AWS for Games Blog
Free Network Bandwidth for Amazon GameLift Servers is Here! (Yes, Really!)
Starting June 15, 2026, network bandwidth is now included at no additional charge for all Amazon GameLift Servers instances, generation 6 or newer
Starting June 15, 2026, network bandwidth is now included at no additional charge for all Amazon GameLift Servers instances, generation 6 or newer (c6, m6, c7, m7 etc. instance families). Now you are unconstrained from network bandwidth charges, whether you launch one of our popular c6 instances for high-tick rate FPSs or an m7 instance for a Battle Royale where memory is the constraint. Free network bandwidth starts right from the first instance launched with no commitments required.
We frequently hear from game developers that it’s very hard to estimate what network bandwidth their game will generate (and in turn, the total cost for their game servers), especially early in development when game design is still in early stages. Developers shared that they wanted to focus on building their games instead of changing game or level design, server tick rate, or player count per session to optimize and reduce network bandwidth costs. We don’t want our game developer customers to have to choose between building the game they really want to build versus minimizing game server cost, which is hard to control. We challenged ourselves to find a way where Amazon GameLift Servers customers would not have to make this tradeoff, where bandwidth costs were simply not a factor anymore. Good news, we did it!
Amazon GameLift Servers now provides free network bandwidth for all generation 6 or newer instance types, across all Regions (excluding China), all Local Zones, Windows, Linux, Spot or On-Demand, without any commitment. Regardless of level design, number of entities, number of connected players or server tick rate, outbound network bandwidth from generation 6 (or newer) instances on Amazon GameLift Servers is now free of charge. There is no price increase or “bundling” elsewhere in Amazon GameLift Servers pricing to compensate. This means that not only will most customers pay less to host with Amazon GameLift Servers, but they will also have greater certainty over the final cost since bandwidth is no longer a variable.
Pricing Example
Let’s look at a before and after pricing example. Suppose we have a hypothetical 5v5 first person shooter game running on compute optimized Graviton c6g.xlarge instances. Every instance supports 40 concurrent players, with each player requiring 8KB/s of bandwidth from the server to stay updated. Before today’s announcement, to support 1000 concurrent players (CCU) on this game, the total cost would be $2,978 for the compute instances, plus $1,507 for the network bandwidth, for a total of $4,485 per month. After today’s free network bandwidth launch, this game with 1,000 concurrent players would pay the same $2,978 for compute instances and $0 for the network bandwidth, for a total of $2,978 (a $1,507/month savings, 34%). For more pricing examples, click here.
| Concurrent Players | Compute costs before | Network bandwidth costs before | Total before | Compute costs after | Network bandwidth costs after | Total after | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $2,978 | $1,507 | $4,485 | $2,978 | $0 | $2,978 | $1,507 (34%) |
For Existing Customers
If you are an existing Amazon GameLift Servers customer with gen6 or newer instances deployed, free network bandwidth has already taken effect for you without any action required on your part. If you are an existing GameLift Servers customer but are not yet on gen6+ instances, it’s as simple as creating new Fleets with gen6+ instances to start capturing the free network bandwidth savings (see documentation here).
Getting Started
If you are new to GameLift Servers entirely, welcome! We encourage you to try and test our variety of instance types that are designed to support a breadth of game types and designs, alongside features like FlexMatch matchmaking, our Player Gateway UDP-based DDoS protection, and our Open Telemetry Metrics Collector. We help game developers of all sizes deploy and scale game servers to players around the world. To learn how to get started with Amazon GameLift Servers, click here.