CloudCostDB Guides
Reference material, not a reading list. Each guide answers one choice — pick a category and find the one that matches the decision in front of you.
Compute
Picking instance types, architectures, and sizes.
- Choosing a GPU instance on cost, not habitA method for picking accelerated EC2 instances using $/GPU-hour and GPU memory per dollar instead of defaulting to the biggest or most familiar type. Real pricing across every GPU family in our dataset, why memory is usually the binding constraint, and when going wide beats going big.
- Graviton vs. x86: what the discount is worthAWS Graviton (arm64) instances are usually cheaper per hour than their x86_64 equivalents, but the savings only materialize if your workload can run on arm64 without a costly migration. Prices, benchmarks, vCPUs vs. cores, and a decision checklist.
- Right-sizing EC2 with $/vCPU-hr and $/GiB-hrA repeatable method for picking instance size and family using cost-per-vCPU-hour and cost-per-GiB-hour instead of habit. Includes real pricing data showing whether bigger sizes get cheaper, and how compute, general-purpose, and memory-optimized families trade off.
- T-family vs. M-family: picking the right instance for variable loadA decision checklist for choosing between burstable T instances (t3, t4g) and fixed-performance M instances. Real on-demand pricing showing the T discount at baseline, and when that discount stops applying.
- The Windows licensing premium: what it actually costsWindows Server pricing on EC2 is a flat, additive per-vCPU license fee stacked on top of the Linux price, not a vague markup. Real numbers on how much, how it scales, and when it's worth avoiding.
- When a .metal instance is actually worth itAWS prices .metal instances the same as the largest virtualized size in their family, to the cent. The real cost of bare metal isn't the hourly rate, it's what you take on by running without a hypervisor. Here's how to tell if that trade is worth making.
Storage
Volume types and how EBS actually bills.
Networking
Load balancers, NAT, and data-transfer costs.
- ALB vs. NLB vs. CLB: choosing a load balancerApplication Load Balancer is the default most people reach for, but Network Load Balancer is often cheaper and sometimes the only option that fits. Real hourly and LCU pricing, a worked monthly cost comparison, and when (if ever) Classic Load Balancer still makes sense.
- NAT Gateway costs: what you're paying for and how to cut itA NAT Gateway bills two ways: an hourly charge and a per-gigabyte data processing charge, and the second one is usually what surprises you. What a NAT Gateway is actually for, real regional pricing, worked scenarios, and the alternatives worth checking before you pay the full rate.
Regions
Where to run it and what location changes.
- AWS Local Zones: when the latency win is worth the price premiumA Local Zone puts compute physically closer to a metro area for single-digit-millisecond latency, at a real price premium and a much smaller instance menu. Real pricing and availability data plus a decision framework for choosing a Local Zone over its parent region.
- How much does AWS region actually change your bill?If your workload isn't pinned to a specific region for latency or compliance, is moving it to a cheaper one worth the friction? Real price spreads across regions, what stays consistently cheap or expensive, and a decision checklist.