Provisioned vs Serverless v2 — side by side
AWS Aurora Pricing Calculator
Model your monthly Aurora bill — provisioned instances or Serverless v2 ACUs, Standard vs I/O-Optimized storage. us-east-1 list pricing.
- No signup
- Instant results
- ~2 min
Rates reviewed
Read the full breakdown — Amazon Aurora Pricing covers billing dimensions, traps, and a 30-day cleanup plan.
Aurora compute mode
us-east-1list rates, pricing as of 2026-10-17. Source: AWS public pricing.
us-east-1 On-Demand rates (October 2026). I/O-Optimized clusters also raise instance and ACU rates (~30%). Provisioned instances bill per hour; Serverless v2 bills per ACU-hour.
RDS consulting ·RDS vs Aurora ·RDS calculator
Storage & runtime
Standard storage $0.10/GB-mo · I/O-Optimized $0.225/GB-mo (includes I/O; instances ~30% higher, e.g. r6g.large $0.338/hr).
Sum of (ACUs × hours) across the cluster for the month.
$0.20 per million I/O requests. Ignored for I/O-Optimized.
Your Estimated Aurora Cost
Mode · instances · storage
Total Monthly Cost
live resultCost Breakdown
Detailed line items unlock after email
Get the Full Aurora Breakdown
Provisioned vs Serverless comparison and I/O-Optimized guidance — emailed to you.
Full breakdown unlocked!
Mode comparison and Aurora optimization tips below.
Mode Comparison
Aurora Cost Tips
- I/O-Optimized: Switch when I/O charges exceed the storage premium — often IO-heavy OLTP.
- Serverless v2: Best for spiky or dev/test; steady production often wins on provisioned R6g.
- Reader scaling: Each reader adds full instance hourly — cache hits reduce need for replicas.
- Reserved instances: After right-sizing, 1-year RI can cut provisioned compute ~30–40%.
Want this applied to your real account?
FactualMinds runs database cost reviews that compare Aurora modes against RDS — typical findings cut spend 20–35%.
Talk to RDS Experts →Who This Tool Is For
DBAs, platform engineers, and FinOps leads budgeting Aurora MySQL or PostgreSQL. Teams comparing provisioned R6g against Serverless v2, or Standard vs I/O-Optimized storage for IO-heavy workloads.
Why We Built This Tool
Aurora bills combine compute (instances or ACUs), storage class, and optional I/O — reader replicas multiply instance hours. We built this from the us-east-1 Aurora rate card we use in database cost reviews.
What Problem It Solves
- Mode toggle. Provisioned instances vs Serverless v2 ACU-hours in one flow.
- Storage class. Standard vs I/O-Optimized with GB sizing.
- HA multiplier. Multi-AZ cluster modeled as 2× writer compute.
- Finance-ready totals. Monthly and annual breakdown for budget reviews.
Compare RDS vs Aurora, RDS consulting, or the RDS calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do these prices come from?
Aurora provisioned instance, Serverless v2 ACU, and storage list prices for us-east-1 as of October 2026. Confirm in the AWS Pricing Calculator before budgeting.
Is I/O included?
Standard storage bills $0.20 per million I/O requests (modeled via the I/O slider). I/O-Optimized storage includes I/O in the GB rate, but instance and ACU rates are ~30% higher — use that class when I/O dominates your bill.
How are readers counted?
Include all billable instances (writer + readers) in the instance count slider. Each reader runs 24/7 unless you stop it.
Serverless v2 vs provisioned?
Serverless v2 bills $0.12 per ACU-hour consumed ($0.16 on an I/O-Optimized cluster). Provisioned instances bill hourly regardless of CPU use — better for steady workloads.
Backups and snapshots?
Automated backup storage up to DB size is included; backup storage beyond that and manual snapshots bill separately — not in this estimate.
What does Extended Support cost on Aurora?
Once an Aurora major version (for example Aurora PostgreSQL 13 or Aurora MySQL 2) leaves standard support, provisioned instances add $0.10 per vCPU-hour in years 1–2 and $0.20 in year 3; Serverless v2 adds $0.085 per ACU-hour in years 1–2 and $0.17 in year 3 (us-east-1). Not modeled above; upgrading the major version avoids it.
How accurate is this estimate?
Arithmetic matches published rates for listed inputs. Real bills add Performance Insights, Global Database, and data transfer.
