Amazon ECS Pricing
ECS itself is free when you run it on your own EC2 instances. You pay for the instances. ECS Managed Instances adds a fee of about 12% on top of EC2 in exchange for AWS running the nodes, ECS Anywhere is a flat fee per server you own, and Fargate has its own page and its own bill.
Four ways to run ECS tasks
Headline rates in us-east-1. The estimator below prices any region.You own the instances: patching, scaling and replacing them. There is no cluster fee and no per-task charge from ECS.
AWS runs the instances for you. You pay the EC2 price plus a management fee set per instance type; lower for GPU and accelerator types.
Run ECS tasks on servers or VMs you own. The fee is flat in every region it is offered; the hardware and its power are yours.
No instances to run. You are billed for the vCPU and memory each task asks for. Priced on its own page, with a task-size estimator.
Estimate Managed Instances and Anywhere
EC2 and the ECS fee side by side, so the total is the real billManaged Instances estimator
ECS Anywhere
Managed Instances is billed as the EC2 instance plus the fee, so both are shown. Storage, load balancers and data transfer are separate. The offer is on-demand only: no Savings Plans or Spot rate for the fee appears in it.
Managed Instances fee by instance type
964 instance types. The fee is charged on top of the EC2 price, not instead of it.| Instance type | Category | vCPU | Memory | EC2 Linux | Managed fee | Fee vs EC2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| t4g.small | General Purpose | 2 | 2 GiB | $0.0168 /hr | $0.002016 /hr | 12% | $0.018816 /hr |
| t3a.small | General Purpose | 2 | 2 GiB | $0.0188 /hr | $0.002256 /hr | 12% | $0.021056 /hr |
| t3.small | General Purpose | 2 | 2 GiB | $0.0208 /hr | $0.002496 /hr | 12% | $0.023296 /hr |
| t4g.medium | General Purpose | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.0336 /hr | $0.004032 /hr | 12% | $0.037632 /hr |
| c6g.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0340 /hr | $0.00408 /hr | 12% | $0.03808 /hr |
| c7g.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0363 /hr | $0.004356 /hr | 12% | $0.040656 /hr |
| t3a.medium | General Purpose | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.0376 /hr | $0.004512 /hr | 12% | $0.042112 /hr |
| c6gd.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0384 /hr | $0.004608 /hr | 12% | $0.043008 /hr |
| m6g.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.0385 /hr | $0.00462 /hr | 12% | $0.04312 /hr |
| c8g.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.03988 /hr | $0.004788 /hr | 12% | $0.044668 /hr |
| m7g.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.0408 /hr | $0.004896 /hr | 12% | $0.045696 /hr |
| t3.medium | General Purpose | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.0416 /hr | $0.004992 /hr | 12% | $0.046592 /hr |
| m8g.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.04488 /hr | $0.005388 /hr | 12% | $0.050268 /hr |
| m6gd.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.0452 /hr | $0.005424 /hr | 12% | $0.050624 /hr |
| c7gd.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0454 /hr | $0.005448 /hr | 12% | $0.050848 /hr |
| c8gd.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.04899 /hr | $0.00588 /hr | 12% | $0.05487 /hr |
| r6g.medium | Memory Optimized | 1 | 8 GiB | $0.0504 /hr | $0.006048 /hr | 12% | $0.056448 /hr |
| c7a.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.05132 /hr | $0.006156 /hr | 12% | $0.057476 /hr |
| m7gd.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.0534 /hr | $0.006408 /hr | 12% | $0.059808 /hr |
| r7g.medium | Memory Optimized | 1 | 8 GiB | $0.0536 /hr | $0.006432 /hr | 12% | $0.060032 /hr |
| c8a.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.05389 /hr | $0.006468 /hr | 12% | $0.060358 /hr |
| r6gd.medium | Memory Optimized | 1 | 8 GiB | $0.0576 /hr | $0.006912 /hr | 12% | $0.064512 /hr |
| m8gd.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.05766 /hr | $0.006924 /hr | 12% | $0.064584 /hr |
| m7a.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.05796 /hr | $0.00696 /hr | 12% | $0.06492 /hr |
| r8g.medium | Memory Optimized | 1 | 8 GiB | $0.05891 /hr | $0.007068 /hr | 12% | $0.065978 /hr |
| c8gn.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0593 /hr | $0.007116 /hr | 12% | $0.066416 /hr |
| m8a.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.06086 /hr | $0.007308 /hr | 12% | $0.068168 /hr |
| c7gn.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0624 /hr | $0.007488 /hr | 12% | $0.069888 /hr |
| t4g.large | General Purpose | 2 | 8 GiB | $0.0672 /hr | $0.008064 /hr | 12% | $0.075264 /hr |
| c6g.large | Compute Optimized | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.0680 /hr | $0.00816 /hr | 12% | $0.07616 /hr |
| r7gd.medium | Memory Optimized | 1 | 8 GiB | $0.0680 /hr | $0.00816 /hr | 12% | $0.07616 /hr |
| c7g.large | Compute Optimized | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.0725 /hr | $0.0087 /hr | 12% | $0.0812 /hr |
| r8gd.medium | Memory Optimized | 1 | 8 GiB | $0.07348 /hr | $0.00882 /hr | 12% | $0.0823 /hr |
| t3a.large | General Purpose | 2 | 8 GiB | $0.0752 /hr | $0.009024 /hr | 12% | $0.084224 /hr |
| r7a.medium | Memory Optimized | 1 | 8 GiB | $0.07608 /hr | $0.009132 /hr | 12% | $0.085212 /hr |
| c6a.large | Compute Optimized | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.0765 /hr | $0.00918 /hr | 12% | $0.08568 /hr |
| c6gd.large | Compute Optimized | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.0768 /hr | $0.009216 /hr | 12% | $0.086016 /hr |
| c5a.large | Compute Optimized | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.0770 /hr | $0.00924 /hr | 12% | $0.08624 /hr |
| m6g.large | General Purpose | 2 | 8 GiB | $0.0770 /hr | $0.00924 /hr | 12% | $0.08624 /hr |
| c8g.large | Compute Optimized | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.07976 /hr | $0.009576 /hr | 12% | $0.089336 /hr |
| r8a.medium | Memory Optimized | 1 | 8 GiB | $0.07988 /hr | $0.009588 /hr | 12% | $0.089468 /hr |
| m7g.large | General Purpose | 2 | 8 GiB | $0.0816 /hr | $0.009792 /hr | 12% | $0.091392 /hr |
| t3.large | General Purpose | 2 | 8 GiB | $0.0832 /hr | $0.009984 /hr | 12% | $0.093184 /hr |
| x2gd.medium | Memory Optimized | 1 | 16 GiB | $0.0835 /hr | $0.01002 /hr | 12% | $0.09352 /hr |
| c7i-flex.large | Compute Optimized | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.08479 /hr | $0.010176 /hr | 12% | $0.094966 /hr |
| c5.large | Compute Optimized | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.0850 /hr | $0.0102 /hr | 12% | $0.0952 /hr |
| c6i.large | Compute Optimized | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.0850 /hr | $0.0102 /hr | 12% | $0.0952 /hr |
| c5ad.large | Compute Optimized | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.0860 /hr | $0.01032 /hr | 12% | $0.09632 /hr |
| m5a.large | General Purpose | 2 | 8 GiB | $0.0860 /hr | $0.01032 /hr | 12% | $0.09632 /hr |
| m6a.large | General Purpose | 2 | 8 GiB | $0.0864 /hr | $0.010368 /hr | 12% | $0.096768 /hr |
No instance types match your filters.
Fee vs EC2 is the Managed Instances fee divided by the EC2 Linux on-demand price in the same region. It is about 12% for most instance types and lower for GPU and accelerator types. A few brand-new regions and instance types sit well above that, which is why every price here is AWS's published fee and none is calculated from EC2. A dash means we have no EC2 price to compare.
Alternatives to ECS Managed Instances
| Option | Price vs ECS Managed Instances | Why look at it |
|---|---|---|
| ECS on self-managed EC2 | -11%-$0.0115/hr m6i.large (2 vCPU, 8 GiB), us-east-1 | No ECS fee. You patch, scale and replace the instances yourself. |
| AWS Fargate (x86)Compare → | +8%+$0.009/hr one 2 vCPU, 8 GiB task, us-east-1 | No instances at all. You are billed for the task's size, not the node's. |
| AWS Fargate on Graviton | -13%-$0.0143/hr one 2 vCPU, 8 GiB task, us-east-1 | Lower vCPU and GB rates than x86. Needs arm64 container images. |
| Amazon EKS | Adds a per-cluster fee on top of node costs | Kubernetes API and tooling, in exchange for a cluster fee ECS does not charge. |
What to know about Amazon ECS
AWS's own container orchestrator: free on your EC2 instances, with a fee only if you ask AWS to manage them.
ECS has no cluster fee and no per-task fee. If you run tasks on EC2 instances you manage, the ECS bill is zero and you pay the instances.
ECS Managed Instances is the option where AWS provisions, patches and replaces the instances for you. You pay the normal EC2 price plus a management fee for each instance. For most instance types the fee is about 12% of the EC2 rate, and lower for GPU and accelerator types. The fee is not a flat percentage everywhere, so the tables on this page show the published figure for each instance type and region rather than a calculation.
ECS Anywhere registers servers you own so ECS can schedule tasks on them. It is a flat $0.01025 per instance-hour in us-east-1, about $7.50 a month per server. The servers themselves are not part of that.
Fargate also runs ECS tasks, and it has its own page because EKS uses it too. The deciding question between Fargate and EC2 is utilization. Fargate bills the size you request for the time the task runs. EC2 bills the whole instance whether or not your tasks fill it.
The ECS price list is on-demand only. Savings Plans can discount the EC2 or Fargate compute, but no Savings Plans or Spot rate for the Managed Instances fee is published in it.
Good for
- Teams that want containers without running Kubernetes
- Running on EC2 you already manage, with no orchestrator charge
- Mixing EC2, Fargate and on-premises servers under one scheduler
Watch for
- Managed Instances is a fee on top of EC2, not a replacement for it
- The fee varies by instance type and region, so check the type you will use
- ECS Anywhere covers the scheduler fee only; your hardware and network are yours
- Load balancers, NAT and data transfer are billed separately