Magento 2 on AWS costs one of our clients $178.53 a month before tax. That is the July 2026 bill for a single store with about 6,000 configurable and 50,000 simple products. In July 2024, before the move to k3s, the same store cost $291.75. Most of the drop comes from moving OpenSearch out of the managed AWS service and into a pod. A reserved RDS instance and a Compute Savings Plan sized to the new node do the rest.
The AWS bill before and after
The itemised AWS bills for July 2024 and July 2026 show the Magento 2 cost on AWS service by service. July 2024, before k3s:
July 2026, on k3s:
The bill falls by $113.22 a month before tax, or 38.8%. With tax, July 2024 comes to $358.84 and July 2026 to $219.59. Over a year the store saves $1,358.64 before tax.
Before tax, per month:
| Service | Before k3s | On k3s | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| EC2 (On-Demand) | $90.76 | $7.93 | −$82.83 |
| Savings Plans for compute | $67.70 | $122.02 | +$54.32 |
| OpenSearch Service | $64.11 | $0.00 | −$64.11 |
| RDS | $50.89 | $31.14 | −$19.75 |
| CloudFront | $8.79 | $4.41 | −$4.38 |
| S3 | $5.23 | $2.96 | −$2.27 |
| VPC | $3.72 | $3.72 | $0.00 |
| Data transfer | $0.32 | $4.12 | +$3.80 |
| Secrets Manager, CodeBuild, ECR | $0.00 | $2.23 | +$2.23 |
| CloudWatch | $0.23 | $0.00 | −$0.23 |
| Total | $291.75 | $178.53 | −$113.22 |
OpenSearch makes the largest single saving: $64.11 a month leaves the bill. Compute (EC2 plus the Savings Plan) falls from $158.46 to $129.95. RDS falls by $19.75 a month because the database now runs on a reserved instance. The new CodeBuild and ECR lines build and store the container images, and Secrets Manager holds the credentials.
What the store runs on
Before the move, the store used:
- EC2 for Magento and Redis
- RDS for MySQL or MariaDB
- the managed OpenSearch Service
- S3 and CloudFront for media
Now the store runs on a single k3s node. Magento, OpenSearch and Redis run as pods on that node. Traefik routes the traffic. It is the ingress controller that ships with k3s. Cloudflare sits in front as the web application firewall. RDS stays as the managed database, and S3 with CloudFront still serves media. The node is larger, since it now carries OpenSearch and Redis too. A larger 1-year Compute Savings Plan with no upfront payment covers it. The database runs on a reserved RDS instance.
Is AWS expensive?
AWS costs more than it needs to when you buy it the default way. On-Demand prices carry no commitment, and a managed service for every part adds a minimum per part. The same store costs less when it commits to steady usage and runs fewer, fuller servers.
How to reduce your AWS bill
Find the biggest lines first
Open the bill and sort the services by cost. Work on the top three lines and leave the small ones. For our client, EC2, the Savings Plan and OpenSearch made up three quarters of the bill.
Move OpenSearch and Redis into k3s
k3s is a lightweight Kubernetes distribution. It runs OpenSearch and Redis as pods on the same node as Magento. You pay for the node, with no separate OpenSearch domain on the bill.
You also take over what the managed service does for you: snapshots, upgrades and recovery. One node has no failover. Magento can rebuild the search index from the database, so a lost OpenSearch pod costs a reindex and no data.
Keep the database managed. RDS handles backups and point-in-time recovery for the data a store cannot rebuild. A reserved instance lowers its price for a steady database.
Skip the load balancer on one node
An Application Load Balancer bills by the hour on top of the servers behind it. With one node there is nothing to balance. Traefik in k3s routes requests to Magento, and Cloudflare in front filters the traffic as the firewall.
Commit to compute with Savings Plans
AWS describes Savings Plans as “a flexible pricing model that provides up to 72% savings on your AWS usage compared to On-Demand prices”. You commit to a fixed spend per hour for one or three years.
- Compute Savings Plans cover EC2, Fargate and Lambda in any region and instance family.
- EC2 Instance Savings Plans give a larger discount for one instance family in one region.
Our client uses a 1-year Compute Savings Plan with no upfront payment. The commitment grows from $67.70 to $122.02 a month to cover the larger node. It now covers almost all compute: On-Demand EC2 falls from $90.76 to $7.93 a month. Commit only to the usage you run every hour of the month. Anything above the commitment bills at On-Demand prices. The AWS Savings Plans case study walks through how we sized it for this store.
Running Magento 2 on AWS with us
If your own AWS bill keeps growing, tell us about your store and we can look at it with you.
Frequently asked questions
Magento 2 on AWS
How much does Magento 2 cost on AWS per month?
A client's Magento 2 store with about 6,000 configurable and 50,000 simple products costs $178.53 a month on AWS before tax in July 2026. In July 2024, before its move to k3s, the same store cost $291.75. Instance sizes, managed services and traffic change the bill, so treat these figures as one real data point.
Is AWS expensive for Magento 2?
AWS gets expensive when each Magento service runs as its own managed service. In our client's bill the managed OpenSearch Service cost $64.11 a month on its own. Running OpenSearch and Redis in k3s pods next to Magento removed that line. A Compute Savings Plan covers the remaining compute at a lower rate.
What are AWS Savings Plans?
Savings Plans are a pricing model where you commit to a fixed amount of compute spend per hour for one or three years. AWS says they provide up to 72% savings compared to On-Demand prices. Compute Savings Plans apply to EC2, Fargate and Lambda in any region. EC2 Instance Savings Plans give a larger discount but tie you to one instance family in one region.
How do I reduce my AWS bill for Magento 2?
Open the bill and sort the services by cost. Move the managed services Magento can run itself, such as OpenSearch and Redis, into containers on the Magento server. Skip the load balancer on a single node and let the ingress controller route traffic. Then cover the steady compute with a Compute Savings Plan.