Assuming like me you are using the calculator I think you are missing a couple of important nuances here: Only version available on a t3.micro for SQL Server is express, so you are not paying for any license here. Also only available as single AZ. When you do t4g.micro on RDS PgSQL it defaults to multi-az. When I do apples to apples t3.micro single AZ in us-east-2 for both engines I get approx $13 per month for DB cost for Postgres and $16 per month DB cost for SQL server. If you share source or screenshot of where you are getting your price from might be able to help more. Answer from Advanced_Bid3576 on reddit.com
AWS
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Amazon RDS for SQL Server Pricing
5 days ago - Your savings await. Your Amazon RDS for SQL Server usage may be eligible for Database Savings Plans, a flexible pricing model that offers savings in exchange for a commitment to a specific amount of usage (measured in $/hour) over a 1-year term. For License Included, the discount from Database Savings Plans is only applied to database instance usage. You can learn more about eligible usage on the Database Savings Plans pricing page. Calculate your Amazon RDS for SQL Server and architecture cost in a single estimate.
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Managed Relational Database - Amazon RDS Pricing - Amazon Web Services
5 days ago - To help estimate costs and view your options, use the free AWS Pricing Calculator. If you signed up for AWS Free Tier prior to July 15, 2025, you can continue to use RDS for free for up to 12 months on select single-AZ instance databases with up to 750 hours per month.
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RDS Pricing Calculator | AWS SQL Database Pricing
Calculate Amazon RDS database costs by selecting database engine (Postgres, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server), Memory (RAM) and storage you need.
SQL Shack
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Estimating AWS RDS SQL Server costs
January 23, 2020 - We can calculate the total estimated cost of the RDS infrastructure using this simple monthly calculator at a single place. In the following table, we have calculated an estimated price for the 5 production, 2 development and 2 staging RDS instances. We have AWS RDS SQL Server cost of $28214.21 ...
AWS
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Amazon RDS Custom Pricing – Amazon Web Services
1 week ago - Alternatively, you can bring your ... Custom pricing. For Amazon RDS Custom for SQL Server and Amazon RDS Custom for Oracle, this would be the Bring Your Own Media (BYOM) pricing model. Easily calculate your monthly costs with AWS....
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Estimate AWS RDS Cost for SQL Server
July 10, 2019 - In this tip we will learn how to estimate the cost of hosting a SQL Server database instance using the AWS RDS service. ... AWS RDS provides cost estimates while creating the database instance as well as AWS provides a tool called simple monthly calculator which can be used for cost estimation.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/aws › why is postgres rds instance more expensive than sql server (license included) rds instance?
r/aws on Reddit: Why is Postgres RDS instance more expensive than SQL Server (license included) RDS instance?
September 5, 2025 -
Question is in the Title. Only reason I'm considering Postgres is because of the "licensing costs" associated with SQL Server. Then I see this. What's up?
Postgres instance would be $86.51 USD:
db.t4g.micro
vCPU: 2
Memory: 1 GiB
SQL Server equivalent instance would be (license included): $67.71 USD
db.t3.micro
vCPU: 2
Memory: 1 GiB
Edit:
For those who asked for more information to better understand my perspective
Go to https://aws.amazon.com/rds/pricing/?p=ft&c=db&refid=e21cc09f-34cd-4d7e-a012-ad97353eb4b4 and go to the "Pricing by Amazon RDS engines" section.
Select either "Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL Pricing" or "Amazon RDS for SQL Server Pricing"
Navigate to the "AWS Pricing Calculator" and click "Create your custom estimate now." Select the instance types that I have mentioned above without changing any of the filler info.
Top answer 1 of 8
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Assuming like me you are using the calculator I think you are missing a couple of important nuances here: Only version available on a t3.micro for SQL Server is express, so you are not paying for any license here. Also only available as single AZ. When you do t4g.micro on RDS PgSQL it defaults to multi-az. When I do apples to apples t3.micro single AZ in us-east-2 for both engines I get approx $13 per month for DB cost for Postgres and $16 per month DB cost for SQL server. If you share source or screenshot of where you are getting your price from might be able to help more.
2 of 8
13
That seems high for a micro Postgres instance. Does this maybe include a replica in the pricing?
AWS Fundamentals
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Understanding AWS RDS Pricing: A Comprehensive Guide
SQL Server, Standard, Web, Express: 20 GiB - 16 TiB · You can also differentiate general purpose into two versions: ... The actual costs are $0.115 per GB. 50 GB for 1 instance would cost: 50GB x $0.115 = $5.75 · This is the type of storage ...
AWS
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RDS on Outposts Pricing
5 days ago - Easily calculate your monthly costs with AWS · Get Pricing Assistance · Contact AWS specialists to get a personalized quote · Blog · Learn more · Blog · Sign in · Amazon RDS on Outposts · Overview DB Engines Pricing Solutions FAQs Migrate with AWS DMS · Close RDS for MySQL RDS for PostgreSQL RDS for SQL Server
CloudZero
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A Beginner’s Guide To Amazon RDS Pricing
June 23, 2025 - Looking for database options? Amazon RDS pricing isn't as straightforward as you might think. Here's a breakdown of how much RDS costs.
Cloudchipr
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The Ultimate Guide to AWS RDS Pricing: A Comprehensive Cost Breakdown 2025
Optimize costs with insights on AWS RDS pricing, storage, instance types, and services. Get detailed breakdowns and use cases.
AWS
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AWS Pricing Calculator
AWS Pricing Calculator lets you explore AWS services, and create an estimate for the cost of your use cases on AWS.
CloudPrice
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RDS Pricing Comparison - MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server
2 days ago - Compare all Amazon RDS database instances with real-time pricing. Instant comparison of on-demand and reserved pricing across all engines and regions.
Pump
pump.co › home › blog › aws rds pricing - cost breakdown & savings guide
AWS RDS Pricing - Cost Breakdown & Savings Guide
AWS RDS is available with a free trial and pay-as-you-go model: you can choose between On-Demand and Reserved Instances. The AWS Pricing Calculator helps estimate monthly costs: transparency is provided by offering up to 30% savings with a 1-year ...
CloudySave
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AWS SQL Server Pricing - CloudySave
October 21, 2020 - AWS SQL Server Pricing for Single-AZ as well as that for Multi-AZ deployments, is calculated per consumed DB instance-hour, from the start of launching the DB instance till its stop or deletion.
CloudySave
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Best AWS RDS Cost Calculator Tips - CloudySave
February 11, 2021 - Amazon RDS is compatible with Aurora, ... SQL Server, Oracle and many more. Amazon RDS helps in managing, patching and handling scalability of user database requirements and the user is only charged for the resources they use. Hence, an increasing number of enterprises and IT admins are enquiring about the best AWS RDS cost calculator to estimate ...
Economize
economize.cloud › blog › aws-rds-pricing
AWS RDS Pricing Guide – Storage, Instances & Deployments
AWS RDS Pricing Guide – Storage, Instances & Deployments
YouTube
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AWS RDS And Pricing Calculator - YouTube
Welcome to Our AWS RDS and Pricing Calculator Tutorial!In this video, we will explore Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) and how to effectively use the...
Published June 28, 2024
Amazon EC2
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Amazon RDS Instance Comparison
A free and easy-to-use tool for comparing RDS Instance features and prices.