Amazon EKS — Fargate Pricing
Fargate Pricing
Fargate charges based on vCPU and memory per second, with a 1-minute minimum. There are no EC2 instances to manage or pay for.
Pricing Model
| Resource | Price (us-east-1) |
|---|---|
| Per vCPU per hour | $0.04048 |
| Per GB memory per hour | $0.004445 |
Example Calculations
Small Pod (0.25 vCPU, 0.5 GB)
Per hour: (0.25 × $0.04048) + (0.5 × $0.004445) = $0.01234
Per day: $0.01234 × 24 = $0.30
Per month: $0.30 × 30 = $8.89
Medium Pod (1 vCPU, 2 GB)
Per hour: (1 × $0.04048) + (2 × $0.004445) = $0.04937
Per day: $0.04937 × 24 = $1.18
Per month: $1.18 × 30 = $35.51
Fargate vs EC2 Cost Comparison
For 10 pods, each needing 0.5 vCPU and 1 GB memory, running 24/7:
| Option | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| Fargate (10 pods) | ~$180 |
| EC2 (2x t3.medium, fit 10 pods) | ~$60 |
| Fargate (10 pods, 8hr/day workdays) | ~$50 |
Takeaway: Fargate is 2-3x more expensive than EC2 for steady 24/7 workloads. It becomes cost-effective for bursty or short-lived workloads.
When Fargate Saves Money
| Scenario | Why Cheaper |
|---|---|
| Pods run < 8 hours/day | Pay only when running |
| Highly variable load | No idle node costs |
| Batch jobs (minutes/hours) | Per-second billing |
| Dev environments (on/off) | $0 when off |
Quick Reference
| Pod Size | Monthly Cost (24/7) |
|---|---|
| 0.25 vCPU, 0.5 GB | ~$9 |
| 0.5 vCPU, 1 GB | ~$18 |
| 1 vCPU, 2 GB | ~$36 |
| 2 vCPU, 4 GB | ~$71 |
| 4 vCPU, 8 GB | ~$142 |
What’s Next?
Combine both worlds: Mixed Mode (EC2 + Fargate).
