AWS Data Transfer Pricing Explained
AWS data transfer pricing is deliberately fragmented across dozens of documentation pages. EC2, S3, CloudFront, Lambda, RDS, and every other service has its own egress pricing section. This page consolidates all of it into one clear reference with an interactive calculator, tiered pricing breakdowns, and proven cost reduction strategies.
AWS Internet Egress Pricing Tiers
AWS uses tiered pricing for internet egress from most services including S3, EC2, ECS, EKS, and Lambda. The first 100 GB per month is free. After that, the per-GB rate decreases as your monthly volume increases.
All AWS Data Transfer Types
AWS charges different rates depending on where data is going. Internet egress is the most expensive, while same-region traffic between services can be free. Understanding these distinctions is critical for architecture decisions.
| Transfer Type | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Internet egress (S3, EC2, ECS, Lambda) | $0.09/GB | First 10TB, tiered down with volume |
| CloudFront to internet | $0.085/GB | Lower than direct egress, cached at edge |
| Cross-region transfer | $0.01-$0.02/GB | Varies by region pair |
| Cross-AZ transfer | $0.01/GB each way | $0.02/GB round trip |
| Direct Connect | $0.02/GB | Dedicated private connection |
| VPN transfer | $0.09/GB | Same as internet egress |
| S3 Transfer Acceleration | $0.04-$0.08/GB | Premium for accelerated uploads |
| Same-region, same-AZ | Free | Internal traffic using private IPs |
Real-World Example: SaaS Platform on AWS
Consider a typical SaaS application running in us-east-1 with the following monthly data transfer profile:
The internet egress alone costs $4,300/month (50TB at tiered rates). Cross-region replication adds $100/month. NAT Gateway processing adds another $460/month (at $0.045/GB plus the standard egress rate). That is $58,320/year in data transfer charges. Learn more about NAT Gateway costs
How Does AWS Compare?
AWS is mid-range on egress pricing. Azure is slightly cheaper at entry level, GCP is more expensive, and Cloudflare R2 charges nothing.
Compare All ProvidersHow to Reduce AWS Egress Costs
AWS egress fees add up fast but there are proven engineering strategies to cut your data transfer bill. Here are the highest-impact changes you can make.
Use CloudFront for content delivery
CloudFront data transfer to the internet is cheaper than direct S3 or EC2 egress. Popular content gets cached at 400+ edge locations worldwide, reducing origin data transfer. For most workloads, CloudFront pays for itself through egress savings alone.
VPC Gateway Endpoints for S3 and DynamoDB
Gateway VPC Endpoints are free and route S3/DynamoDB traffic over the AWS backbone instead of the public internet. This eliminates egress charges for traffic between your VPC and these services. There is no reason not to use them.
Migrate egress-heavy storage to Cloudflare R2
Cloudflare R2 provides S3-compatible storage with zero egress fees. For static assets, media files, or any workload where most costs come from serving data, migrating to R2 can eliminate your egress bill entirely.
Compress everything with Brotli or gzip
Enable compression on all text-based responses (HTML, CSS, JS, JSON, XML). Brotli typically achieves 15-25% better compression than gzip. Fewer bytes transferred means lower egress charges, and CloudFront supports both compression algorithms natively.
For a complete guide with 10 strategies, see our egress cost reduction guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does AWS charge for data egress?
AWS charges $0.09 per GB for the first 10 TB/month of internet egress from most services (S3, EC2, ECS, Lambda). The rate drops to $0.085/GB for the next 40 TB, then $0.07/GB up to 150 TB, and $0.05/GB above that. The first 100 GB per month is free.
Why is AWS egress so expensive?
AWS egress fees are a deliberate pricing mechanism. Cheap ingress encourages data into AWS, while expensive egress creates switching costs. Egress fees fund AWS's extensive global network infrastructure. For data-heavy workloads, egress costs can exceed compute costs.
How can I reduce my AWS egress bill?
Use CloudFront CDN (cheaper than direct S3/EC2 egress), VPC Gateway Endpoints for S3 and DynamoDB (free), Cloudflare R2 for egress-heavy storage (zero egress fees), and negotiate Reserved Capacity pricing for high-volume transfers.
Is there free AWS egress?
AWS provides 100 GB/month of free internet egress. Data transfer between services in the same Region is free. Ingress is always free. Transfer from AWS to Cloudflare's network is free via the Bandwidth Alliance.
How much does AWS cross-region transfer cost?
Cross-region data transfer on AWS costs $0.01-$0.02 per GB depending on the regions involved. Cross-AZ transfer within the same region costs $0.01/GB each way ($0.02/GB round trip). These costs are often overlooked but add up quickly for distributed architectures.
Prices verified from AWS official documentation. Last updated March 2026.