Cluster costs

Classic cluster pricing

Your bill is calculated based on your usage of the following dimensions:

Instance vCPU capacity
Disk storage
Backup storage
Data transfer

The cluster's per-hour charge includes free allowances for disk storage, backup storage, and data transfer. If you use more than the free allowance, you incur overages on top of the base vCPU capacity cost.

Dimension	Allowance/vCPU per month
Disk storage	50 GB
Backup storage	100 GB
Data transfer – Same Region	1000 GB
Data transfer – Cross Region (APAC)	10 GB
Data transfer – Cross Region (Other regions)	10 GB
Data transfer – Internet	10 GB

Instance vCPU capacity costs

Instance vCPU capacity makes up the majority of your bill, and is the easiest to understand and control. It's purely a function of your total number of vCPUs used and how long they have been running. Instance vCPU capacity cost is the cost for the use of the total number of vCPUs in your account.

Rate card

$0.25/hour ($.00416666666/minute)

You can reduce the cost by reducing the number of vCPUs, which may have a negative impact on performance.

Calculating instance minutes

Yugabyte measures vCPU use in "Instance-Minutes," which are added up at the end of the month to generate your monthly charges. The total instance capacity cost across all your clusters is the sum of instance-minutes across all clusters multiplied by the base per minute rate card ($.00416666666/minute).

Pricing is per instance minute consumed for each instance, from the time an instance is launched until it is terminated.

Assume you start a cluster with 3 nodes x 2 vCPUs (6 vCPUs) for the first 15 days in September, and then scale up to 6 nodes x 2 vCPUs (12 vCPUs) for the final 15 days in September.

At the end of September, you would calculate the cost as follows.

Total instance-minutes: [(6 vCPUs x 15 days x 24 hours x 60 min) + (12 vCPUs x 15 days x 24 hours x 60 min)]; = 388800
Total vCPU cost/month: Total instance minutes x Per minute base rate
Total vCPU cost/month: 388800 x $.00416666666 ~ $1619.99

Disk storage cost

Disk storage costs are tied to the cost of storing the data on disk in the underlying IaaS storage (for example, EBS on AWS).

Rate card

$0.10/GB per month ($0.0001388888889/hr for 30-day month)

The free allowance for disk storage is 50 GB/month for every 1 vCPU per month used in a cluster. Whenever you exceed the 50 GB/month/vCPU threshold, you are billed for the storage used in excess of the free allowance.

You can also specify a custom value greater than free allowance storage capacity. You can customize your cluster storage capacity independently of your cluster vCPU capacity. If you customize an amount of disk storage greater than the free allowance, you are only charged for the amount exceeding the free allowance.

For example, a 3 node x 2 vCPU (6 vCPUs) cluster includes a total free allowance of 300 GB/month (6 vCPUs x 50 GB), which is equally distributed across 3 nodes at 100 GB each. For the same cluster, if you increase per node storage capacity to 150 GB, then your total disk storage will be 450 GB (3 nodes x 150 GB) but you are only charged for the 150 GB above your 300 GB allowance.

Disk storage size is calculated by metering the storage space (GB) occupied per cluster. The same unit price applies to all regions and clouds.

Calculating disk storage cost

Yugabyte measures disk storage in "GB-hours," which are added up at the end of the month to generate your monthly charges. The total disk storage capacity cost across all your clusters is the total number of GB-hours multiplied by the base per hour rate card ($0.0001388888889/hr in a 30-day month), less the total free allowance based on per month vCPU usage.

Assume you start a cluster for the first 15 days of September with the following configuration:

Total number of vCPUs: 3 nodes x 2 vCPU = 6 vCPUs
Disk storage/node: 100 GB
Total disk storage: 300 GB

Then scale up to the following configuration for the final 15 days in September:

Total number of vCPUs: 3 nodes x 4 vCPU = 12 vCPUs
Disk storage/node: 500 GB
Total disk storage: 1500 GB

At the end of September, you would have the following total usage cost:

Total disk storage: [(300 GB x 15 days x 24 hours) + (1500 GB x 15 days x 24 hours)]; = 648000 GB-hours
Total instance-minutes: [(6 vCPUs x 15 days x 24 hours x 60 min) + (12 vCPUs x 15 days x 24 hours x 60 min)]; = 388800 instance-minutes
Total vCPUs: 388800 instance-minutes / ( 30 days x 24 hours x 60 minutes ); = 9 vCPUs
Free allowance (GB/month): 9 vCPUs x 50 GB/month = 450 GB
Free allowance (GB-hours): 450 GB x 30 days x 24 hours = 324000 GB-hours
Disk storage overages: 648000 GB-hours - 324000 GB-hours = 324000 GB-hours
Total disk storage cost/month: Total overages (GB-hours) x Per hour base rate
Total disk storage cost/month: 324000 x 0.0001388888889 = $45

Backup storage costs

Backup storage costs are tied to the cost of storing the backup snapshots in the underlying IaaS storage services (that is, S3 on AWS, blob on Azure, or GCS on Google cloud). It's purely a function of total data backed up from your cluster and the retention period.

Rate card

Rate card: $0.025/GB per month ($ 0.00003472222222/hr for 30-day month)

The free allowance for backup storage is 100 GB/month for every 1 vCPU per month used in a cluster. Whenever you exceed the 100 GB/month/vCPU threshold, you are billed for the backup storage used in excess of the free allowance. For example, a 3 node x 2 vCPU (6 vCPUs) cluster includes a total free allowance of 600 GB/month (6 vCPUs x 100 GB).

By default, every cluster is configured with 24 hour backups with an 8 day retention period. You can customize your backup schedule and retention period per cluster. Taking frequent backups and retaining for a long period of time can lead to overages. Refer to Back up clusters.

Backup storage size is calculated by metering the storage space (GB) occupied per cluster. The same unit price applies to all regions and clouds.

Calculating backup storage cost

Yugabyte measures backup storage in "GB-hours," which are added up at the end of the month to generate your monthly charges. The total backup storage capacity cost across your clusters is the total number of GB-hours multiplied by the base per hour rate card ($ 0.00003472222222/hr in a 30-day month), less the total free allowance based on per month vCPU usage.

Assume you start a cluster with 3 nodes x 2 vCPUs (6 vCPUs) for the first 15 days in September, and then scale up to 6 nodes x 2 vCPUs (12 vCPUs) for the final 15 days in September. Assume also an actual backup usage of 720000 GB-hours.

At the end of September, you would have the following total backup cost.

Total instance-minutes: [(6 vCPUs x 15 days x 24 hours x 60 min) + (12 vCPUs x 15 days x 24 hours x 60 min)]; = 388800 instance-minutes
Total vCPUs: 388800 instance-minutes / ( 30 days x 24 hours x 60 minutes ); = 9 vCPUs
Free allowance (GB-month): 9 vCPUs x 100 GB/month = 900 GB
Free allowance (GB-hours): 900 GB x 30 days x 24 hours = 648000 GB-hours
Backup storage overages: 720000 GB-hours - 648000 GB-hours = 72000 GB-hours

Total backup storage cost/month = Total overages (GB-hours) x Per hour base rate

Total backup storage cost/month = 72000 x 0.00003472222222 = $2.50

Data transfer costs

Data transfer accounts for the volume of data going into, out of, and between the nodes in a cluster, which is summed up to a cumulative amount in a billing cycle.

Yugabyte meters and bills data transfer using the following three dimensions.

Same region

This dimension accounts for all regional traffic of the cluster. This includes all cross availability zone inter-node traffic, which YugabyteDB automatically manages, and egress cost to a client in the same region as the cluster.

Single- and three-node clusters deployed in a single availability zone (AZ) will have much lower usage than clusters with three nodes deployed across multiple AZs.

Rate card

$.01/GB

The free allowance for same region transfers is 1000 GB per month for every 1 vCPU per month used in a cluster. You are charged for any data transfer used in excess of the free allowance.

Cross region

This dimension accounts for all of the traffic coming out of the cluster to a different region. This happens if a client is using VPC networking but is in different region than the cluster deployments. Different rate cards apply for clusters deployed in Asia-Pacific (APAC) vs other regions.

Rate card

APAC $0.08/GB

Other regions $0.02/GB

The free allowance for cross region transfers is 10 GB per month for every 1 vCPU per month used in a cluster. You are charged for any data transfer used in excess of the free allowance.

Data out (Internet)

This accounts for all of the traffic coming out of the cluster to the internet. This happens when a client is not using VPC networking and connecting to the cluster over the internet.

Rate card

$.10/GB

The free allowance for data out transfers is 10GB per month for every 1 vCPU per month used in a cluster. You are charged for any data transfer used in excess of the free allowance.

Controlling data transfer costs

Ensure that queries originate from the same cloud region and provider as your database deployment whenever possible.
- Avoid data out internet costs by using VPC networking and not allowing any client applications to connect over the public internet.
- Minimize data out cross region costs by making sure your client application and database cluster are deployed in the same cloud and region and connected using VPC networking.
Ensure that queries do not:
- Re-read data that already exists on the client.
- Re-write existing data to your database deployment.
If possible, configure your client driver to use network compression to communicate with the YugabyteDB cluster. YugabyteDB Aeon always compresses intra-cluster communication.

Paused cluster costs

Yugabyte suspends instance vCPU capacity costs for paused clusters. Paused clusters are billed for disk storage and backup storage at the standard rates; this cost includes any storage that is normally covered by your running cluster free allowances.

For example, suppose you have a cluster with the following configuration:

Total number of vCPUs: 1 node x 4 vCPU = 4 vCPUs
Disk storage used: 200 GB
Backup storage used: 400 GB

While active, disk and backup storage are covered by the free allowance, and the cluster is charged at the following rate:

Total vCPU cost/hour = vCPUs x hourly rate

Active cluster hourly rate = 4 x $0.25 = $1/hour

When paused, instance vCPU capacity is no longer charged. Disk and backup storage are charged at the standard rate, as follows:

Disk storage (Paused) = disk storage x hourly rate: 200 GB x 0.000138888889 = $0.0277777778/hour
Backup storage (Paused) = backup storage x hourly rate: 400 GB x 0.00003472222222 = $0.0138888889/hour

Paused cluster hourly rate = $0.0416666667/hour

For paused clusters, your invoice includes Disk Storage (Paused) and Backup Storage (Paused) items.

Yugabyte recalculates the monthly entitlements for disk storage, backup storage, and data transfer after resuming the cluster.