CloudCostDB Guides
Reference material, not a reading list. Each guide answers one choice — pick a category and find the one that matches the decision in front of you.
Compute
Picking instance types, architectures, and sizes.
- Choosing a GPU instance on cost, not habitA method for picking accelerated EC2 instances using $/GPU-hour and GPU memory per dollar instead of defaulting to the biggest or most familiar type. Real pricing across every GPU family in our dataset, why memory is usually the binding constraint, and when going wide beats going big.
- Everyone thinks their service needs a C instanceCompute-optimized instances get picked by habit, and of the three families that look like a match on a spec sheet, C is the one that demands you actually need the vCPUs. How to check whether the service touches its cores, why memory is usually the binding constraint, and how a move from C to M at the same memory cuts the bill by about 44%.
- Graviton vs. x86: what the discount is worthAWS Graviton (arm64) instances are usually cheaper per hour than their x86_64 equivalents, but the savings only materialize if your workload can run on arm64 without a costly migration. Prices, benchmarks, vCPUs vs. cores, and a decision checklist.
- How Compute Savings Plans decide what they coverHow AWS decides which usage a Compute Savings Plan covers each hour, with AWS's five worked scenarios, an interactive commitment slider, and what a higher discount changes.
- Managing AWS Compute Savings Plans: Elasticity, Seasonality, and Planned WasteWhy targeting 100% Savings Plan utilization leaves money on the table. How weekly diurnal cycles create unavoidable waste, the break-even math of off-peak hours, and how to size commitments for elastic workloads.
- Right-sizing EC2 with $/vCPU-hr and $/GiB-hrA repeatable method for picking instance size and family using cost-per-vCPU-hour and cost-per-GiB-hour instead of habit. Includes real pricing data showing whether bigger sizes get cheaper, and how compute, general-purpose, and memory-optimized families trade off.
- T-family vs. M-family: picking the right instance for variable loadA decision checklist for choosing between burstable T instances (t3, t4g) and fixed-performance M instances. Real on-demand pricing showing the T discount at baseline, and when that discount stops applying.
- The Windows licensing premium: what it actually costsWindows Server pricing on EC2 is a flat, additive per-vCPU license fee stacked on top of the Linux price, not a vague markup. Real numbers on how much, how it scales, and when it's worth avoiding.
- When a .metal instance is actually worth itAWS prices .metal instances the same as the largest virtualized size in their family, to the cent. The real cost of bare metal isn't the hourly rate, it's what you take on by running without a hypervisor. Here's how to tell if that trade is worth making.
Storage
Volume types and how EBS actually bills.
Networking
Load balancers, NAT, and data-transfer costs.
- ALB vs. NLB vs. CLB: choosing a load balancerApplication Load Balancer is the default most people reach for, but Network Load Balancer is often cheaper and sometimes the only option that fits. Real hourly and LCU pricing, a worked monthly cost comparison, and when (if ever) Classic Load Balancer still makes sense.
- NAT Gateway costs: what you're paying for and how to cut itA NAT Gateway bills two ways: an hourly charge and a per-gigabyte data processing charge, and the second one is usually what surprises you. What a NAT Gateway is actually for, real regional pricing, worked scenarios, and the alternatives worth checking before you pay the full rate.
- NAT Gateway vs. NAT instance: when the swap pays offAt 10 TB a month, one managed NAT Gateway costs $483 and a NAT instance that can carry the traffic costs $32. How to decide, from a startup moving gigabytes to a medium enterprise moving hundreds of terabytes: what the per-gigabyte fee buys, where each instance size runs out of bandwidth, and when the swap is worth your time.
Regions
Where to run it and what location changes.
- AWS Local Zones: when the latency win is worth the price premiumA Local Zone puts compute physically closer to a metro area for single-digit-millisecond latency, at a real price premium and a much smaller instance menu. Real pricing and availability data plus a decision framework for choosing a Local Zone over its parent region.
- How much does AWS region actually change your bill?We priced an m6i.xlarge, GP3 storage, and a NAT Gateway across every standard AWS region. São Paulo pays 85% more than Virginia on average: 59% on compute, 90% on storage, 107% on NAT. Full table with percentage premiums for all 34 regions.