Vpc Cost Calculator

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Reviewed by: David Chen, PMP, Cloud Solutions Architect

VPC Cost Calculator: Estimate your monthly Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) expenses across common cloud services, focusing on variable costs like NAT Gateways, VPNs, and Data Egress. This tool helps you budget accurately and identify potential savings.

VPC Cost Calculator

Estimated Total Monthly VPC Cost:

$0.00

Detailed Cost Breakdown

VPC Cost Calculator Formula

The total estimated monthly VPC cost is calculated by summing the costs of key variable components:

Monthly Cost = (NAT Hourly Fee + NAT Data Processing Fee) + (VPN Hourly Fee) + (Data Egress Fee)

NAT Cost = (N_nat × $0.045/hr × 730) + (D_nat × $0.045/GB)
VPN Cost = (N_vpn × $0.05/hr × 730)
Egress Cost = (D_egress × $0.09/GB)

Where:
N_nat = Number of NAT Gateways
D_nat = Monthly Data Processed via NAT (GB)
N_vpn = Number of VPN Connections
D_egress = Monthly Data Egress (GB)

Formula Sources (for reference, rates are simplified): AWS VPC Pricing, Google Cloud VPC Pricing

Variables Explained

  • Number of NAT Gateways: The number of Network Address Translation (NAT) Gateways you provision. These incur a fixed hourly charge regardless of usage.
  • Monthly Data Processed via NAT (GB): The total volume of data (in Gigabytes) that flows through the NAT Gateways. This is a per-GB processing charge.
  • Number of Site-to-Site VPN Connections: The quantity of active VPN connections to your on-premises data centers or other networks. These are usually charged per hour.
  • Monthly Data Egress (GB): The total volume of data (in Gigabytes) that leaves your cloud region/VPC to the public internet. This is typically the most significant variable cost.

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What is a VPC Cost Calculator?

A VPC Cost Calculator is a tool designed to estimate the recurring monthly expenses associated with running a Virtual Private Cloud infrastructure. While core VPC features like IP addressing and routing are typically free, the actual cost comes from services required to make the VPC functional, such as Network Address Translation (NAT) and data transfer fees (Egress).

Understanding these costs is crucial for financial governance in the cloud. Unexpected fees, particularly from unoptimized Data Egress and NAT Gateway usage, can inflate bills dramatically. This calculator focuses on these specific high-cost elements to provide a practical monthly budget estimate.

How to Calculate VPC Cost (Example)

Follow these steps to estimate a scenario with 1 NAT Gateway, 1,000 GB processed by NAT, 2 VPNs, and 2,000 GB of Egress:

  1. Calculate NAT Gateway Hourly Charge: 1 Gateway × $0.045/hr × 730 hours = $32.85
  2. Calculate NAT Data Processing Fee: 1,000 GB × $0.045/GB = $45.00
  3. Calculate VPN Connection Fee: 2 Connections × $0.05/hr × 730 hours = $73.00
  4. Calculate Data Egress Fee: 2,000 GB × $0.09/GB = $180.00
  5. Sum Total Monthly Cost: $32.85 + $45.00 + $73.00 + $180.00 = $330.85

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is data transfer within the same VPC region free?

Yes, typically, data transfer between resources (like EC2 instances) within the same availability zone or region in a VPC is free, though providers sometimes charge for traffic crossing availability zone boundaries.

What is the most expensive part of a VPC?

For most applications, **Data Egress** (traffic leaving the cloud region/VPC to the internet) is the most significant and often least predictable cost driver.

Should I delete unused NAT Gateways?

Yes. NAT Gateways incur an hourly fee, even when idle. Deleting unused or redundant ones is one of the quickest ways to reduce unnecessary monthly VPC costs.

Does this calculator include compute (EC2) costs?

No. This calculator is designed to estimate the networking and variable costs of the VPC infrastructure itself. Compute, storage, and database costs must be calculated separately.

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