AWS Cost Calculator

Free AWS cost calculator

Here is the short version: AWS bills EC2 by the hour, EBS and S3 by the GB-month, and internet egress after a free band. This AWS cost calculator multiplies published us-east-1 list rates (August 2026) by your instance count, hours, disks, object storage, and outbound GB so a two-server office stack has a number you can argue with.

It is not the AWS Pricing Calculator. That tool is the quote. This page is the napkin that does not need an IAM user.

What this AWS cost calculator includes

The model is the stack we actually size when a Southern California firm asks “what does two servers in AWS cost before we migrate?”

• t3 (burstable), m5 (general), and r5 (memory) sizes, Linux or Windows license-included
• gp3 EBS per instance
• S3 Standard
• Internet data transfer out (first 100 GB free, then the US list rate)
• Public IPv4 (in-use and idle)
• Optional single-AZ RDS on db.t3.micro / small / medium

EC2 On-Demand pricing is the compute source. Windows is Linux plus $0.046 per vCPU-hour, which is the Windows Server AMI component AWS publishes on that page. We do not invent a Windows SKU table.

The formula

1. EC2 = instances × hours × list $/hour × savings factor × region
2. EBS gp3 = instances × GB × $0.08 × region
3. S3 Standard = GB × $0.023 × region
4. Data transfer out = max(0, GB − 100) × $0.09
5. Public IPv4 = addresses × 730 × $0.005 × region (the address exists all month unless you release it)
6. RDS = selected monthly On-Demand × region
7. Month = those lines. Year = month × 12

Hours default to 730. Region is a multiplier versus us-east-1 (Ireland about 1.12×, Singapore about 1.25×). Transfer stays on the US internet-out list because AWS transfer is zonal and we will not fake a single multiplier. The 100 GB free band is aggregated across EC2, S3, and the other services AWS lists on the On-Demand page.

gp3 list is the $0.08 per GB-month figure AWS uses in its EBS pricing worked example. Extra provisioned IOPS above the gp3 baseline is not in this model.

Always-on vs “we will stop it at 6”

A box that runs 730 hours is a server. A box that runs 160 hours is a lab if someone actually stops it. The EC2 line moves. The EBS line does not. People “save money” by stopping instances and then wonder why 500 GB of gp3 is still on the bill. That is not a bug. The volume is still provisioned.

If the app is 8 to 6, model 200 hours and a stop/start runbook. If nobody will remember, leave 730. Reserved capacity you do not use is just a slower way to overpay.

T3 is not a cheaper m5

t3 looks cheap until the CPU sits at 80% all day. Unlimited mode then bills CPU credits. This calculator does not add those credits. If the workload is a domain controller or a busy SQL box, pick m5 or r5. t3 is for bursty utilities.

Windows is not “Linux plus a little.” On m5.large that is $0.096 versus $0.188 per hour with the $0.046 × 2 vCPU license. BYOL is not modeled. If you already own Windows with Software Assurance, price License Manager in the official calculator.

RDS here is single-AZ On-Demand. Multi-AZ is roughly another instance. Do not compare this line to a production failover pair.

Worked example

2 × m5.large Linux, 730 hours, us-east-1, 30 GB gp3 each, 200 GB S3, 250 GB transfer out, 1 public IPv4, no RDS, On-Demand

• EC2 = 2 × 730 × $0.096 = $140.16
• EBS = 2 × 30 × $0.08 = $4.80
• S3 = 200 × $0.023 = $4.60
• Transfer = (250 − 100) × $0.09 = $13.50
• IPv4 = 1 × 730 × $0.005 = $3.65
• Month ≈ $167 (the tool rounds to dollars)

That is a small always-on pair, not a company. Add Windows, 1 TB gp3, or Ireland and the same diagram is not $167. Change one input at a time. Compare with the Azure cost calculator only after you match vCPU, RAM, and disk, not after you match marketing names.

Private subnets with a NAT gateway are the silent AWS tax. One NAT in us-east-1 is tens of dollars a month plus per-GB processing, none of which is in this estimate. If every instance needs outbound internet without a public IP, add NAT in the official calculator. Elastic IPs you forgot to release after a rebuild show up here as the public IPv4 line. Release them.

What this is not

The 1-year option applies ~27% off EC2 compute only. It is a teaching band for 1-year no-upfront reserved-class savings, not your private rate. Spot, Compute Savings Plans with a dollar commitment, and Standard Reserved Instances with an instance family lock are out.

Also out: NAT gateway, ALB/NLB, CloudWatch, GuardDuty, backup vaults, data transfer between AZs, and Microsoft 365 (different vendor). AWS shared responsibility is still the rule: AWS runs the building. You patch the guest OS, the security group, and the restore.

Cloud services explained is the vocabulary. Cloud infrastructure for data compliance is where region choice becomes a legal map. The VM calculator answers “how many guests fit a host,” which is a different question from “what does AWS charge for two m5.large.”

This will not find a forgotten Elastic IP in another account. It will not model a partner margin. It will not replace managed infrastructure watching Cost Explorer.

Turn on a budget alarm and tags before the first production instance, not after month three. Rebuild the same SKUs at calculator.aws so EA or partner pricing can replace this list. Then decide who owns IAM, backup, and the invoice. If you want that ownership to sit with one local team, contact Secure Techies.