AWS Pricing Overview
AWS Pricing Overview
AWS Pricing Overview
June 2015
Page 1 of 15
June 2015
Table
of
Contents
Table
of
Contents
...................................................................................................................................................................
2
Abstract
..................................................................................................................................................................................
3
Introduction
...........................................................................................................................................................................
3
Fundamental
Pricing
Characteristics
......................................................................................................................................
4
Amazon
Elastic
Compute
Cloud
(Amazon
EC2)
..................................................................................................................
5
Amazon
Simple
Storage
Service
(Amazon
S3)
....................................................................................................................
6
Amazon
Elastic
Block
Store
(Amazon
EBS)
.........................................................................................................................
6
Amazon
Relational
Database
Service
(Amazon
RDS)
.........................................................................................................
7
Amazon
CloudFront
............................................................................................................................................................
7
How
to
Further
Save
Costs
.....................................................................................................................................................
8
Conclusion
..............................................................................................................................................................................
9
Resources
.............................................................................................................................................................................
11
Cost
Calculation
Example
.....................................................................................................................................................
12
Page 2 of 15
June 2015
Abstract
While
the
number
and
types
of
services
offered
by
AWS
has
increased
dramatically,
our
philosophy
on
pricing
has
not
changed:
at
the
end
of
each
month,
you
pay
only
for
what
you
use,
and
you
can
start
or
stop
using
a
product
at
any
time.
No
long-term
contracts
are
required.
Pricing
information
for
each
service
on
our
website
is
available
at
http://aws.amazon.com/pricing/.
Our
strategy
of
pricing
each
service
independently
gives
you
tremendous
flexibility
to
choose
the
services
you
need
for
each
project
and
to
pay
only
for
what
you
use.
This
whitepaper
will
help
you
understand
how
to
effectively
estimate
the
costs
of
running
your
specific
project
on
AWS.
We
provide
several
examples
that
leverage
the
AWS
Simple
Monthly
Calculator.
For
each
example,
this
paper
discusses
its
architecture,
example
usage
of
each
service,
cost
breakdown
for
each
service,
and
the
total
estimated
monthly
charge.
Introduction
AWS
offers
a
range
of
cloud
computing
services.
For
each
service,
you
pay
for
exactly
the
amount
of
resources
you
actually
need.
This
utility-
style
pricing
model
is
explained
below:
Pay
as
you
go.
No
minimum
commitments
or
long-term
contracts
required.
You
replace
your
upfront
capital
expense
with
low
variable
cost
and
pay
only
for
what
you
use.
There
is
no
need
to
pay
upfront
for
excess
capacity
or
get
penalized
for
under-planning.
For
compute
resources,
you
pay
on
an
hourly
basis
from
the
time
you
launch
a
resource
until
the
time
you
terminate
it.
For
data
storage
and
transfer,
you
pay
on
a
per
gigabyte
basis.
We
charge
based
on
the
underlying
infrastructure
and
services
that
you
consume.
You
can
turn
off
your
cloud
resources
and
stop
paying
for
them
when
you
dont
need
them.
Pay
less
when
you
reserve.
For
certain
products,
you
can
invest
in
reserved
capacity
and
get
a
significantly
discounted
hourly
rate,
which
results
in
overall
savings
up
to
60%
(depending
on
the
type
of
instance
you
reserve)
over
equivalent
On-Demand
capacity.
Pay
even
less
per
unit
by
using
more.
You
save
more
as
you
grow
bigger.
For
storage
and
data
transfer,
pricing
is
tiered.
The
more
you
use,
the
less
you
pay
per
gigabyte.
For
compute,
you
get
volume
discounts
up
to
10%
when
you
reserve
more.
Pay
even
less
as
AWS
grows.
Most
importantly,
we
are
constantly
focused
on
reducing
our
data
center
hardware
costs,
improving
our
operational
efficiencies,
lowering
our
power
consumption,
and
generally
lowering
the
cost
of
doing
business.
These
optimizations
and
AWSs
substantial
and
growing
economies
of
scale
result
in
passing
savings
back
to
you
in
the
form
of
lower
pricing.
Since
2006,
AWS
has
lowered
pricing
44
times.
Page 3 of 15
June 2015
Custom
pricing.
What
if
none
of
our
pricing
models
work
for
your
project?
Custom
pricing
is
available
for
high
volume
projects
with
unique
requirements.
For
assistance,
contact
us
to
speak
with
a
sales
representative.
AWS
also
offers
a
variety
of
services
for
no
additional
charge:
Amazon
VPC:
Amazon
Virtual
Private
Cloud
(Amazon
VPC)
lets
you
provision
a
logically
isolated
section
of
the
Amazon
Web
Services
(AWS)
Cloud
where
you
can
launch
AWS
resources
in
a
virtual
network
that
you
define.
AWS
Elastic
Beanstalk:
AWS
Elastic
Beanstalk
is
an
even
easier
way
for
you
to
quickly
deploy
and
manage
applications
in
the
AWS
cloud.
AWS
CloudFormation:
AWS
CloudFormation
gives
developers
and
systems
administrators
an
easy
way
to
create
a
collection
of
related
AWS
resources
and
provision
them
in
an
orderly
and
predictable
fashion.
AWS
Identity
and
Access
Management
(IAM):
AWS
IAM
controls
your
users
access
to
AWS
services
and
resources.
Auto
Scaling:
Auto
Scaling
automatically
adds
or
removes
Amazon
EC2
instances
according
to
conditions
you
define.
With
Auto
Scaling,
the
number
of
Amazon
EC2
instances
youre
using
increases
seamlessly
during
demand
spikes
to
maintain
performance,
and
decreases
automatically
during
demand
lulls
to
minimize
costs.
AWS
OpsWorks:
AWS
OpsWorks
is
an
application
management
service
that
makes
it
easy
to
deploy
and
operate
applications
of
all
shapes
and
sizes.
Moreover,
you
can
consolidate
all
your
accounts
using
Consolidated
Billing
and
get
tiering
benefits.
Page 4 of 15
June 2015
Page 5 of 15
June 2015
Input Output Operations per Second (IOPS) - I/O is included in the price of General Purpose (SSD) volumes,
while
for
EBS
Magnetic
volumes,
I/O
is
charged
by
the
number
of
requests
you
make
to
your
volume.
With
Provisioned
IOPS
(SSD)
volumes,
you
are
also
charged
by
the
amount
you
provision
in
IOPS
(multiplied
by
the
percentage
of
days
you
provision
for
the
month.
Snapshot
-
Amazon
EBS
provides
the
ability
to
back
up
snapshots
of
your
data
to
Amazon
S3
for
durable
recovery.
If
you
opt
for
EBS
snapshots,
the
added
cost
is
per
GB-month
of
data
stored.
Data
Transfer
-
Take
into
account
the
amount
of
data
transferred
out
of
your
application.
Inbound
data
transfer
is
free,
and
outbound
data
transfer
charges
are
tiered.
For
more
information
about
Amazon
S3
pricing,
go
to
http://aws.amazon.com/pricing/s3/.
Page 6 of 15
June 2015
Amazon
CloudFront
Amazon
CloudFront
is
a
web
service
for
content
delivery.
It
integrates
with
other
Amazon
Web
Services
to
give
you
an
easy
way
to
distribute
content
to
end
users
with
low
latency,
high
data
transfer
speeds,
and
no
required
minimum
commitments.
When
you
begin
to
estimate
the
cost
of
Amazon
CloudFront,
you
need
to
consider
the
following:
Page 7 of 15
June 2015
Traffic
Distribution
-
Data
transfer
and
request
pricing
vary
across
geographic
regions,
and
pricing
is
based
on
the
edge
location
through
which
your
content
is
served.
Requests
-
The
number
and
type
of
requests
(HTTP
or
HTTPS)
made
and
the
geographic
region
in
which
the
requests
are
made.
Data
Transfer
Out
-
The
amount
of
data
transferred
out
of
your
Amazon
CloudFront
edge
locations.
For
more
information
about
Amazon
CloudFront
pricing,
go
to
http://aws.amazon.com/pricing/cloudfront/.
Page 8 of 15
June 2015
Table
1:
Savings
Comparison
of
1
and
3
Year
Reserved
Instances
over
On-Demand
Instances
Prices
shown
for
US
East
Region
as
of
July
20th
2014
As
shown
in
table
1,
savings
by
paying
1
year
Partial
or
all
Upfront
Reserved
Instances
will
save
on
average
38%
over
on
demand
purchasing.
For
3
year
RIs,
the
savings
on
average
will
exceed
60%
and
29%
for
No
Upfront.
Why
Should
I
Use
Reserved
Instances?
Cost
Effective
Reserved
Instances
provide
you
with
a
significant
discount
(over
60%)
compared
to
On-Demand
Instance
pricing.
Reliable
Reserved
Instances
provide
a
capacity
reservation
so
that
you
can
have
confidence
in
your
ability
to
launch
the
number
of
instances
you
have
reserved
when
you
need
them.
Flexible
You
have
the
flexibility
to
pay
all,
part,
or
nothing
upfront.
The
more
you
pay
up
front,
the
more
you
save.
If
your
requirements
change,
you
can
modify
or
sell
your
Reserved
Instance.
Your
Reserved
Instance
will
be
available
for
the
operating
system
(Linux/UNIX,
SUSE
Linux
Enterprise,
Red
Hat
Enterprise
Linux
or
Windows)
and
Availability
Zone
in
which
you
purchased
it.
For
more
information
about
Reserved
Instances,
go
to
Amazon
EC2
Reserved
Instance
pages.
Spot
Instances
are
unused
Amazon
EC2
capacity
that
you
bid
for.
Instances
are
charged
at
Spot
Price,
which
is
set
by
Amazon
EC2
and
fluctuates
periodically
depending
on
the
supply
of,
and
demand
for,
Spot
Instance
capacity.
If
your
maximum
bid
exceeds
the
current
Spot
Price,
your
bid
request
is
fulfilled,
and
your
instances
will
run
until
either
you
choose
to
terminate
them
or
the
Spot
Price
increases
above
your
maximum
bid,
whichever
is
sooner.
To
learn
more
about
Spot
Instances,
go
to
http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/spot-instances/.
Conclusion
While
the
number
and
types
of
services
offered
by
AWS
has
increased
dramatically,
our
philosophy
on
pricing
has
not
changed.
You
pay
as
you
go,
pay
for
what
you
use,
pay
less
as
you
use
more,
and
pay
even
less
when
you
reserve
capacity.
Projecting
costs
for
a
use
case,
such
as
web
application
hosting,
can
be
challenging,
because
a
solution
typically
Page 9 of 15
June 2015
uses
multiple
features
across
multiple
AWS
products,
which
in
turn
means
there
are
more
factors
and
purchase
options
to
consider.
The
best
way
to
estimate
costs
is
to
examine
the
fundamental
characteristics
for
each
AWS
product,
estimate
your
usage
for
each
characteristic,
and
then
map
that
usage
to
the
prices
posted
on
the
website.
To
help
you
understand
how
AWS
pricing
works
in
the
context
of
real-world
solutions,
see
a
worked
out
example
later
in
this
paper.
You
can
use
the
AWS
Simple
Monthly
Calculator
to
estimate
your
monthly
bill.
The
calculator
provides
per
service
cost
breakdown,
as
well
as
an
aggregate
monthly
estimate.
You
can
also
use
the
calculator
to
see
an
estimation
and
breakdown
of
costs
for
common
solutions.
AWS
has
introduced
a
free
usage
tier
to
help
you
get
started
with
AWS.
Take
advantage
of
the
Free
Usage
Tier,
and
get
started
today!
Page 10 of 15
Resources
Resource
AWS
Simple
Monthly
Calculator
Description
The
AWS
Simple
Monthly
Calculator
helps
estimate
your
monthly
bill.
The
AWS
Architecture
Center
provides
you
with
the
necessary
guidance
and
best
practices
to
build
highly
scalable
and
reliable
applications
in
the
AWS
Cloud.
The
AWS
Economics
Center
provides
access
to
information,
tools,
and
resources
to
compare
the
costs
of
Amazon
Web
Services
with
IT
infrastructure
alternatives.
View
your
current
charges
and
account
activity,
itemized
by
service
and
by
usage
type.
Previous
months
billing
statements
are
also
available.
Usage
reports
are
available
to
download
for
each
service.
Reports
can
be
customized
by
specifying
usage
types,
timeframe,
service
operations,
and
more.
Page 11 of 15
June 2015
June 2015
Architecture
Elastic
Load
Balancing
balances
traffic
across
one
or
more
Amazon
EC2
instances.
The
Amazon
EC2
instances
belong
to
an
Auto
Scaling
group,
and
the
Auto
Scaling
group
either
adds
or
subtracts
Amazon
EC2
instances,
depending
on
variations
in
the
traffic
load.
Deploying
Amazon
RDS
across
multiple
Availability
Zones
enhances
data
durability
and
availability.
Amazon
RDS
provisions
and
maintains
a
standby
in
a
different
Availability
Zone
for
automatic
failover
in
the
event
of
planned
or
unplanned
outages.
The
following
illustration
shows
the
example
architecture
for
a
dynamic
website
using
Amazon
EC2,
Auto
Scaling,
and
one
Amazon
RDS
database
instance
across
multiple
Availability
Zones.
Figure
1:
Complex
Dynamic
Site
Architecture
Page 12 of 15
June 2015
number
of
Amazon
EC2
instances
that
run
each
hour,
and
then
take
the
average.
You
can
use
the
number
of
hits
per
day
and
the
average
number
of
instances
for
your
calculations.
Estimated
Usage
24
hrs/day
Description
At
an
average
of
30.5
days
in
a
month,
the
instance
runs
732
hours/month
m3.medium
instance,
3.75
GB
of
memory,
1
vCPU,
4
GB
of
SSD
storage
ephemeral
storage
For
this
application,
we
need
only
the
local
storage
which
No
EBS
volumes
is
packaged
with
the
AMI.
There
are
approximately
1,000,000
hits
per
day.
Each
Data
In:
5
GB/day
response
transfers
out
about
50
KB,
and
each
request
Data
Out:
50
GB
/day
transfers
in
about
5
KB.
4
Hourly
usage:
732
hrs/month
Data
processed:
1677.5
GB/month
Elastic IP Address
None
Detailed Monitoring
None
The
total
cost
for
one
month
is
the
sum
of
the
cost
of
the
running
instances,
overall
AWS
data
transfer,
Elastic
Load
Balancers,
and
the
data
processed
by
the
Elastic
Load
Balancers.
Variable
Amazon
EC2
Instance
Cost
Formula
Calculation
X
Page 13 of 15
$0.070
4
X
732
$204.96
732
X
$0.025
X
1677.5
X
$0.008
$31.72
152.5
X
$0.00
+
(1525-1)
1
X
$0.12
$182.88
$419.56
June 2015
We
use
the
AWS
Simple
Monthly
Calculator
to
estimate
this
cost.
Using
the
calculator,
we
arrive
at
the
total
cost
for
one
months
usage
for
Amazon
EC2
of
$419.562.
Estimated
Usage
24
hrs/day
Description
24*30.5
=
732
hours
per
month
Database Characteristics
Medium
RDS
instance
Provisioned Storage
100 GB/month
Requests
300M
I/O
requests/month
Deployment
Type
Additional
Backup
Storage
Data
Transfer
Multiple
Availability
Zones
None
Data
in:
0
GB
Data
out:
0
GB
1
None
Provisioned Storage
Formula
Calculation
X
Storage
rate
X
Storage
Amount
(GB)
Depending on regional factors and special offers, the cost you get from the calculator will be slightly different.
Page 14 of 15
$0.180
1
X
732
$131.76
$0.20
X
100
$20.00
June 2015
I/O
Requests
X
I/O
rate
Number
of
requests
$0.10
X
300
$30.00
$181.76
Total
Cost
To
calculate
the
total
cost
for
this
example,
we
add
the
cost
for
Amazon
EC2,
Amazon
RDS,
and
AWS
Data
Transfer
Out
and
subtract
any
discount
that
falls
into
the
AWS
Free
Usage
Tier.
The
total
cost
of
the
dynamic
site
in
this
scenario
is
estimated
at
$601.3213
per
month.
Depending
on
regional
factors
and
special
offers,
the
cost
you
get
from
the
AWS
Simple
Monthly
Calculator
will
be
slightly
different.
13
Depending
on
regional
factors
and
special
offers,
the
cost
you
get
from
the
AWS
Simple
Monthly
Calculator
will
be
slightly
different.
Page 15 of 15