The AWS Pricing Calculator helps you estimate monthly costs before deploying resources. AWS pricing is notoriously complex—this guide walks you through creating accurate estimates for common services like EC2, S3, Lambda, and RDS.
Access the Calculator
- Go to calculator.aws
- No login required
- Click Create estimate to start
Calculator Interface Overview
The calculator organizes estimates by:
- Groups: Organize services (e.g., "Production", "Development")
- Services: Individual AWS services within groups
- Configurations: Specific settings for each service
Each service shows:
- Upfront cost (for Reserved Instances)
- Monthly cost estimate
- First 12 months total
Estimate EC2 Costs
- Click Add service
- Search for EC2 and select it
- Configure your instance:
Quick Estimate vs Advanced
- Quick estimate: Basic configuration, good for initial planning
- Advanced estimate: Detailed options including EBS, data transfer
Key Configuration Options
| Setting | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Region | Choose your deployment region (affects pricing) |
| Instance type | Select based on workload (t3.medium, m6i.large, etc.) |
| Quantity | Number of instances |
| Usage hours | 730 hours = 24/7 for full month |
| Pricing model | On-Demand, Reserved (1yr/3yr), Savings Plans |
| EBS storage | Add root volume and additional storage |
| Data transfer | Estimate monthly outbound data in GB |
Example: Web Server Estimate
For a typical web server:
- Instance: t3.medium (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM)
- Region: us-east-1
- Usage: 730 hours (full month)
- EBS: 100 GB gp3
- Data transfer: 100 GB/month outbound
Estimated cost: ~$40-50/month (On-Demand)
Estimate S3 Costs
- Click Add service
- Search for S3 and select Amazon Simple Storage Service
- Choose storage class and configure:
S3 Pricing Components
| Component | What to Enter |
|---|---|
| Storage | Total GB stored per month |
| PUT/COPY/POST requests | Number of write operations |
| GET/SELECT requests | Number of read operations |
| Data retrieval | GB retrieved (for Glacier) |
| Data transfer out | GB transferred to internet |
Storage Classes
| Class | Use Case | Price (per GB) |
|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | Frequently accessed data | $0.023 |
| S3 Standard-IA | Infrequent access, quick retrieval | $0.0125 |
| S3 Glacier | Archive, minutes to hours retrieval | $0.004 |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | Long-term archive, 12-hour retrieval | $0.00099 |
Example: Website Assets
For hosting website static files:
- Storage: 50 GB (S3 Standard)
- GET requests: 1,000,000/month
- Data transfer out: 500 GB/month
Estimated cost: ~$50/month (mostly data transfer)
Estimate RDS Costs
- Click Add service
- Search for RDS
- Select database engine (MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.)
RDS Configuration Options
| Setting | Consideration |
|---|---|
| Instance class | db.t3.medium for dev, db.r6g.large for production |
| Deployment | Single-AZ (cheaper) or Multi-AZ (high availability) |
| Storage type | gp3 (general), io1 (high performance) |
| Storage amount | GB allocated (you pay for allocated, not used) |
| Backup retention | Days of automated backups to keep |
Example: Production Database
For a production MySQL database:
- Instance: db.r6g.large
- Multi-AZ: Yes
- Storage: 200 GB gp3
- Region: us-east-1
Estimated cost: ~$350/month (On-Demand)
Estimate Lambda Costs
- Click Add service
- Search for Lambda
- Configure execution parameters:
Lambda Pricing Factors
| Factor | What to Enter |
|---|---|
| Number of requests | Monthly function invocations |
| Duration | Average execution time (ms) |
| Memory | Allocated memory (128 MB - 10 GB) |
Free tier: 1M requests and 400,000 GB-seconds/month
Example: API Backend
For an API handling 5M requests/month:
- Requests: 5,000,000
- Duration: 200ms average
- Memory: 512 MB
Estimated cost: ~$10-15/month after free tier
Save and Share Estimates
Save Your Estimate
- Click Save and share in the top right
- Estimate is saved with a unique URL
- Bookmark or copy the link
Export Options
- CSV: Spreadsheet format for analysis
- PDF: Formatted report for presentations
- Link: Shareable URL others can view/edit
Organize with Groups
Create groups to organize complex estimates:
- Production environment
- Development environment
- Disaster recovery
Tips for Accurate Estimates
- Don't forget data transfer: Often the biggest surprise cost
- Include all storage: EBS volumes, snapshots, S3 backups
- Consider Reserved Instances: Save 30-60% for predictable workloads
- Add monitoring: CloudWatch, logging, alarms add up
- Account for growth: Estimate for expected scale
- Check regional pricing: Can vary 10-20% between regions
Common Cost Surprises
| Item | Why It's Surprising |
|---|---|
| Data transfer out | $0.09/GB adds up fast at scale |
| EBS snapshots | Incremental but accumulates over time |
| NAT Gateway | $0.045/hour + data processing fees |
| Elastic IPs | Free when attached, $0.005/hour when idle |
| CloudWatch logs | Ingestion and storage costs accumulate |