Amazon Neptune Pricing
Amazon Neptune is a fast, reliable, fully managed graph database service optimized for billions of relationships and millisecond traversals. Supports openCypher, Apache TinkerPop Gremlin, and W3C SPARQL with flexible Neptune Serverless (1–128 NCUs), provisioned instances, and in-memory Neptune Analytics.
Deployment Options: Serverless, Provisioned & Analytics
Deploy Neptune according to your workload demands — auto-scaling Serverless for spiky traffic, provisioned fleets for steady state, or Neptune Analytics for massive algorithmic computations.
Neptune Serverless
Instantly and automatically adjusts compute capacity in increments of 0.5 Neptune Capacity Units (NCUs) up to 128 NCUs. Eliminates manual capacity provisioning.
- Base Pricing: $0.120 per NCU-Hour
- Memory Density: ~2 GiB RAM per NCU
- Scaling Model: Automated instant scaling (0.5 to 128 NCUs)
- Best For: Variable query traffic, dev/test environments, and unpredictable graph workloads.
Neptune Provisioned
Dedicated compute instances across AWS Graviton and Intel Xeon families with up to 15 read replicas sharing cluster storage. Predictable throughput for steady OLTP traffic.
- Base Pricing: From $0.086 / instance-hour
- Memory Density: Up to 512 GiB RAM per node
- Scaling Model: Manual instance resizing & read replica scaling
- Best For: Steady, high-throughput OLTP graph query applications with predictable loads.
Neptune Analytics
Purpose-built, memory-optimized graph analytics engine with integrated vector search. Runs complex graph algorithms (PageRank, clustering, shortest path) in seconds on tens of billions of edges.
- Base Pricing: $0.033 per m-NCU Hour
- Memory Density: Memory-optimized graph units (m-NCU)
- Scaling Model: On-demand graph capacity allocation
- Best For: Global graph algorithms, fraud ring detection, vector search, and batch analytics.
Storage Classes: Standard vs. I/O-Optimized
Neptune decouples compute from storage with 6-way replication across 3 AZs. Select your storage configuration based on graph traversal intensity.
Standard Storage
Ideal for graph workloads with light-to-moderate query traversals where storage volume exceeds I/O request costs.
+ $0.200 per 1,000,000 read/write I/O requests
I/O-Optimized Storage
Designed for I/O-intensive graph traversals, neighborhood searches, and frequent edge traversals. Eliminates all I/O billing.
$0.000 (Included) zero I/O request fees
Provisioned Compute Instances (US East, N. Virginia)
On-demand database instances for primary writer and read replica nodes. Graviton3 instances deliver the highest memory bandwidth for relationship scans.
| Instance Type | Family | Architecture | vCPU | RAM | Hourly Rate | Monthly Est. (730h) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| db.r7g.large | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton3) | 2 | 16 GiB | $0.359/hr | $262.07/mo |
| db.r7g.xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton3) | 4 | 32 GiB | $0.718/hr | $524.14/mo |
| db.r7g.2xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton3) | 8 | 64 GiB | $1.436/hr | $1048.28/mo |
| db.r7g.4xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton3) | 16 | 128 GiB | $2.872/hr | $2096.56/mo |
| db.r7g.8xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton3) | 32 | 256 GiB | $5.744/hr | $4193.12/mo |
| db.r7g.12xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton3) | 48 | 384 GiB | $8.616/hr | $6289.68/mo |
| db.r7g.16xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton3) | 64 | 512 GiB | $11.488/hr | $8386.24/mo |
| db.r6g.large | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton2) | 2 | 16 GiB | $0.348/hr | $254.04/mo |
| db.r6g.xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton2) | 4 | 32 GiB | $0.696/hr | $508.08/mo |
| db.r6g.2xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton2) | 8 | 64 GiB | $1.392/hr | $1016.16/mo |
| db.r6g.4xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton2) | 16 | 128 GiB | $2.784/hr | $2032.32/mo |
| db.r6g.8xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton2) | 32 | 256 GiB | $5.568/hr | $4064.64/mo |
| db.r6g.12xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton2) | 48 | 384 GiB | $8.352/hr | $6096.96/mo |
| db.r6g.16xlarge | Memory Optimized | arm64 (Graviton2) | 64 | 512 GiB | $11.136/hr | $8129.28/mo |
| db.r6i.large | Memory Optimized | x86_64 (Intel) | 2 | 16 GiB | $0.380/hr | $277.40/mo |
| db.r6i.xlarge | Memory Optimized | x86_64 (Intel) | 4 | 32 GiB | $0.760/hr | $554.80/mo |
| db.r6i.2xlarge | Memory Optimized | x86_64 (Intel) | 8 | 64 GiB | $1.520/hr | $1109.60/mo |
| db.r6i.4xlarge | Memory Optimized | x86_64 (Intel) | 16 | 128 GiB | $3.040/hr | $2219.20/mo |
| db.r6i.8xlarge | Memory Optimized | x86_64 (Intel) | 32 | 256 GiB | $6.080/hr | $4438.40/mo |
| db.r6i.12xlarge | Memory Optimized | x86_64 (Intel) | 48 | 384 GiB | $9.120/hr | $6657.60/mo |
| db.r6i.16xlarge | Memory Optimized | x86_64 (Intel) | 64 | 512 GiB | $12.160/hr | $8876.80/mo |
| db.t4g.medium | Burstable | arm64 (Graviton2) | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.086/hr | $62.78/mo |
| db.t3.medium | Burstable | x86_64 (Intel) | 2 | 4 GiB | $0.108/hr | $78.84/mo |
Global Regional Rates Comparison
Compare Neptune Serverless NCU, standard storage, and compute instance costs across global AWS regions.
| Region Code | Region Name | Serverless NCU | Standard Storage | I/O-Optimized | db.r6g.large Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
us-east-1 | US East (N. Virginia) | $0.120/NCU-hr | $0.100/GB-mo | $0.300/GB-mo | $0.348/hr |
us-east-2 | US East (Ohio) | $0.120/NCU-hr | $0.100/GB-mo | $0.300/GB-mo | $0.348/hr |
us-west-2 | US West (Oregon) | $0.120/NCU-hr | $0.100/GB-mo | $0.300/GB-mo | $0.348/hr |
eu-west-1 | Europe (Ireland) | $0.132/NCU-hr | $0.110/GB-mo | $0.330/GB-mo | $0.383/hr |
eu-central-1 | Europe (Frankfurt) | $0.143/NCU-hr | $0.119/GB-mo | $0.357/GB-mo | $0.414/hr |
ap-southeast-1 | Asia Pacific (Singapore) | $0.132/NCU-hr | $0.110/GB-mo | $0.330/GB-mo | $0.398/hr |
ap-northeast-1 | Asia Pacific (Tokyo) | $0.144/NCU-hr | $0.120/GB-mo | $0.360/GB-mo | $0.418/hr |
sa-east-1 | South America (São Paulo) | $0.168/NCU-hr | $0.140/GB-mo | $0.420/GB-mo | $0.505/hr |
Neptune Cost Optimization Playbook
1. Guardrail Serverless NCU Ranges
Configure minimum and maximum Neptune Capacity Units (NCUs) on Neptune Serverless. Setting a ceiling (e.g. 16 or 32 NCUs) protects your budget against rogue deep graph traversals or recursive queries that trigger aggressive scaling.
2. The I/O-Optimized Tipping Point
Graph queries with high branching factors (e.g. 3+ hop traversals) generate huge amounts of read I/Os. If I/O request fees exceed 25% of your total storage spend, enabling I/O-Optimized storage directly reduces your invoice.
3. Separate OLAP with Neptune Analytics
Running global graph algorithms (PageRank, Louvain community detection) on an OLTP Neptune Database requires giant instances. Use ephemeral Neptune Analytics graphs (at $0.033/m-NCU hr) to run jobs in seconds, then shut them down.
4. Leverage Graviton3 (R7g) Instances
Graph query performance is heavily memory-bandwidth bound. Graviton3 (db.r7g) instances offer up to 50% more DDR5 memory bandwidth than Graviton2, enabling significantly faster edge traversals at virtually identical cost.