Amazon CloudWatch pricing

Paid tier

Pricing examples

• Example 1 - EC2 Detailed Monitoring

  The number of metrics sent by your EC2 instance as detailed monitoring is dependent on the EC2 instance type - see Instance Metrics documentation for details. This example assumes 7 metrics, which covers the most commonly used instance types.  

  If your application runs on 10 Amazon EC2 instances 24x7 for a 30-day month, and you enable EC2 Detailed Monitoring on all instances, your charges would be as follows:

  Total number of metrics = 7 metrics per instance * 10 instances = 70 metrics

  Monthly CloudWatch Metrics Charges @$0.30 per custom metric = 70 * $0.30 = $21

  Monthly CloudWatch charges = $21 per month

  Once you exceed 10,000 total metrics then volume pricing tiers will apply - see metrics pricing table for details.

• Example 2 - Custom metrics

  If your application runs on 51,000 Amazon EC2 instances 24x7 for a 30-day month, and you published 5 custom metrics via the PutMetricData API, your charges would be as follows:

  Total number of metrics = 5 metrics per instance * 51,000 instances = 255,000 metrics
  First 10,000 custom metrics @$0.30 per metric = 10,000 * $0.30 = $3,000
  10,001 to 250,000 custom metrics @$0.10 per metric = 240,000 * $0.10 = $24,000
  250,001 to 255,000 custom metrics @0.05 per metric = 5000 * $0.05 = $250
  Monthly CloudWatch custom metrics charges = $3000 + $24000 + $250 = $27,250 per month

  Total number of API requests = 51,000 instances * (43,200 minutes/5 minutes) = 440,640,000 requests
  First 1,000,000 API requests = $0
  1,000,001 to 440,640,000 API requests = 439,640,000/1,000 * $0.01 = $4,396.40

  Monthly CloudWatch charges = $27,250 + $4,396.40 = $31,646.40 per month

• Example 3 - Monitoring with logs

  If you are monitoring HTTP 2xx, 3xx & 4xx response codes using web application access logs 24x7 for one 30-day month, by sending 1GB per day of ingested log data, monitoring for HTTP responses, and archiving the data for one month, your charges would be as follows:

  Monthly Ingested Log Charges
  Total log data ingested = 1GB * 30 days = 30GB
  0 to 5GB = $0
  5 to 30GB = $0.50 * 25 = $12.50

  Monthly Monitoring Charges
  3 CloudWatch Metrics @$0 = 3 * $0 = $0

  Monthly Archived Log Charges (assume log data compresses to 6GB)
  0 to 5GB = $0
  5GB to 6GB = $0.03 * 1 = $0.03

  Monthly CloudWatch Charges = $12.50 + $0 + $0.03 = $12.53

• Example 4 - Monitoring VPC flow logs

  If you are monitoring VPCs that send 72TB of ingested VPC flow logs per month and archiving the data for one month, your charges would be as follows:

  Monthly Log Ingestion Charges
  0 to 10TB @$0.50 per GB = 10 * 1,024 * $0.50 = $5,120.00
  10TB to 30TB @$0.25 per GB = 20 * 1,024 * $0.25 = $5,120.00
  30TB to 50TB @$0.10 per GB = 20 * 1,024 * $0.10 = $2,048.00
  50TB to 72TB @$0.05 per GB = 22 * 1024 * $0.05 = $1,126.40
  Total Ingestion Charges = $5,120 + $5,120 + $2,048 + $1126.40 = $13,414.40
  

  Monthly Log Archival Charges (Assume log data compresses to 30TB)
  30TB @ $0.033 per GB = 30 * 1024 * 0.033 = $1,013.76

  Monthly CloudWatch Charges = $13,414.40 + $1,013.76 = $14,428.16

• Example 5 - Alarming with Anomaly Detection

  If you enable Amazon CloudWatch Anomaly Detection on 10 standard resolution metrics per month and only want to alarm on 5 of those metrics, you will create 5 standard resolution anomaly detection alarms. Anomaly Detection is available with standard resolution alarms only. Your monthly bill is calculated as follows:

  Total number of standard resolution anomaly detection alarms = 5

  Alarms are billed based on the number of metrics per alarm. For every anomaly detection alarm, there are three standard resolution metrics per alarm. One is the actual metric being evaluated, the second is the upper bound of expected behavior, and the third is the lower bound of the expected behavior.

  One standard resolution anomaly detection alarm = $0.10 * 3 standard resolution metrics per alarm = $0.30 per month

  Five standard resolution anomaly detection alarms = $0.30 per standard resolution anomaly detection alarm * 5 alarms = $1.50 per month

  Monthly CloudWatch charges = $1.50 per month

  Pricing values displayed here are based on US East Regions. Please refer to pricing tabs for most current pricing information for your respective region(s). Anomaly Detection is currently available in all commercial AWS Regions.
  

• Example 6 - Container Insights for Amazon ECS

  If you monitor 1 container cluster with 10 Amazon EC2 instances, 50 average running containers, 20 unique task names, and 5 unique service names, your costs would be as follows:

  CloudWatch metrics

  There is a predefined number of metrics reported for every cluster, task, and service. Every cluster reports 8 metrics; every task reports 6 metrics; and every service reports 11 metrics. CloudWatch metrics are aggregated by task and service using their name. Increasing the count of running instances will not impact the count of CloudWatch metrics generated. All CloudWatch metrics are prorated on an hourly basis. This example assumes that data points are reported for the entire month.

   

  Monthly number of CloudWatch metrics per cluster

  = 8 cluster metrics + (6 task metrics * 20 unique task names) + (11 service metrics * 5 unique service names)

  = 8 + (6 * 20) + (11 * 5)

  = 183 CloudWatch metrics

   

  Monthly CloudWatch metrics costs = $0.30 per metric for first 10,000 metrics * 183 metrics = $54.90

   

  Once you exceed 10,000 total metrics then volume pricing tiers will apply - see metrics pricing table for details.

  CloudWatch Logs

  For Amazon ECS, on average, 13 KB are ingested per metric per hour. The cost of logs ingested will vary based on names used for your cluster, container, pod, service, instance names, labels, etc.

   

  Monthly GB of CloudWatch Logs ingested = (13 KB/1024/1024) GB * 183 metrics * 730 average hours in a month = 1.66 GB per month

   

  Monthly ingested logs costs = $0.50 per GB of ingested logs * 1.66 GB of performance events as CloudWatch Logs = $0.83 per month

   

  Monthly CloudWatch costs = $54.90 + $0.83 = $55.73 per month.
  

   

  Pricing values displayed here are based on US East (N. Virginia) AWS Regions. Please refer to the pricing information for your Region.

• Example 7 - Container Insights for Amazon EKS and Kubernetes (k8s)

  If you monitor 1 container cluster with 10 nodes or Amazon EC2 instances, 20 pods, 5 unique service names, and 1 namespace, your charges would be as follows:

  CloudWatch metrics

  There is a predefined number of metrics reported for every cluster, node, pod, and service. Every cluster reports 24 metrics; every node reports 8 metrics; every pod reports 9 metrics; and every service reports 6 metrics. CloudWatch metrics are aggregated by pod, service, and namespace using their name. Increasing the count of running instances will not impact the count of CloudWatch metrics generated. All CloudWatch metrics are prorated on an hourly basis. This example assumes that data points are reported for the entire month.

   

  Monthly number of CloudWatch metrics per cluster

  = 24 cluster metrics + (10 nodes or EC2 instances * 8 node metrics) + (20 unique pod names * 9 pod metrics * 1 namespace) + (5 unique service names * 6 service metrics * 1 namespace) + (1 unique namespace * 6 namespace metrics)

  = 24 + (10 * 8) + (20 * 9 * 1) + (5 * 6 * 1) + (1 * 6) = 320 CloudWatch metrics

   

  Monthly CloudWatch metrics costs = $0.30 per metric for first 10,000 metrics * 320 metrics = $96

   

  Once you exceed 10,000 total metrics then volume pricing tiers will apply - see metrics pricing table for details.

  CloudWatch Logs

  For Kubernetes, on average, 38 KB are ingested per metric per hour. The cost of logs ingested will vary based on names used for your cluster, container, pod, service, instance names, labels, etc.

   

  Monthly GB of CloudWatch Logs ingested = (38 KB/1024/1024) GB * 320 metrics * 730 average hours in a month = 8.47 GB per month
  

   

  Monthly ingested logs costs = $0.50 per GB of ingested logs * 8.47 GB of performance events as CloudWatch Logs = $4.23 per month

   

  Monthly CloudWatch costs = $96 + $4.23 = $100.23 per month.

   

  Pricing values displayed here are based on US East (N. Virginia) AWS Regions. Please refer to the pricing information for your Region.

• Example 8 - Monitoring your application with ServiceLens

  If you monitor an application that contains APIs (using Amazon API Gateway), 1 container cluster with 10 nodes or Amazon EC2 instances, 20 pods, 5 unique service names, and 1 namespace, 3 Lambda functions, and 1 DynamoDB table, your charges would be as follows:

  CloudWatch metrics
  APIs, Lambdas, and DynamoDB: Metrics from these AWS services are available with no additional charge.

  Kubernetes: As described in Example 7, there is a predefined number of metrics reported for every cluster, node, pod, and service (to learn more, see Kubernetes on AWS). Every cluster reports 24 metrics; every node reports 8 metrics; every pod reports 9 metrics; and every service reports 6 metrics. CloudWatch metrics are aggregated by pod, service, and namespace using their name. Increasing the count of running instances will not impact the count of CloudWatch metrics generated. All CloudWatch metrics are prorated on an hourly basis. This example assumes that data points are reported for the entire month.

  Monthly number of CloudWatch metrics per cluster
  = 24 cluster metrics + (10 nodes or EC2 instances * 8 node metrics) + (20 unique pod names * 9 pod metrics * 1 namespace) + (5 unique service names * 6 service metrics * 1 namespace) + (1 unique namespace * 6 namespace metrics)
  = 24 + (10 * 8) + (20 * 9 * 1) + (5 * 6 * 1) + (1 * 6) = 24 + 80 + 180 + 30 + 6 = 320 CloudWatch metrics

  Monthly CloudWatch metrics costs = $0.30 per metric for first 10,000 metrics * 320 metrics = $96. Once you exceed 10,000 total metrics then volume pricing tiers will apply - see metrics pricing table for details.

  CloudWatch Logs
  APIs and Lambdas: For API Gateway Logs or Lambda Logs ingested in CloudWatch, the Monthly ingested logs costs = $0.50 per GB of ingested logs * 50 GB of performance events as CloudWatch Logs = $25 per month.

  AWS X-Ray
  If the application receives 2,000 incoming requests per hour and you’re using a 10% sampling rate, then your cost would be calculated as follows:

  Traces Recorded
  Traces Recorded per Month = 2,000 requests per hour x 24 hours x 31 days x 10% = 148,800 traces
  Billable Traces Recorded per Month = 148,800 traces - 100,000 traces in free tier = 48,800 traces
  Monthly Traces Recorded Charges = 48,800 traces * $0.000005 = $0.24

  In addition, let’s assume you make 100 queries scanning each hour of data captured (200 traces), and retrieve the full trace data for 50 traces per query.

  Traces Retrieved and Scanned
  Traces Scanned per Month = 100 queries x 200 traces per hour x 31 days = 620,000 traces
  Traces Retrieved per Month = 100 queries x 50 traces per query x 31 days = 155,000 traces
  Total Traces Retrieved/Scanned per Month = 155,000 traces + 620,000 traces = 775,000 traces
  Since the first 1,000,000 traces retrieved or scanned each month are free with AWS X-Ray, it costs $0 to retrieve and scan 775,000 traces.

  Your total cost per month for using AWS X-Ray equals $0.24 for traces recorded.

  Monthly Monitoring costs = $96 + 25+ $4.23 + $0.24 = $125.47 per month.

  Pricing values displayed here are based on US East (N. Virginia) AWS Regions. Please refer to the pricing information for your Region.

• Example 9 - Monitoring with Contributor Insights

  If you are monitoring Amazon VPC Flow Logs with a volume of 225 billion Log Events to CloudWatch Logs per month, and you have three Contributor Insights rules that match 100 percent, 50 percent, and 10 percent of these log events respectively, your charges will be as follows:

  Rule Charges
  Total number of rules = 3 rules
  First Contributor Insights rule = $0
  2 Contributor Insights rules @ $0.50 per rule = $1.00

  Matched Log Events
  Total Number of Matched Log Events = (225B * 100%) + (225 * 50%) + (225B * 10%) = 225B + 112.5B + 22.5B = 360 Billion
  0 to 1 million matched log events = $0
  1M to 360B matched log events = 359,999M * $0.02 = $7,200

  Monthly CloudWatch Charges = $1.00 + $7,200 = $7,201
  

• Example 10 – End user monitoring with Synthetics

  If you create 5 canaries that run once every 5 minutes, add alarms on 5 of the metrics generated by the canaries, and store the data for 1 month, your monthly bill will be calculated as follows:

  5 canaries * 12 runs per hour * 24 hours per day * 31 days per month = 44,640 canary runs

  Monthly CloudWatch charges

  Canary run charges = 44,640 canary runs * $0.0012 per canary run = $53.57 per month
  5 alarms per month = 5 * $0.10 = $0.50 per month
  Total monthly CloudWatch charges = $53.57 + $0.50 = $54.07

  Monthly additional charges

  Each canary run also runs an AWS Lambda function and writes logs and results to CloudWatch Logs and the designated Amazon S3 bucket. For details on AWS service pricing such as AWS Lambda, Amazon S3, and CloudWatch Logs, see the pricing section of the relevant AWS service detail pages.

  Lambda charges = requests charges + duration charges
  = requests from 44,640 runs * $0.2 per 1,000,000 + duration of 20 seconds * 44,640 canary runs * 1 GB memory size * $0.000016667 per GB per sec
  = $0.01 + $14.88 = $14.89 per month

  CloudWatch Logs charges = collection charges + storage charges
  = collection of 0.00015 GB per run * 44,640 runs * $0.5 per GB + storage of 0.00015 GB per run* 44,640 canary runs * $0.03 per GB per month
  = $3.35 + $0.20 = $3.55 per month

  S3 charges = put request charges + storage charges
  = put requests of 44,640 runs * $0.005 per 1,000 requests + storage of 0.001 GB per run * 44,640 canary runs * 1 month * $0.023 per GB per month
  = $0.22 + $1.03 = $1.25 per month

  Additional monthly charges = $14.89 + $3.55 + $1.25 = $19.69

  Total monthly charges = $54.07 + $19.69 = $73.76

  Pricing values displayed here are based on US East Regions. Please refer to pricing tabs for most current pricing information for your respective region(s).
  

• Example 11 – Alarming with composite alarms

  Composite alarms can combine any type of CloudWatch alarm. Metric alarms are billed based on the number of metrics per alarm, while composite alarms are billed per alarm unit. One composite alarm costs $0.50 per month, regardless of the number of metric alarms it combines.
  

  If you create one composite alarm that combines four standard resolution metric alarms, your monthly bill is calculated as follows:
  

  Four standard resolution alarms = $0.10 per alarm metric * 4 = $0.40 per month
  

  One composite alarm = $0.50 per month

  Monthly CloudWatch charges = $0.40 + $0.50 = $0.90 per month

• Example 12 – S3 Request Metrics

  Amazon S3 Request Metrics allow you to quickly identify and act on operational issues. There are 16 available metrics that you can configure filters for, identified by a shared prefix or object tag, and only monitor a subset of objects. The filters align your metrics to specific business applications, workflows, or internal organizations. The activity on the bucket determines which metrics are generated, so all 16 metrics may not necessarily be published every hour of the day.
  
  For example, let’s take an application that performs a backup routine every day and completes within a single hour. Because the application only makes PUT requests to S3, a subset of metrics, such as AllRequests, PutRequests, TotalRequestLatency, and BytesUploaded, are generated; metrics related to other types of operations, such as DeleteRequests, SelectRequests, and SelectReturnedBytes, would not be generated. For our example, we will assume 8 out of the 16 available metrics are generated – detailed list of metrics available in Amazon S3 documentation. Assuming the routine starts and finishes within the same hour, the charges to generate and publish these metrics to CloudWatch are:
  
  Total number of metrics = 8
  Total hours of metrics published = 1 hour per day for 30 days (assuming example month has 30 days) = 1 * 30 = 30 hours per month
  Total hours per month = 30 days * 24 hours = 720 hours per month
  First 10,000 custom metrics @$0.30 per metric = $0.30 * 8 (number of metrics) * 30 (metric hours per month) per 720 (hours per month) = $0.10 per month.
  
  Monthly CloudWatch charges for S3 Request Metrics = $0.10 per month
  Once you exceed 10,000 total metrics then volume pricing tiers will apply based on the pricing table above.