You can query CUR (Cost and Usage Report) using Athena and group by lineItem/ResourceId https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cur/latest/userguide/cur-query-athena.html https://www.wellarchitectedlabs.com/cost/300_labs/300_cur_queries/queries/database/#amazon-rds https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cur/latest/userguide/Lineitem-columns.html#l-R Answer from AWS-User-alantam on repost.aws
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AWS
aws.amazon.com › products › database › amazon rds
Managed Relational Database - Amazon RDS Pricing - Amazon Web Services
1 week ago - Avoid costly downtime using features ... with Amazon RDS here ... 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....
Discussions

amazon web services - AWS RDS Pricing - Stack Overflow
AWS has detailed pricing category for different DB which should be clear enough. Taking mysql "On-Demand DB Instances" as an example, it charges based on the type and duration, however for RDS T3 DB instances which uses unlimited mode it may involve extra fees if your average CPU usage exceed ... More on stackoverflow.com
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The cheapest RDS DB instance I can find is $91 per month. But every post I see seems to suggest that is very high, how can I find the cheapest?
Try this search for more information on this topic. Comments, questions or suggestions regarding this autoresponse? Please send them here . I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns. More on reddit.com
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April 7, 2024
RDS pricing 2 cores vs 4 cores is almost 10 times the cost. What gives?
Yes, you are forgetting something. T instance family provide burstable performance, you must understand what that means before pick a T instance here . In a nutshell, if the instance is performing above the CPU baseline AWS will “remove” performance from the CPU. If the CPU is already at 95% for a long time, it’s likely that all the CPU credits are gone, check this doc to learn how to monitor it. Last but not least, don’t take from granted T instances are always cheaper, if your workload needs consistent performance above the T instance baseline evaluate M or R instance type. More on reddit.com
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April 21, 2023
AWS Aurora / RDS Questions
R6g.2xlarge is a massive instance for a hobby project. https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/pricing/ More on reddit.com
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People also ask

What is the cheapest RDS instance type?
The cheapest RDS instances are the smallest T-series instances like db.t4g.micro or db.t3.micro for MySQL or PostgreSQL. For production workloads, db.t3.small or db.t4g.small offer better value with burstable performance. Reserved instances can reduce costs significantly (up to 70% savings) compared to on-demand pricing. CloudPrice provides real-time pricing comparison to help you find the most cost-effective option for your database engine and region.
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cloudprice.net
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RDS Database Pricing - Compare All MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle ...
Which RDS instance should I choose?
Choose RDS instances based on your database needs: db.t3 or db.t4g for small applications and development, db.m5 or db.m6i for balanced production workloads, db.r5 or db.r6i for memory-intensive databases with large datasets, and db.x2iedn for extreme performance requirements. For cost savings, consider ARM-based Graviton instances (db.t4g, db.m6g, db.r6g) which typically offer better price-performance. Use CloudPrice to compare specifications and pricing for your specific database engine.
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cloudprice.net
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RDS Database Pricing - Compare All MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle ...
What's the difference between RDS instance classes?
RDS instance classes serve different purposes: T-class (db.t3, db.t4g) provides burstable performance for variable workloads and development, M-class (db.m5, db.m6i) offers balanced compute and memory for general production databases, R-class (db.r5, db.r6i) delivers memory-optimized performance for large in-memory databases and caching, and X-class (db.x2iedn) provides extreme memory capacity for SAP HANA and memory-intensive enterprise applications.
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RDS Database Pricing - Compare All MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle ...
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Amazon EC2
instances.vantage.sh › rds
Amazon RDS Instance Comparison
A free and easy-to-use tool for comparing RDS Instance features and prices.
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aws.amazon.com › amazon ec2 › pricing › on-demand pricing
EC2 On-Demand Instance Pricing
1 week ago - See the Previous Generation Instances page. The pricing below is based on data transferred "in" to and "out" of Amazon EC2. If the Data Transfer per month is greater than 500 TB / month, please contact us. Rate tiers take into account your aggregate usage for Data Transfer Out to the Internet across Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon Glacier, Amazon RDS, Amazon Redshift, Amazon SageMaker, Amazon SES, Amazon SimpleDB, Amazon SQS, Amazon SNS, Amazon DynamoDB, AWS Storage Gateway, AWS CloudShell, and Amazon CloudWatch Logs.
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AWS Fundamentals
awsfundamentals.com › blog › aws-rds-pricing
Understanding AWS RDS Pricing: A Comprehensive Guide
AWS RDS pricing is based on several cost components, including instance hourly price, storage costs, data transfer costs, and other factors.
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calculator.aws
AWS Pricing Calculator
AWS Pricing Calculator lets you explore AWS services, and create an estimate for the cost of your use cases on AWS.
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Cloudchipr
cloudchipr.com › blog › rds-pricing
The Ultimate Guide to AWS RDS Pricing: A Comprehensive Cost Breakdown 2025
When you drill into RDS Pricing, the first—and often largest—variable is the database engine itself ... 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. ... 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.
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CloudPrice
cloudprice.net › home › aws › rds instances
RDS Database Pricing - Compare All MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle Instances | CloudPrice
4 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.
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AWS
aws.amazon.com › products › database › amazon rds
Managed SQL Database - Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) - AWS
2 days ago - RDS allows customers to create a new database in minutes and offers flexibility to customize databases to meet their needs across eight engines and two deployment options. Customers can optimize performance with features like with two readable standbys, optimized writes and reads, and AWS Graviton3-based instances, and they can choose from multiple pricing options to effectively manage costs.
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AWS
aws.amazon.com › databases › amazon rds › amazon rds previous generation database instances
RDS previous generation
1 week ago - 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 of AWS is subject to Japanese Consumption Tax. Learn more. For both Single-AZ and Multi-AZ deployments, pricing is per DB Instance-hour consumed, from the time a DB Instance is launched until it is terminated. Each partial DB Instance-hour consumed will be billed as a full hour. Amazon RDS Reserved Instances give you the option to reserve capacity within a datacenter and in turn receive a significant discount on the hourly charge for instances that are covered by the reservation.
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Amazon Web Services
amazonaws.cn › en › rds › pricing
Amazon RDS Pricing
1 week ago - Partial DB instance-hours are billed ... and T3 DB instances run in Unlimited mode, which means that you will be charged if your average CPU utilization over a rolling 24-hour period exceeds the baseline of the instance....
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Logicata
logicata.com › blog › aws-rds-pricing-cost-optimization-explained
AWS RDS Pricing & Cost Optimization Explained | Logicata
May 29, 2024 - Pricing under this option can range from an hourly rate of $0.0380 using T3 (micro) to $3.8560 hourly for R5 (extra large). Two primary factors will affect the price you pay for your AWS RDS...
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CloudZero
cloudzero.com › home › blog › a beginner’s guide to amazon rds pricing
A Beginner’s Guide To Amazon RDS Pricing
June 23, 2025 - This is how Amazon RDS pricing works based on the major factors: You can use AWS db.t2.micro, db.t3.micro, and db.t4g.micro instances for up to 750 free hours to run MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB databases in the Single-Availability Zone each ...
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NetApp
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AWS RDS Pricing Explained | NetApp
April 25, 2025 - AWS RDS pricing models offer on-demand rates, which you can use to pay per actual resource usage. There is no minimum fee. The RDS Reserved Instance pricing model provides significant discounts in exchange for a long-term commitment.
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CloudOptimo
cloudoptimo.com › home › blog › everything you need to know about aws rds pricing
Everything You Need to Know About AWS RDS Pricing
March 13, 2025 - RDS caters to diverse usage patterns by offering different options: On-Demand Instances: Ideal for short-term or unpredictable workloads as you only pay for what you use. Reserved Instances: Offer significant cost reductions for sustained database usage through upfront commitments. This is a good option for predictable workloads where you know you'll need the database consistently over a longer term. Three primary factors contribute to your AWS RDS bill:
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Bytebase
bytebase.com › blog › understanding-aws-rds-pricing
Understanding AWS RDS Pricing (2025)
The primary factors that influence your AWS RDS costs include: ... Let's explore each of these components in detail with specific pricing examples from the US East (N. Virginia) region. Database costs depend on the instance type and size you select.
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Economize
economize.cloud › blog › aws-rds-pricing
AWS RDS Pricing Guide – Storage, Instances & Deployments
December 5, 2024 - AWS RDS Pricing Guide – Storage, Instances & Deployments
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/aws › rds pricing 2 cores vs 4 cores is almost 10 times the cost. what gives?
r/aws on Reddit: RDS pricing 2 cores vs 4 cores is almost 10 times the cost. What gives?
April 21, 2023 -

Hello, I'm a senior developer and just landed on an ongoing project recently. I'm quite new to AWS.

I had to upgrade an RDS instance in production a week or 2 ago. CPU was running at 95% all the time and our backend was bored and basically sleeping waiting for the database to answer. My only option to remove the bottleneck ASAP was to upgrade to 4 cores and to my shock it costs nearly 10 times more. (db.t3.small to db.t3.xlarge)

We're using mysql community and that did the trick to resolve our issue in production.

Am I missing something? Should I configure 2 db.t3.small instances instead?

Thanks.

Top answer
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The price difference shouldn't have been a surprise. The db.t3.xlarge is listed as 8x as much per hour vs a db.t3.small. The number of cores is just one metric. An xlarge has 8 times the memory vs. a small. And the xlarge can "burst" its CPUs usage 4x as much as the small instance. Some things to check: Are the db queries optimized? E.g., maybe there are missing indexes, slow queries, bad schema design, mix of oltp & olap loads, etc., causing poor performance Can the application be shaded to use multiple smaller databases? There are many tradeoffs between price, performance, reliability, application & operational complexity, etc. Can the application use techniques such as caching to reduce the db load? Can the application instances be split to use different write vs. read instances (replicas)? (see also: CQRS ) And generally you'll want to load test with different instance types to see which one fits your needs the best. (But be sure to test under realistic conditions, especially if there are frequent traffic spikes and/or high expected traffic growth).
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Yes, you are forgetting something. T instance family provide burstable performance, you must understand what that means before pick a T instance here . In a nutshell, if the instance is performing above the CPU baseline AWS will “remove” performance from the CPU. If the CPU is already at 95% for a long time, it’s likely that all the CPU credits are gone, check this doc to learn how to monitor it. Last but not least, don’t take from granted T instances are always cheaper, if your workload needs consistent performance above the T instance baseline evaluate M or R instance type.