Amazon DocumentDB Pricing
Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility) is a fully managed, scalable JSON document database designed for enterprise workloads. Features a cloud-native decoupled storage engine with 6-way replication across 3 AZs, up to 15 low-latency read replicas, and Elastic Clusters for petabyte-scale throughput.
Storage Classes: Standard vs. I/O-Optimized
DocumentDB pricing separates compute from storage. Choose between Standard and I/O-Optimized storage depending on your read/write IOPS intensity.
DocumentDB Standard
Default storage option designed for applications with low-to-moderate I/O access patterns. You pay a low baseline storage rate and per-request I/O charges.
- Storage Rate: $0.100 / GB-month
- I/O Requests: $0.200 per 1M I/Os
- Backup Storage: $0.095 / GB-mo (first 100% free)
- Optimal For: Workloads where I/O charges are less than 25% of your total storage bill.
DocumentDB I/O-Optimized
Built for intensive read/write workloads. Eliminates all I/O charges in exchange for a predictable higher storage price, guaranteeing zero cost spikes from heavy queries.
- Storage Rate: $0.300 / GB-month
- I/O Requests: $0.000 (Included)
- Backup Storage: $0.095 / GB-mo (first 100% free)
- Optimal For: Throughput-heavy applications where I/O exceeds 25% of total storage spend.
Compute Instance Pricing (US East, N. Virginia)
On-demand database instances for primary writer and read replica nodes. Both Standard and I/O-Optimized storage configurations share the same hourly instance rates.
| Instance Type | Family | Architecture | vCPU | RAM | Hourly Rate | Monthly Est. (730h) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| db.r8g.large | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton4) | 2 | 16 GiB | $0.333 | $243.09 |
| db.r8g.xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton4) | 4 | 32 GiB | $0.666 | $486.18 |
| db.r8g.2xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton4) | 8 | 64 GiB | $1.331 | $971.63 |
| db.r8g.4xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton4) | 16 | 128 GiB | $2.663 | $1943.99 |
| db.r8g.8xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton4) | 32 | 256 GiB | $5.326 | $3887.98 |
| db.r8g.12xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton4) | 48 | 384 GiB | $7.988 | $5831.24 |
| db.r8g.16xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton4) | 64 | 512 GiB | $10.651 | $7775.23 |
| db.r6g.large | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton2) | 2 | 16 GiB | $0.278 | $202.94 |
| db.r6g.xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton2) | 4 | 32 GiB | $0.556 | $405.88 |
| db.r6g.2xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton2) | 8 | 64 GiB | $1.112 | $811.76 |
| db.r6g.4xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton2) | 16 | 128 GiB | $2.224 | $1623.52 |
| db.r6g.8xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton2) | 32 | 256 GiB | $4.448 | $3247.04 |
| db.r6g.12xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton2) | 48 | 384 GiB | $6.672 | $4870.56 |
| db.r6g.16xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton2) | 64 | 512 GiB | $8.896 | $6494.08 |
| db.r5.large | Memory Optimized | x86_64 (Intel) | 2 | 16 GiB | $0.350 | $255.50 |
| db.r5.xlarge | Memory Optimized | x86_64 (Intel) | 4 | 32 GiB | $0.700 | $511.00 |
| db.r5.2xlarge | Memory Optimized | x86_64 (Intel) | 8 | 64 GiB | $1.400 | $1022.00 |
| db.r5.4xlarge | Memory Optimized | x86_64 (Intel) | 16 | 128 GiB | $2.800 | $2044.00 |
| db.r5.8xlarge | Memory Optimized | x86_64 (Intel) | 32 | 256 GiB | $5.600 | $4088.00 |
| db.r5.12xlarge | Memory Optimized | x86_64 (Intel) | 48 | 384 GiB | $8.400 | $6132.00 |
| db.r5.16xlarge | Memory Optimized | x86_64 (Intel) | 64 | 512 GiB | $11.200 | $8176.00 |
| db.r5.24xlarge | Memory Optimized | x86_64 (Intel) | 96 | 768 GiB | $16.800 | $12264.00 |
| db.t4g.medium | Burstable | arm64 (Graviton2) | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.078 | $56.94 |
| db.t3.medium | Burstable | x86_64 (Intel) | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.098 | $71.54 |
Global Regional Rates Comparison
DocumentDB pricing across global regions. Rates reflect local datacenter infrastructure and networking costs.
| Region | Standard Storage ($/GB‑mo) | I/O-Optimized Storage ($/GB‑mo) | I/O (per 1M) | db.r6g.large ($/hr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| us-east-1 US East (N. Virginia) | $0.100 | $0.300 | $0.200 | $0.278 |
| us-east-2 US East (Ohio) | $0.100 | $0.300 | $0.200 | $0.278 |
| us-west-2 US West (Oregon) | $0.100 | $0.300 | $0.200 | $0.278 |
| eu-west-1 Europe (Ireland) | $0.110 | $0.330 | $0.220 | $0.306 |
| eu-central-1 Europe (Frankfurt) | $0.119 | $0.357 | $0.238 | $0.331 |
| ap-southeast-1 Asia Pacific (Singapore) | $0.110 | $0.330 | $0.220 | $0.318 |
| ap-northeast-1 Asia Pacific (Tokyo) | $0.120 | $0.360 | $0.240 | $0.333 |
| sa-east-1 South America (São Paulo) | $0.140 | $0.420 | $0.280 | $0.403 |
DocumentDB Cost Optimization Playbook
1. The 25% I/O Breakeven Rule
Standard storage costs $0.10/GB-mo plus $0.20 per million I/Os. I/O-Optimized costs $0.30/GB-mo with zero I/O fees. If your I/O charges exceed 25% of your total storage invoice, switching to I/O-Optimized lowers your total spend and eliminates bill variability.
2. Graviton Price-Performance Advantage
AWS Graviton instances (db.r6g, db.r8g) cost ~20% less per hour than equivalent Intel db.r5 instances while delivering up to 30% higher throughput for document aggregation pipelines.
3. Stop Non-Production Clusters
DocumentDB allows you to stop development and staging clusters for up to 7 consecutive days. While stopped, you only pay for provisioned storage and backups, saving 100% of compute instance costs.
4. Auto-Scaling Storage Without Over-Provisioning
Storage expands automatically in 10 GB increments up to 128 TiB. Never pre-provision or pad storage capacity ahead of time; DocumentDB bills only for the exact storage allocation high-water mark.