Amazon GameLift Instances

The following tables display the hourly Spot and On-Demand prices for each region and instance type (updated every 5 minutes).

With Amazon GameLift Spot instance types you pay the Spot price that’s in effect at the beginning of each instance-hour for your running instance. If Spot price changes after you launch the instance, the new price is charged against the instance usage for the subsequent hour. Spot instance prices are set by Amazon Web Services and adjust gradually based on long-term trends in supply and demand for Spot instance capacity, but never exceed On-Demand prices. In the Amazon GameLift console, you can view three months of historical pricing and savings data for every instance type and region.

Instance Pricing: Linux | Windows

Windows pricing is per instance-second consumed for each instance, from the time an instance is launched until it is terminated or stopped. While prices for Linux and Windows are listed on a per-hour basis, bills are calculated down to the second. There is a 1 minute minimum charge per instance. 

*“Monthly w/ Autoscaling” is calculated using an average monthly usage of 365 hours per instance, which is based upon a typical player demand pattern for multiplayer games.

Except as otherwise noted, our prices are exclusive of applicable taxes and duties, including VAT and applicable sales tax. For customers with a Japanese billing address, use is subject to Japanese Consumption Tax. Learn more.

Amazon GameLift FleetIQ

The following tables display the hourly FleetIQ charges derived from Spot and On-Demand instance prices for each region and instance type (updated every 5 minutes).

With the Amazon GameLift FleetIQ update, you can deploy instances into your account, and manage the instances via your own server management layer. Using Amazon GameLift FleetIQ this way, you will see separate charges for the usage of AWS services such as EC2, EBS, and CloudWatch as well as a Amazon GameLift FleetIQ charge in the Amazon GameLift section of your bill. Amazon GameLift FleetIQ hourly rates will vary based on OS, Instance Types, OD vs. Spot, and Regions.

With Spot instance types under Amazon GameLift FleetIQ management, you pay the FleetIQ price derived from Spot instance price that’s in effect at the beginning of each instance-hour for your running instance. If Spot price changes after you launch the instance, the new price is charged against the instance usage for the subsequent hour. Spot instance prices are set by Amazon Web Services and adjust gradually based on long-term trends in supply and demand for Spot instance capacity, but never exceed On-Demand prices.

Instance Pricing: Linux | Windows

Linux pricing is per instance-second consumed for each instance, from the time an instance is launched until it is terminated or stopped. While prices for Linux are listed on a per-hour basis, bills are calculated down to the second. There is a 1 minute minimum charge per instance.

*“Monthly w/ Autoscaling” is calculated using an average monthly usage of 365 hours per instance, which is based upon a typical player demand pattern for multiplayer games.

Except as otherwise noted, our prices are exclusive of applicable taxes and duties, including VAT and applicable sales tax. For customers with a Japanese billing address, use is subject to Japanese Consumption Tax. Learn more.

Windows pricing is per instance-second consumed for each instance, from the time an instance is launched until it is terminated or stopped. While prices for Linux and Windows are listed on a per-hour basis, bills are calculated down to the second. There is a 1 minute minimum charge per instance. 

*“Monthly w/ Autoscaling” is calculated using an average monthly usage of 365 hours per instance, which is based upon a typical player demand pattern for multiplayer games.

Except as otherwise noted, our prices are exclusive of applicable taxes and duties, including VAT and applicable sales tax. For customers with a Japanese billing address, use is subject to Japanese Consumption Tax. Learn more.


Amazon GameLift FlexMatch

Amazon GameLift FlexMatch usage is included in the fees for GameLift if you host your games on GameLift servers. Amazon GameLift FlexMatch usage will be charged separately if you host your games on any other game server solution, including on-premises, peer-to-peer, cloud compute primitives, and Amazon GameLift FleetIQ. You are charged based on the number of Player Packages you submit and the number of Matchmaking Hours you consume.

FlexMatch counts a Player Package each time you submit a player’s request to play a game session. This package also includes player attributes used to evaluate a match.

Matchmaking Hours is calculated as the duration FlexMatch is executing a matchmaking evaluation, rounded up to the nearest 1 microsecond.

The GameLift FlexMatch free usage tier includes 50,000 Player Packages and 5 Matchmaking Hours per month for 12 months, aggregated across all matchmaking regions.

  • Windows pricing is per instance-second consumed for each instance, from the time an instance is launched until it is terminated or stopped. While prices for Linux and Windows are listed on a per-hour basis, bills are calculated down to the The complexity of your ruleset, player arrival rate, and distribution of player attributes are factors that drive Matchmaking Hours. The best way to estimate your Matchmaking Hours is to submit representative player traffic and ruleset to FlexMatch, and to monitor the real-time metric “MatchmakingSearchTime” in the console.

    Generally, FlexMatch customers submitting 1 million Player Packages per month do not exceed 720 Matchmaking Hours per month. If you expect to submit more than 1 million Player Packages per month, please contact your Account Manager so that we can help you assess if additional Matchmaking Hours capacity may be required for your player traffic.

    Below are some general guidelines for what determines the complexity of a ruleset:second. There is a 1 minute minimum charge per instance. 

    Lower Complexity Rules

    • = or != comparison rules
    • Rules that are able to recognize a newly added player as invalid right away
    • Rules which allow for finding matches faster

    Higher Complexity Rules

    • Distance rules
    • Latency rules
    • Rules that are not able to eliminate a match until the last potential player is added
    • Rules involving lists of strings
    • Rules that match large number of players per game session
    • Rules that match large number of teams per game session
    • Rules that are restrictive, which cause significantly more matches to fail the rule and require additional matching attempts

    Lower Complexity Ruleset Example

    This example rule set describes a match with the following characteristics:

    • Team structure: Two single-player teams
    • Player attributes:
      • gameMode: Type of game chosen by the player (if not provided, default to "turn-based").
      • gameMap: Game world chosen by the player (if not provided, default to 1).
      • character: Character chosen by the player (no default value means that players must specify a character).
    • Match rules: Matched players must meet the following requirements:
      • Players must choose the same game mode.
      • Players must choose the same game map.
      • Players much choose different characters.

    Higher Complexity Ruleset Example

    This example illustrates how to set up player teams and apply a set of rules to each team instead of each individual player. It uses a single definition to create three equally matched teams. It also establishes a maximum latency for all players. Latency maximums can be relaxed over time to complete the match. This scenario sets out the following instructions:

    • Create three teams of players.
      • Include between three and five players in each team.
      • Final teams must contain the same or nearly the same number of players (within one).
    • Include the following player attributes:
      • A player’s skill level (if not provided, default to 10).
      • A player’s character role (if not provided, default to “peasant”).
    • Choose players based on whether their skill level is similar to other players in the match.
      • Ensure that each team has an average player skill within 10 points of each other.
    • Limit teams to the following number of “medic” characters:
      • An entire match can have a maximum of five medics.
    • All players in the match must be within 50 milliseconds latency of all other players.
    • If a match is not filled quickly, relax the player latency requirement as follows:
      • After 10 seconds, allow player latency range up to 100 ms.
      • After 20 seconds, allow player latency range up to 150 ms.

    Example 1

    This example illustrates a hypothetical game that consumes 25 million Player Packages and uses a simpler matchmaking ruleset that takes only 50 milliseconds to execute a 10 vs 10 matchmaking evaluation.

    Monthly Player Packages Charge

    The monthly Player Packages price is $20 per 1 million Player Packages, and the free tier provides 50,000 Player Packages per month.

    Total Player Packages - Free Tier Player Packages = Monthly billable Player Packages

    25,000,000 Player Packages - 50,000 Player Packages = 24,950,000 Monthly billable Player Packages

    Monthly Player Packages Charge = 24,950,000 * $20/M = $499

    Monthly Matchmaking Hours Charge

    The monthly Matchmaking Hours price is $1 per Matchmaking Hour and the free tier provides 5 Matchmaking Hours.

    Total matches formed = Total Player Packages / players per match

    Total matches formed = 25,000,000 Player Packages / 20 players per match = 1,250,000 matches

    Total Matchmaking Hours = Total matches formed * Matchmaking Hours per match

    Total Matchmaking Hours = 1,250,000 matches * 50 milliseconds per match / 3,600,000 milliseconds per hour = 17.361 hours

    Total Matchmaking Hours - Free Tier Matchmaking Hours = Monthly billable Matchmaking Hours

    17.361 Matchmaking Hours - 5 Matchmaking Hours = 12.361 Matchmaking Hours

    Monthly Matchmaking Hours Charge = 12.361 * $1 = $12.36

    Total Monthly Charges

    Total Charges = Player Packages charges + Matchmaking Hours charges = $499 + $12.36 = $511.36

    Example 2

    This example illustrates a hypothetical game that consumes 25 million Player Packages and uses a more complex matchmaking ruleset that takes 10 seconds to execute a 10 vs 10 matchmaking evaluation.

    Monthly Player Packages Charge

    The monthly Player Packages price is $20 per 1 million Player Packages, and the free tier provides 50,000 Player Packages per month.

    Total Player Packages - free tier Player Packages = Monthly billable Player Packages

    25,000,000 Player Packages - 50,000 Player Packages = 24,950,000 Monthly billable Player Packages

    Monthly Player Packages Charge = 24,950,000 * $20/M = $499

    Monthly Matchmaking Hours Charge

    The monthly Matchmaking Hours price is $1 per Matchmaking Hour and the free tier provides 5 Matchmaking Hours.

    Total matches formed = Total Player Packages / players per match

    Total matches formed = 25,000,000 Player Packages / 20 players per match = 1,250,000 matches

    Total Matchmaking Hours = Total matches formed * Matchmaking Hours per match

    Total Matchmaking Hours = 1,250,000 matches * 10 seconds per match / 3,600 seconds per hour = 3,472.22 hours

    Total Matchmaking Hours - Free Tier Matchmaking Hours = Monthly billable Matchmaking Hours

    3,472.22 Matchmaking Hours - 5 Matchmaking Hours = 3,467.22 Matchmaking Hours

    Monthly Matchmaking Hours Charge = 3,467.22 * $1 = $3,467.22

    Total Monthly Charges

    Total Charges = Player Packages charges + Matchmaking Hours charges = $499 + $3,467.22 = $3,966.22


Amazon GameLift Anywhere

  • Free Tier

    The Amazon GameLift Anywhere free tier includes a total of 3,000 game sessions placed and 500,000 server connection minutes per month for 12 months, aggregated across all regions.

    Example

    Assume you placed 100,000 game sessions and incurred 5,000,000 server process connections minutes. You will be charged at a rate of $0.0012 per game session placed and $0.000011 per server process connection minute.

    Total Game Sessions – Free Tier Game Sessions = Monthly billable Game Sessions

    100,000 Game Sessions – 3,000 Game Sessions = 97,000 Monthly billable Game Sessions

    Monthly Game Sessions Charge = 97,000 * $0.0012 = $116.40

    Total Server Process Connections Minutes – Free Tier Server Process Connection Minutes = Monthly billable Server Process Connection Minutes

    5,000,000 Server Process Connection Minutes – 500,000 Server Process Connection Minutes = 4,500,000 Monthly billable Server Process Connection Minutes

    Monthly Server Process Connection Minutes Charge = 4,500,000 * $0.000011 = $49.50

    Total Charges = Game Session charges + Server Process Connection Minutes charges = $116.40 + $49.50 = $165.90


Data Transfer OUT from Amazon GameLift Instances

  • You are charged data transfer fees for traffic between your game servers and your game clients. Inbound data transfer is free. For outbound data transfer rates to other AWS services and regions, visit the Data Transfer Rates

    Except as otherwise noted, our prices are exclusive of applicable taxes and duties, including VAT and applicable sales tax. For customers with a Japanese billing address, use is subject to Japanese Consumption Tax. Learn more.

    Contact us for pricing for data transfer greater than 500 TB / month.


Pricing Example

  • Auto-Scaling

    This example uses a typical hourly player demand pattern for multiplayer games to illustrate Amazon GameLift pricing. In this example, we’ll assume that your game launches in Japan and attracts 10,000 players. As shown below, the number of concurrent players follows a typical usage pattern.

    In this example, your game has the fewest number of players in the morning (800 players at 7:00 am), a spike at lunch (4,350 players at 1:00 pm), and a daily peak in the evening (6,480 players at 10:00 pm).

    Amazon GameLift offers instance types with different compute, memory, and networking capabilities. We’ll assume that you decide to host your game server using c4.xlarge instances running Linux. You've profiled your game server performance and found that each c4.xlarge instance can run 4 games with up to 10 players simultaneously.

    Throughout the day, as your player demand shifts, you will need more or less capacity. For example, from 7:00 am to 8:00 am you will need 20 instances to meet player demand (800 concurrent players / 10 players per game / 4 games per instance = 20 instances). Below is your instance usage over a 24-hour period.

    In this example, you decide to configure Amazon GameLift to automatically scale the number of instances up and down based on your current player demand. At 7:00 AM, you use 20 active instances, while at 10:00 PM, you use 162 active instances. Amazon GameLift only charges for the capacity you use. Therefore, you are only charged 20 instance hours from 7:00 AM to 8:00 AM, and 162 instance hours from 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM. The sum of all instances running each hour over the entire 24-hour period is 1,944 instance hours.

    Spot Instance Pricing

    If you chose to use On-Demand instances, you would have been charged $0.311 per instance hour - the On-Demand price for an Amazon GameLift c4.xlarge instance running Linux in the Asia Pacific (Tokyo) region. Your total daily usage of 1,944 hours at $0.311 per hour sums to $605 per day, or $18,150 over a 30-day month.

    If instead, you chose to use Spot instances, prices for your instances would have fluctuated throughout the day – but a good rule of thumb is that Spot instances running Linux are on average 70% cheaper than the same On-Demand instances. If you did see a 70% savings, your costs would be $181 per day, or $5,430 over a 30-day month.

    Monthly Cost Savings

    If Amazon GameLift didn’t offer Auto-Scaling, but instead required you to pay for servers that run continuously all month, then your instance fees would have been $1,209 per day ($0.311 * 162 instances * 24 hours) or $36,270 over a 30-day month. With Auto-Scaling, On-Demand instances would have saved you $18,120 per month, a 50% reduction over servers that run continuously all month, and Spot instances would have saved you $30,840 per month, an 85% reduction over servers that run continuously all month.

         
    Cost of continuously running servers $36,270  
    Cost w/Autoscaling and On-Demand $18,150 50% savings over continuously running servers
    Cost w/Auto Scaling and Spot (estimated) $5,430 85% savings over continuously running servers

    Data Transfer

    We'll assume that the total amount of monthly data transfer in the AWS Asia Pacific (Tokyo) region from all of your game servers to your game clients is 49.82 terabytes per month. Based on standard Data Transfer rates in the AWS Asia Pacific (Tokyo) region, your cost for 49.82 terabytes of data transfer is $6,776 per month.

         
    Cost of continuously running servers $36,270  
    Cost w/Autoscaling and On-Demand $18,150 50% savings over continuously running servers
    Cost w/Auto Scaling and Spot (estimated) $5,430 85% savings over continuously running servers