The Ultimate Guide to AWS RDS Pricing: A Comprehensive Cost Breakdown 2025

Introduction

Spin up a database on AWS and, before long, an RDS Pricing line sneaks onto your invoice. Handy? Absolutely. Straight-forward? Not always. Every toggle—engine, instance class, storage tier, backup window—nudges that number up or down. If you’d rather steer the meter than chase it, you need to know which levers cost what.

This guide lays those levers on the table. We’ll examine how each database engine is priced, why two identically sized instances can bill very differently, and where storage choices quietly stack dollars over time. Real-world scenarios—from weekend prototypes to payment-heavy production clusters—show how to match configuration to need and sidestep surprise costs.

Key Factors Affecting AWS RDS Costs

When you drill into RDS Pricing, the first—and often largest—variable is the database engine itself

1. Database Engine

AWS lets you pick from Amazon Aurora, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and even IBM Db2. Each one sits on its own cost curve, shaped by licensing requirements, throughput profile, and the bundle of built-in features it brings to the table.

2. Instance Type

Compute muscle—CPU, RAM, and network throughput—comes from the instance class you attach to the cluster, and that choice drops you onto a specific rung of the RDS Pricing ladder. AWS sorts the options into three broad families:

• General Purpose (e.g., db.t4g.micro, db.m5.large) – A balanced blend of cost and horsepower that covers most everyday workloads.
• Memory Optimized (e.g., db.r5.large, db.r5.xlarge) – Extra RAM per vCPU, perfect for analytics queries or hefty in-memory datasets that hate swapping.
• Burstable Performance (e.g., db.t3.small) – Low hourly rate with CPU credits in reserve, ideal for dev, test, or any database that naps most of the day and sprints now and then.

3. Storage Type and Size

Disk choice is the other half of the RDS Pricing equation. AWS gives you three flavors, each living on its own price-performance slope:

• General Purpose SSD (gp2, gp3) – Your everyday workhorse: decent IOPS, predictable latency, and a middling price that suits most production databases.
• Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1, io2) – Premium lanes with guaranteed, high-throughput I/O. Granted, the price tag climbs, yet databases that panic at the slightest pause—your 24-7 payment ledger, for instance—usually exhale in relief once they’re moved onto this premium lane.
• Magnetic (standard) – Legacy spinning disks: cheap, slow, rarely chosen for fresh builds. Good only if a legacy system demands it or throughput requirements hover near zero.

4. Provisioned IOPS

When your workload chews through storage bandwidth, AWS lets you dial in a fixed IOPS rate. That lock-step speed is rock-solid—but it does add another line item to the bill.

5. Multi-AZ Deployments

From an RDS Pricing standpoint, putting your cluster in two Availability Zones for automatic failover boosts uptime—but it also doubles the compute and storage charges.

6. Backup Storage and Snapshots

Backup Storage refers to the automated backups that AWS RDS performs daily to ensure your data is protected. These backups are stored at no additional charge up to the size of the provisioned database storage. If you require additional backup storage beyond this, additional costs will apply.

RDS Snapshots are backups of your entire RDS database instance that can be created manually or automatically (via automated backups). Snapshots are stored in Amazon S3 and provide a point-in-time backup of your database. RDS snapshot pricing is calculated at the standard Amazon S3 rates, $0.023 per GB per month (for most regions, including the US East (N. Virginia)) for the first 50 TB per month of storage used. Rates decrease with higher storage usage tiers:

• $0.022 per GB for the next 450 TB per month.
• $0.021 per GB for storage usage over 500 TB per month.

7. Data Transfer

Costs vary based on the data transfer type:

• Inside one AZ – traffic that never leaves a single Availability Zone rides free.
• Between AZs in the same region – hop across an AZ boundary and a small per-gigabyte fee kicks in.
• Across regions – sending data from, say, us-east-1 to eu-central-1 costs noticeably more because it traverses the AWS backbone.
• Out to the public Internet – egress is billed on a sliding scale: the first chunk is the priciest per GB, and the rate drops as monthly volume grows.

8. Additional Services

AWS bundles a few bolt-on features that polish performance and resilience. A swift rundown:

• RDS Proxy: A fully managed database proxy that pools database connections and improves application scalability, performance, and security. It is especially beneficial for serverless applications, microservices, and applications with fluctuating workloads.

• RDS Extended Support: This service provides continued support for database versions that have reached the end of their standard support period. It includes security patches and bug fixes, allowing businesses more time to plan and execute database upgrades.

• RDS Enhanced Monitoring: This service offers more profound insights into the health of your RDS instances by collecting detailed system metrics in real time. It provides a granular view of your database instance's performance, which is essential for performance tuning and troubleshooting.

• RDS Performance Insights: A performance monitoring and tuning tool that helps you analyze database workload, identify bottlenecks, and optimize resource utilization. It provides visualizations that make it easier to diagnose performance issues.

Detailed Compute Pricing by Database Engine

Compute charges under the RDS Pricing umbrella swing with the engine you pick. The table below shows what the most-used instance classes cost in US East (N. Virginia).

1. Amazon Aurora

• Instance Type: db.r5.large (Single-AZ, MySQL-compatible)
  • Cost: $0.29 per hour
• Instance Type: db.r5.large (Single-AZ, PostgreSQL-compatible)
  • Cost: $0.29 per hour

2. MySQL

• Instance Type: db.t4g.micro (Single-AZ)
  • Cost: $0.016 per hour
• Instance Type: db.m5.large (Single-AZ)
  • Cost: $0.171 per hour

3. PostgreSQL

• Instance Type: db.t4g.micro (Single-AZ)
  • Cost: $0.016 per hour
• Instance Type: db.m5.large (Single-AZ)
  • Cost: $0.178 per hour

4. MariaDB

• Instance Type: db.t4g.micro (Single-AZ)
  • Cost: $0.016 per hour
• Instance Type: db.m5.large (Single-AZ)
  • Cost: $0.171 per hour

5. Oracle (License Included)

• Instance Type: db.r5.large (Single-AZ)
  • Cost: $0.482 per hour

6. Microsoft SQL Server (License Included)

• Instance Type: db.m5.large (Single-AZ)
  • Cost: $0.977 per hour

7. IBM Db2 (BYOL)

• Instance Type: db.t3.small (Single-AZ)
  • Cost: $0.036

If saving money is your main goal, stick with the open-source favorites—MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB. They sit on the lowest steps of the RDS Pricing ladder and can run anything from dev test beds to mid-size production apps, as long as their built-in features cover what you need.

However, there are specific use cases where other database engines may be preferred:

• Amazon Aurora: Best suited for applications that need high performance, scalability, and availability at a lower cost compared to commercial databases. It's a great option for those who need the reliability of a proprietary system but want to avoid the costs of Oracle or SQL Server.
• Microsoft SQL Server: Ideal for organizations deeply integrated with the Microsoft ecosystem, requiring features like SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), and tight integration with Microsoft products such as SharePoint or Dynamics.
• Oracle: Preferred for enterprise applications with stringent requirements for transaction integrity, security, and performance. Industries such as finance, healthcare, and government often rely on Oracle for mission-critical applications due to its robust feature set.
• IBM Db2: A strong choice for organizations with legacy systems that already utilize IBM technologies. It excels in handling large volumes of transactional data and is often used in industries like banking, insurance, and retail, where high availability and data integrity are paramount.

AWS RDS Storage Types: Detailed Cost and Use Cases

Choosing the right storage type is crucial for optimizing both performance and cost. AWS RDS offers several storage options, each designed for different workload requirements:

1. General Purpose SSD (gp2)

• Description: gp2 offers a balance between performance and cost. It provides a baseline performance of 3 IOPS per GB, which can burst up to 3,000 IOPS.
• Use Case: Suitable for general-purpose workloads such as small to medium-sized databases, web applications, and development environments where consistent performance is not critical.
• Cost: $0.115 per GB-month in the N. Virginia region.
• Example: 100 GB storage would cost $11.50 per month.

2. General Purpose SSD (gp3)

• Description: gp3 is the next generation of General Purpose SSD storage, offering lower costs compared to gp2 and the flexibility to provision IOPS and throughput independently. GP3 volumes have a baseline performance of 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s throughput, included at no additional charge for volumes below 400 GiB. For volumes of 400 GiB and above, the baseline is 12,000 IOPS and 500 MB/s throughput.
• Use Case: Ideal for workloads requiring higher performance than gp2 but not the extreme performance of Provisioned IOPS. They are commonly used for medium to large-sized databases with varying I/O needs.
• Cost: $0.115 per GB-month + $0.02 per IOPS-month over baseline + $0.080 per MB/s-month over baseline(Throughput).
• Example: For a 500 GiB storage volume with 15,000 provisioned IOPS and 600 MB/s throughput:
  • Storage cost: 500 GiB × $0.115 = $57.50 per month
  • Additional IOPS cost: (15,000 IOPS - 12,000 baseline IOPS) × $0.02 = $60.00 per month
  • Additional throughput cost: (600 MB/s - 500 MB/s baseline) × $0.080 = $8.00 per month
  • Total Cost: $57.50 (storage) + $60.00 (IOPS) + $8.00 (throughput) = $125.50 per month.

3. Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1)

• Description: io1 is designed for workloads demanding high, consistent, and low-latency I/O performance. It allows you to provision up to 64,000 IOPS per instance based on your storage capacity.
• Use Case: Best for I/O-intensive workloads such as large relational databases (e.g., Oracle, SQL Server), high-performance OLTP systems, and applications with stringent performance requirements.
• Cost: $0.125 per GB-month + $0.10 per provisioned IOPS-month.
• Example: 100 GB storage with 10,000 IOPS would cost $1,012.50 per month ($12.50 for storage + $1,000.00 for IOPS).

4. Provisioned IOPS SSD (io2)

• Description: io2 is an enhancement over io1, offering even higher durability (99.999%) and the ability to scale IOPS up to 256,000 per instance. This makes io2 ideal for mission-critical applications. Despite these enhancements, the pricing remains the same as io1
• Use Case: Ideal for enterprise-grade applications that require the highest level of reliability and performance, such as large-scale OLTP databases, ERP systems, and applications with constant, demanding I/O workloads.
• Cost: $0.125 per GB-month + $0.10 per provisioned IOPS-month.
• Example: 100 GB storage with 10,000 IOPS would cost $1,012.50 per month ($12.50 for storage + $1,000.00 for IOPS).

AWS RDS Data Transfer Costs

Moving bits around isn’t free, and those network fees show up on your RDS Pricing line. Here’s how the different data-transfer charges stack up for RDS:

1. Data Transfer within the Same Region (Intra-AWS Transfers)

• Data Transfer between RDS and EC2 Instances within the Same Availability Zone:
  • Cost: No charge.
  • Scenario: The most common scenario where your RDS instance and EC2 instances (web servers, application servers) are in the same Availability Zone.
• Data Transfer between RDS and EC2 Instances in Different Availability Zones:
  • Cost: $0.01 per GB.
  • Scenario: Your application architecture involves communication between an RDS instance and an EC2 instance located in different Availability Zones within the same AWS region.
  • Data Transfer: 100 GB per month.
  • Cost: 100 GB * $0.01 = $1.00 per month.

2. Data Transfer Out to the Internet

• First 1 GB per month:
  • Cost: Free.
• Data Transfer Out Beyond 1 GB:
  • Cost:
    • $0.09 per GB for the next 10 TB (Tier 1)
    • $0.085 per GB for the next 40 TB (Tier 2)
    • $0.07 per GB for over 150 TB (Tier 3)
• Scenario: Your RDS instance serves content to users over the Internet and has a monthly data transfer of 500 GB.
• Cost:
  • First 1 GB: Free.
  • Remaining 499 GB: 499 GB * $0.09 = $44.91 monthly.

3. Data Transfer Across Regions (Inter-Region Data Transfer)

• Data Transfer between AWS Regions:
  • Cost: $0.02 per GB.
  • Use Case: This cost applies when your application architecture spans multiple AWS regions, such as global applications with cross-region replication or disaster recovery setups.
  • Scenario: Your application replicates 50 GB of data between RDS instances in N. Virginia and another region.
  • Cost: 50 GB * $0.02 = $1.00 per month.

Additional Services Cost Breakdown

How much these add-ons bump up your RDS Pricing tab depends on what your app actually needs. Let’s unpack the numbers:

• RDS Proxy Pricing: The cost of the RDS Proxy starts at approximately $0.015 per vCPU-hour, in addition to the price of the RDS instance itself.
  • Use Case: Best suited for applications with many short-lived connections, such as serverless applications or microservices, where efficiently managing connections can reduce database overhead and improve performance.
• RDS Extended Support Pricing: Extended Support is typically more expensive than standard support, reflecting the additional resources required to maintain and secure legacy database versions. Pricing varies depending on the database engine and version.
  • Use Case: It is ideal for organizations needing additional time to transition to newer database versions, mainly when dealing with complex applications or dependencies that make immediate upgrades challenging.
• RDS Enhanced Monitoring Pricing: Starts at approximately $0.015 per instance per hour for 1-second granularity. Costs decrease for less frequent monitoring intervals (e.g., 5 or 10 seconds).
  • Use Case: Essential for environments where detailed monitoring and immediate insights into database health are critical, particularly for troubleshooting and performance tuning.
• RDS Performance Insights Pricing: Data retention is free for the first seven days. After that, it costs approximately $0.015 per vCPU-hour, in addition to the RDS instance costs.
  • Use Case: It is helpful for applications where performance bottlenecks need to be identified and resolved quickly, particularly in high-performance or business-critical environments.

Track Your RDS Databases with Cloudchipr

Once you begin using Amazon RDS, it’s crucial to keep a close watch on your database usage and associated costs. Cloudchipr provides a user-friendly dashboard with real-time cost analytics, letting you see precisely how much each RDS instance is costing you.In the Live Usage & Mgmt section, you’ll find a comprehensive overview of your databases, including essential details such as database type, status, node count, encryption status, and utilization metrics. With this visibility and our automated alerts, Cloudchipr helps you identify cost-saving opportunities and maintain full control over your RDS environment.

Give Cloudchipr a try for 14 days—explore its features and experience the difference yourself!

Conclusion

AWS RDS offers a flexible and scalable solution for managing your relational databases in the cloud. However, understanding the various pricing factors—such as instance type, storage, IOPS, data transfer, and additional services like RDS Proxy, Enhanced Monitoring, Performance Insights, and Snapshots—is crucial to optimizing cloud costs. By carefully selecting the right database engine, instance type, and storage option, as well as leveraging these additional services, you can effectively manage your database and cloud budget.

Additionally, cost-tracking tools like Cloudchipr can provide real-time insights into your RDS usage, helping you pinpoint cost-saving opportunities before they become major expenses. For further strategies on cost savings, consider exploring our insights in AWS RDS: Quick Tips for Cutting Costs. Whether you're running a small web application or an enterprise-grade database, AWS RDS provides the flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency needed to support and optimize your operations.

Note: Prices mentioned are accurate as of the publication date and may vary based on updates from AWS. Always refer to the AWS Pricing Calculator and Amazon RDS Pricing documentation pages for the most up-to-date information.