RDS is just a per-hour price, so a t3.micro depending on region and DB engine is about 20/month for it to be running, plus any storage. If it's multi-AZ it will be more. Your bill should provide a breakdown. Answer from inphinitfx on reddit.com
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AWS
aws.amazon.com › products › database › amazon rds
Managed Relational Database - Amazon RDS Pricing - Amazon Web Services
1 day ago - 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. Your usage is aggregated across instance types if using more than one instance.
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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.
Discussions

How to find out what exactly is causing the cost for my RDS instance
RDS is just a per-hour price, so a t3.micro depending on region and DB engine is about $12 - $20/month for it to be running, plus any storage. If it's multi-AZ it will be more. Your bill should provide a breakdown. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/aws
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November 3, 2022
AWS rds pricing help.
Hello, You're welcome to utilize our AWS Pricing Calculator which helps with configuring a cost estimate that fits your unique business or personal needs with AWS products and services, here: http://go.aws/calculator . For an in-depth quote you're welcome to reach out to our Sales team, here: https://go.aws/3LR9MSP . - Roman Z. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/aws
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October 4, 2023
Am I doing something wrong? Why is RDS so expensive?

You're not just paying for the instance, you're paying for automated patching, automatic maintenance, and support. So it's going to cost more.

Also, it will cost* double if you're checking the box for "multi A-Z".

More on reddit.com
🌐 r/aws
86
62
August 8, 2017
Why is RDS so incredibly expensive
$10/day is a pretty beefy RDS instance (an m6g.large Postgres RDS instance costs ~$3.81/day). What instance size did you provision? How much disk space did you provision? Did you enable Multi-AZ? a billing issue or random charges Highly doubtful that this is a billing issue or a 'random charge'. More likely you misconfigured something and didn't realize it. More on reddit.com
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May 23, 2022
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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.
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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 - Pricing is tiered and starts at $0.09 per GB for the first 10 TB per month. Data transfer out to the internet is free for 100GB each month, spanning all AWS regions and AZs — excluding GovCloud and China.
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NetApp
netapp.com › home › blog › aws-cvo-blg-aws-rds-pricing-explained
AWS RDS Pricing Explained | NetApp
April 25, 2025 - Your total AWS RDS pricing depends on the database engine you choose. AWS offers six database engines—Amazon Aurora, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle. After choosing a database engine, you cannot usually change it. However, you can optimize performance, memory, performance, or input/output (I/O). Open-source databases MySQL, Postgres, and MariaDB open-source databases are priced similarly—sharing the same pricing for provisioned I/O, RDS data transfer costs, and storage.
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AWS
aws.amazon.com › products › database › amazon rds
Managed SQL Database - Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) - AWS
1 day 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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Reddit
reddit.com › r/aws › how to find out what exactly is causing the cost for my rds instance
r/aws on Reddit: How to find out what exactly is causing the cost for my RDS instance
November 3, 2022 -

Hello,

I am running a db.t3.micro rds for my discord bot, and the average monthly costs are $20. It seems a bit much, as there is max maybe a couple of interactions per hour with the bot and, therefore, the rds instance.

Is there a good way to check what exactly is causing the cost?

I also see that the db.Transactions.xact_commit.avg value is constantly on 2.7~ even when there are no interactions with the bot for multiple hours.

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AWS
aws.amazon.com › databases › amazon rds › amazon rds previous generation database instances
RDS previous generation
1 day 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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Cloudchipr
cloudchipr.com › blog › rds-pricing
The Ultimate Guide to AWS RDS Pricing: A Comprehensive Cost Breakdown 2025
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.
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TigerData
tigerdata.com › blog › understanding-rds-pricing-and-costs
Why Is RDS So Expensive? Understanding RDS Pricing ...
February 7, 2024 - However, you will pay for data transfer costs from RDS to S3. These will be charged per GB of snapshot size, and the price per GB varies per region. Data transfer costs are another factor to consider. Understanding the various data transfer scenarios and associated costs will help optimize your expenses. AWS ...
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YouTube
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AWS RDS And Pricing Calculator
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/aws › aws rds pricing help.
r/aws on Reddit: AWS rds pricing help.
October 4, 2023 -

Can someone shed some light on how RDS pricing works?

There seems to be 3 components here - the instance, storage and iops. Instance and storage are fixed and you can calculate for a month.

But what about iops? IIUC I'll be charged every time I read/write to the tables with increased cost if I hit a spike in traffic or run some queries on very big tables?

https://aws.amazon.com/ebs/pricing/

This link says gp3 has 3000 iops free. How do I estimate my iops?

Then there seems to be a separate charge for throughput? 125MB/s and then an additional charge per MB/s-month. Not sure how to calculate this. What happens if I had a sudden spike where I went to 500 MB/s for an hour. How would that get converted to MB/s-month.

All this seems like a recipe to get hit by an unexpected large bill. Would it be better to go with a managed db on lightsail which has a fixed monthly cost?

Thanks.

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Bytebase
bytebase.com › blog › understanding-aws-rds-pricing
Understanding AWS RDS Pricing (2025)
AWS RDS follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model with no upfront costs or long-term commitments required. The pricing structure is designed to be flexible, allowing you to pay only for the resources you consume.
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Cloudvisor
cloudvisor.co › home › aws guides › unlocking the secrets of rds pricing: a comprehensive guide
Understanding Amazon RDS Pricing: A Comprehensive Guide
September 17, 2025 - Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to calculate RDS costs: Identify your workload requirements, including the instance type, storage option, and estimated data transfer volume. Visit the AWS Pricing Calculator website and select “Create estimate” for the RDS service.
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Amazon Web Services
docs.aws.amazon.com › amazon rds › user guide › what is amazon relational database service (amazon rds)?
What is Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS)? - Amazon Relational Database Service
Amazon Web Services provides a number of database services. To learn more about the variety of database options available on AWS, see Choosing an AWS database service ... Amazon RDS is a managed database service. It's responsible for most management tasks.
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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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Amazon Web Services
amazonaws.cn › en › rds › pricing
Amazon RDS Pricing
1 week ago - Amazon RDS T4g 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. CPU Credits are charged at ¥0.477 per vCPU-Hour.
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Finout
finout.io › blog › rds-pricing-explained
RDS Pricing Explained: Types and Influencing Factors
May 22, 2025 - Each instance type is priced differently based on its capacity and capabilities, reflecting how critical the selection is to the overall cost structure of RDS. ... Geographic regions also play a crucial role in RDS pricing. AWS prices its services differently across regions and Availability Zones to reflect the cost of operations in each geographical area.
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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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Site24x7
site24x7.com › learn › aws › aws-rds-pricing-and-optimization.html
AWS RDS Pricing & Cost Optimization: A Complete Guide - Site24x7
Want to optimize your RDS spend without sacrificing performance or functionality? This guide takes you through Amazon RDS pricing and optimization. This web service streamlines the deployment of relational databases to AWS by offering cost- effective and adjustable capacity.