual costs can vary based on specific configurations, additional services used (databases, networking, monitoring, etc.), and real-world usage patterns.
Tips for AWS Cost Optimization
- Right-Sizing: Ensure your EC2 instances and other resources are appropriately sized for your workload. Don't over-provision.
- Reserved Instances & Savings Plans: For predictable, long-term workloads, commit to Reserved Instances or Savings Plans for significant discounts on EC2, Fargate, and Lambda.
- S3 Lifecycle Policies: Move infrequently accessed data to cheaper S3 storage classes (e.g., S3 Standard-IA, Glacier) automatically.
- Monitor Usage: Use AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, and CloudWatch to track your spending and identify areas for optimization.
- Delete Unused Resources: Regularly review and terminate unused EC2 instances, EBS volumes, S3 buckets, and other resources.
- Data Transfer: Minimize data transfer out by using CloudFront (CDN) or keeping data within the AWS network where possible.
This calculator is a starting point. For a comprehensive estimate, always refer to the official AWS Pricing Calculator and your specific service configurations.