Aurora vs RDS Pricing Calculator
Compare RDS, Aurora Standard, and Aurora I/O-Optimized side by side — and find the I/O crossover where each one wins. us-east-1 list pricing.
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- ~2 min
Rates reviewed
Your database shape
us-east-1list rates, pricing as of 2026-07-09. Source: AWS public pricing.
We compare the same compute and storage across three options. The big lever is I/O: Aurora Standard bills per million requests, Aurora I/O-Optimized bills none but costs more up front, and RDS gp3 includes baseline I/O.
Blended db.r-class rate. 4 vCPU ≈ db.r6g.xlarge.
Aurora HA comes from replicas; RDS HA comes from the Multi-AZ toggle below.
Aurora storage auto-scales; RDS is provisioned gp3.
The decisive input. Aurora Standard charges $0.20 per million; I/O-Optimized charges nothing.
Aurora is inherently multi-AZ (6 storage copies), so this toggle affects RDS only.
Who This Tool Is For
Backend engineers, DBAs, and architects choosing a managed database on AWS — or questioning whether an existing RDS fleet should move to Aurora (or between Aurora storage modes). If your database bill is a top-three line item, this is the decision to get right.
Why We Built This Tool
The RDS-vs-Aurora choice is dominated by I/O, and most teams don't know their I/O number until the bill arrives. Aurora Standard's per-million I/O charge can quietly dwarf compute on write-heavy workloads, while I/O-Optimized trades that for higher fixed instance and storage rates. This calculator surfaces all three totals on the same inputs, the way we do in database cost reviews.
What Problem It Solves
- I/O blindness. Aurora Standard I/O charges can exceed compute — this makes that visible before you commit.
- Storage-mode confusion. I/O-Optimized costs more per GB and per vCPU but zero per I/O — see where it pays off.
- RDS Multi-AZ math. Doubling the instance (and storage) for HA changes the comparison — modeled here.
- Defensible numbers. Export-ready figures for the architecture and finance review.
Drill into either engine with the RDS and Aurora calculators, or read the RDS vs Aurora comparison.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do these prices come from?
AWS us-east-1 list rates as of 2026-07-09 (blended db.r-class): RDS ~$0.09/vCPU-hour with gp3 storage at $0.115/GB-month; Aurora Standard ~$0.11/vCPU-hour, storage $0.10/GB-month, and I/O at $0.20 per million requests; Aurora I/O-Optimized instances ~30% higher, storage $0.225/GB-month, and no I/O charge. Confirm against the RDS and Aurora pricing pages before budgeting.
When does Aurora I/O-Optimized beat Aurora Standard?
Roughly when I/O charges exceed about 25% of your Aurora Standard bill — AWS's own rule of thumb. I/O-Optimized removes the per-request charge but adds ~30% to instances and ~125% to storage, so it wins on write-heavy, I/O-intensive workloads and loses on light ones. This calculator computes both so you can see your crossover.
Is Aurora always more expensive than RDS?
No. Aurora instances cost a bit more than RDS and Standard mode adds I/O charges, but Aurora avoids RDS Multi-AZ instance doubling for HA (it replicates storage across three AZs natively) and its storage auto-scales. On HA, replica-heavy, or large-storage workloads Aurora can come out cheaper — which is exactly why you model it rather than assume.
How accurate is this?
It is a directional list-price comparison using blended rates, and it excludes Reserved Instances / Aurora reserved capacity, Serverless v2 ACU billing, backups, and data transfer. Use it to see the shape of the decision, then validate against your real instance types and measured I/O.
Does this cover Aurora Serverless v2?
Not directly — this models provisioned instances. Serverless v2 bills per-ACU-hour and suits spiky or unpredictable workloads. Use the dedicated Aurora calculator for ACU-based estimates.