AWS CloudWatch Pricing Calculator
Model log GB ingestion, retention storage, custom metrics, and alarms before observability becomes a top-5 AWS spend category. us-east-1 list pricing.
- No signup
- Instant results
- ~2 min
Read the full breakdown — Amazon CloudWatch Pricing covers billing dimensions, traps, and a 30-day cleanup plan.
Log volume profile
us-east-1 rates (2026-06-14): $0.50/GB ingested, $0.03/GB-mo stored (beyond free tiers not modeled).
Cloud cost optimization · Cloud cost rollup
CloudWatch Logs ingestion — application, VPC flow, and container logs.
Average GB stored during the month at $0.03/GB-mo.
Who This Tool Is For
SREs, platform engineers, and FinOps analysts who own CloudWatch Logs, Container Insights, or custom metric sprawl. When the Management & Governance line climbs without new services, logs and metrics are frequent culprits.
Why We Built This Tool
CloudWatch pricing spans ingestion, storage, custom metrics, alarms, and query scan volume — each with different units. This calculator uses us-east-1 list pricing as of 2026-06-14 for the meters teams most often underestimate.
What Problem It Solves
- Log ingestion vs storage. Separate one-time ingest GB from retained GB-month storage.
- Custom metric count. Model the first-tier $0.30/metric rate explicitly.
- Alarm inventory. Standard alarms at $0.10 each add up in microservices estates.
- Query cost. Logs Insights GB scanned is distinct from log ingestion.
See cloud cost optimization or the AWS Cloud Cost Calculator for account-wide rollups.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do these prices come from?
Amazon CloudWatch us-east-1 list prices as of 2026-06-14: $0.50/GB log ingestion, $0.03/GB-mo log storage, $0.30/custom metric (first 10,000 metrics tier), $0.10/standard alarm, $0.005/GB Logs Insights scanned. Confirm in the AWS Pricing Calculator.
Are free tiers included?
No — this models billable usage only. New accounts receive limited free log ingestion, metrics, and alarms; subtract those separately if applicable.
What about Container Insights or Lambda logs?
They bill through the same CloudWatch Logs ingestion and storage meters — include their GB in your ingestion and storage sliders.
Do composite or anomaly alarms cost more?
Yes — composite and anomaly detection alarms have higher per-alarm pricing. This calculator uses standard metric alarms at $0.10 each.
Higher custom metric tiers?
AWS reduces per-metric pricing above 10,000 metrics. This tool uses the $0.30/metric first-tier rate for simplicity — overestimate cost if you publish tens of thousands of metrics.
How accurate is this estimate?
Arithmetic matches published rates for your inputs. Missing items include metric API charges, dashboards, Contributor Insights, and X-Ray.