AWS Minimum Cost Estimator

Run your service for coffee money.

Running a 24/7 service doesn't have to break the bank. Here are the three absolute cheapest ways to keep a server alive on AWS.

$0.00
/ first 12 mos

AWS Free Tier

Best for new accounts learning AWS.

  • 750 hours/mo
  • t2.micro or t3.micro
  • 30GB Storage
  • 1GB RAM
Click for details
$3.50
/ month

Amazon Lightsail

Best for simple apps & predictable bills.

  • Fixed monthly price
  • 1 vCPU, 512MB RAM
  • 20GB SSD Included
  • 1TB Data Transfer
Click for details
$3.71
/ month (est)

EC2 t4g.nano

Best for complex architectures.

  • High Performance ARM
  • 2 vCPUs
  • Flexible VPC Config
  • Pay for what you use
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Hidden Cost Simulator

See how storage and data usage affect the price of a custom EC2 instance vs. Lightsail.

Region: us-east-1
8 GB
8 GB (Min) 100 GB

Note: Lightsail includes 20GB. EC2 charges ~$0.08 per GB.

50 GB
0 GB 1.5 TB

Note: Lightsail includes 1TB (1024GB). EC2 gives 100GB free, then $0.09/GB.

Monthly Breakdown

Lightsail
Fixed rate (includes 1TB data)
$3.50
EC2 t4g.nano WINNER
Custom configuration
$3.71
Compute
$3.07
Storage
$0.64
Data
$0.00

Pro Tip: Budget Alarms

Never trust "estimated" billing. Always set up a Billing Alarm in CloudWatch.

AWS Console > Billing > Budgets > Create Budget > Limit: $5.00

The "Zombie" Volume Trap

Terminating an EC2 instance does not automatically delete its storage volume unless you check the specific box during creation.

Always check the "Elastic Block Store" tab in the EC2 console after shutting down a project.