Amazon EKS Pricing
EKS charges $0.10 per cluster-hour, about $73 a month, and the fee is the same in all 36 regions. Your nodes, volumes and load balancers bill separately. Auto Mode, Hybrid Nodes, capabilities and extended support each add their own meter.
Estimate your EKS bill
Every meter AWS charges for EKS itself, for the region you pickCluster estimator
Capabilities
This is the EKS bill only. Worker nodes (EC2 or Fargate), EBS volumes, load balancers, NAT and data transfer are separate, and so is EC2 under Auto Mode. EKS is on-demand only, with no reserved or Savings Plans rate for the fee itself.
Platform rates
Every EKS meter except Auto Mode, for the region selected above| Component | Meter | Unit | Rate | Per month (730 hrs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Control plane | Standard | per cluster-hour | $0.1000 | $73.00 |
| Provisioned control plane | XL tier | per cluster-hour | $1.6500 | $1,204.50 |
| Provisioned control plane | 2XL tier | per cluster-hour | $3.4000 | $2,482.00 |
| Provisioned control plane | 4XL tier | per cluster-hour | $6.9000 | $5,037.00 |
| Provisioned control plane | 8XL tier | per cluster-hour | $13.9000 | $10,147.00 |
| Extended support | Kubernetes version past standard support | per cluster-hour | $0.5000 | $365.00 |
| Hybrid Nodes | 0 to 576,000 vCPU-hours | per vCPU-hour | $0.0200 | — |
| Hybrid Nodes | 576,000 to 1,152,000 vCPU-hours | per vCPU-hour | $0.0140 | — |
| Hybrid Nodes | 1,152,000 to 5,760,000 vCPU-hours | per vCPU-hour | $0.0100 | — |
| Hybrid Nodes | 5,760,000 to 11,520,000 vCPU-hours | per vCPU-hour | $0.0080 | — |
| Hybrid Nodes | 11,520,000+ vCPU-hours | per vCPU-hour | $0.0060 | — |
| Capabilities | ACK, per capability | per hour | $0.0050 | $3.65 |
| Capabilities | ACK, per managed resource | per resource-hour | $0.00005 | $0.04 |
| Capabilities | ArgoCD, per capability | per hour | $0.0300 | $21.90 |
| Capabilities | ArgoCD, per managed resource | per resource-hour | $0.0015 | $1.10 |
| Capabilities | KRO, per capability | per hour | $0.0050 | $3.65 |
| Capabilities | KRO, per managed resource | per resource-hour | $0.00005 | $0.04 |
The standard control plane is $0.1000 an hour in every region, so there is no cheaper place to run it. Regions differ in the Hybrid Nodes bands and the capability rates. Hybrid Nodes step down from $0.0200 to $0.0060 per vCPU-hour as the month's vCPU-hours grow, and each band applies only to the hours inside it.
Auto Mode fee by instance type
1,189 instance types. The fee is charged on top of the EC2 price, not instead of it.| Instance type | Category | vCPU | Memory | EC2 Linux | Auto Mode fee | Fee vs EC2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a1.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0255 /hr | $0.00306 /hr | 12% | $0.02856 /hr |
| t4g.medium | General Purpose | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.0336 /hr | $0.00403 /hr | 12% | $0.03763 /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 | $0.00436 /hr | 12% | $0.04066 /hr |
| t3a.medium | General Purpose | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.0376 /hr | $0.00451 /hr | 12% | $0.04211 /hr |
| c6gd.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0384 /hr | $0.00461 /hr | 12% | $0.04301 /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 | $0.00479 /hr | 12% | $0.04467 /hr |
| m7g.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.0408 /hr | $0.0049 /hr | 12% | $0.0457 /hr |
| t3.medium | General Purpose | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.0416 /hr | $0.00499 /hr | 12% | $0.04659 /hr |
| c6gn.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0432 /hr | $0.00518 /hr | 12% | $0.04838 /hr |
| c9g.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.04347 /hr | $0.00522 /hr | 12% | $0.04869 /hr |
| m8g.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.04488 /hr | $0.00539 /hr | 12% | $0.05027 /hr |
| m6gd.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.0452 /hr | $0.00542 /hr | 12% | $0.05062 /hr |
| c7gd.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0454 /hr | $0.00545 /hr | 12% | $0.05085 /hr |
| t2.medium | General Purpose | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.0464 /hr | $0.00557 /hr | 12% | $0.05197 /hr |
| m9g.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.04892 /hr | $0.00587 /hr | 12% | $0.05479 /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 | $0.00605 /hr | 12% | $0.05645 /hr |
| a1.large | General Purpose | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.0510 /hr | $0.00612 /hr | 12% | $0.05712 /hr |
| c7a.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.05132 /hr | $0.00616 /hr | 12% | $0.05748 /hr |
| c9gd.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0534 /hr | $0.00641 /hr | 12% | $0.05981 /hr |
| m7gd.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.0534 /hr | $0.00641 /hr | 12% | $0.05981 /hr |
| r7g.medium | Memory Optimized | 1 | 8 GiB | $0.0536 /hr | $0.00643 /hr | 12% | $0.06003 /hr |
| c8a.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.05389 /hr | $0.00647 /hr | 12% | $0.06036 /hr |
| r6gd.medium | Memory Optimized | 1 | 8 GiB | $0.0576 /hr | $0.00691 /hr | 12% | $0.06451 /hr |
| m8gd.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.05766 /hr | $0.00692 /hr | 12% | $0.06458 /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 | $0.00707 /hr | 12% | $0.06598 /hr |
| c8gb.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.05925 /hr | $0.00711 /hr | 12% | $0.06636 /hr |
| c8gn.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0593 /hr | $0.00712 /hr | 12% | $0.06642 /hr |
| m8a.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.06086 /hr | $0.0073 /hr | 12% | $0.06816 /hr |
| c7gn.medium | Compute Optimized | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0624 /hr | $0.00749 /hr | 12% | $0.06989 /hr |
| m9gd.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.06285 /hr | $0.00754 /hr | 12% | $0.07039 /hr |
| r9g.medium | Memory Optimized | 1 | 8 GiB | $0.06421 /hr | $0.00771 /hr | 12% | $0.07192 /hr |
| t4g.large | General Purpose | 2 | 8 GiB | $0.0672 /hr | $0.00806 /hr | 12% | $0.07526 /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 |
| m8gb.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.07275 /hr | $0.00873 /hr | 12% | $0.08148 /hr |
| m8gn.medium | General Purpose | 1 | 4 GiB | $0.0728 /hr | $0.00874 /hr | 12% | $0.08154 /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 | $0.00902 /hr | 12% | $0.08422 /hr |
| r7a.medium | Memory Optimized | 1 | 8 GiB | $0.07608 /hr | $0.00913 /hr | 12% | $0.08521 /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 | $0.00922 /hr | 12% | $0.08602 /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 | $0.00957 /hr | 12% | $0.08933 /hr |
| r8a.medium | Memory Optimized | 1 | 8 GiB | $0.07988 /hr | $0.00959 /hr | 12% | $0.08947 /hr |
No instance types match your filters.
Fee vs EC2 is the Auto Mode fee divided by the EC2 Linux on-demand price in the same region. It is about 12% for most instance types, lower for GPU and accelerator types, and a dash where we have no EC2 price to compare. Prices shown are AWS's published fee, not a calculation from EC2.
Alternatives to the EKS control plane
| Option | Price vs the EKS control plane | Why look at it |
|---|---|---|
| Self-managed control plane (3 × t3.medium) | +25%+$0.0248/hr us-east-1 Linux on-demand, per cluster | You run, patch and back up the API servers and etcd yourself. |
| Provisioned control plane (XL) | +1550%+$1.55/hr per cluster, us-east-1 | Reserved control plane capacity for very large clusters with heavy API traffic. Most clusters never need it. |
| Amazon ECS on EC2Compare → | -100%-$0.10/hr per cluster, us-east-1 | No cluster fee. You give up the Kubernetes API and its tooling. |
| AWS Fargate | Billed per vCPU and GB, not per cluster | Removes node management. The EKS control plane fee still applies when EKS schedules the pods. |
What to know about Amazon EKS
Managed Kubernetes, billed as a flat fee per cluster-hour before any node, volume or load balancer.
An EKS cluster costs $0.10 per hour, about $73 a month, in every region we track. That covers the managed Kubernetes control plane and no nodes.
The nodes bill separately. With managed or self-managed node groups you pay EC2 prices for them and nothing extra to EKS. With Auto Mode, AWS runs the nodes and charges a fee per instance on top of the EC2 price. For most instance types that fee is about 12% of the EC2 rate, and lower for GPU and accelerator types. The tables on this page show the fee AWS publishes for each type and region next to the EC2 price, so you can see what the convenience costs.
Because the fee is per cluster, cluster count matters more than cluster size. Ten clusters cost $730 a month before any workload runs. Separate clusters are sometimes right, for isolation or blast radius, but they are a real line item.
Extended support is the surcharge for clusters running a Kubernetes version past its standard support window. It is $0.50 an hour on top of the standard $0.10, so the cluster costs six times as much. Upgrading ends it.
Provisioned control plane tiers sell reserved control plane capacity for very large clusters. Most clusters never need one. Hybrid Nodes let you attach servers outside AWS and are billed per vCPU-hour in bands that get cheaper as monthly volume grows. EKS Capabilities charge for managed ArgoCD, ACK and KRO.
The price list for EKS is on-demand only. There are no reserved or Savings Plans rates for the fee itself, though Savings Plans can discount the EC2 or Fargate compute underneath.
Good for
- Teams that already run Kubernetes tooling and want AWS to operate the control plane
- Many nodes sharing one cluster, where the fixed fee spreads thin
- Hybrid setups that need one control plane for cloud and on-premises nodes
Watch for
- The fee is per cluster, so many small clusters pay it many times
- Auto Mode adds a fee on top of each node's EC2 price; it does not replace it
- Clusters left on old Kubernetes versions pay the extended support surcharge, five times the standard fee on top of it
- Nodes, EBS volumes, load balancers and NAT are all billed separately