How to avoid unexpected AWS costs

From ballooning egress fees to the unpredictability of cross-AZ data transfer costs, many companies are coming to the same realization: the convenience of AWS often comes with a hidden price tag.

For businesses operating at scale, the flexibility of the cloud can quickly become a financial burden, especially when dealing with high data volumes or the need for consistent performance.

Many teams have begun questioning the long-term costs of running workloads on providers like AWS, where idle resources, unoptimized traffic, and inconsistent performance often lead to inflated bills.

Some have found that moving away from virtualized environments can cut infrastructure costs by more than half. But this shift isn’t just about savings: it's about regaining control.

How AWS egress fees work

As you may know, egress fees refer to the charges incurred when data is transferred out of AWS services to the Internet, other AWS regions, or on-premises environments.

While data ingress (data coming into AWS) is typically free, egress can contribute significantly to overall cloud expenses, especially for data-intensive operations.

Like many other cloud providers, AWS charges for data transferred from its services to the internet. The rates vary by region and the amount of data transferred per month.

For instance, in the United States, the first 1 GB per month is free, and subsequent data transfer is charged at tiered rates, such as $0.09 per GB for up to 10 TB per month.

Data transfer between AWS regions also incurs charges. For example, data transferred from Amazon EC2 in one region to another is charged $0.02 per GB.

Data transferred between services within the same AWS region is generally free when using private IP addresses. However, standard data transfer rates will apply if public IP addresses are used.

Amazon CloudFront, AWS's content delivery network (CDN), offers 1 TB of data transfer out to the internet monthly for free under the AWS Free Tier. Beyond this, data transfer out is charged based on the destination and volume, with rates starting at $0.085 per GB for the next 9 TB in regions like the United States.

Finally, AWS Direct Connect allows for dedicated network connections between on-premises environments and AWS. While Data transferred into AWS via Direct Connect is free, data transferred out is charged based on the source region and Direct Connect location.

The Surprising Costs of AWS

When teams first move to AWS, the promise of scalability and flexibility is undeniably appealing. You get instant access to infrastructure, billed only for what you use. However, as operations grow and systems become more complex, many companies discover a different side of the cloud billing story, one filled with surprises.

A common culprit is idle or forgotten resources. It's surprisingly easy to leave behind EBS volumes, Elastic IPs, or test environments that continue to run quietly in the background. These unused assets don’t raise alarms, but can add up heavily on the monthly bill.

Over-provisioning is another widespread issue. Out of caution, teams spin up compute instances that are significantly overpowered for the workloads they actually run. The result? Paying top dollar for capacity that sits idle most of the time.

Networking costs also catch teams off guard. Data transfer fees are often overlooked in early planning stages, especially when data leaves AWS or moves between regions.

Many don’t realize that something as simple as routing traffic between availability zones or accessing the internet through a NAT Gateway can quickly become a significant line item on their AWS invoice.

There’s also the matter of the Free Tier. At first, it seems like a generous starting point, but its limits are easily exceeded. Once the 12-month period ends, or usage outpaces the “free” thresholds, charges accumulate, often without warning.

Then, there are the charges that come from automation. In some environments, AWS services can automatically restart instances during maintenance or deploy resources in the background. Unless monitored closely, these automatic events can bring infrastructure back online, alongside all their associated costs.

All of these situations share a common thread: unpredictability. While AWS offers a wealth of features, its pricing model isn’t always intuitive, which is a problem for businesses that want financial clarity and control.

Then, how do you avoid unexpected AWS costs?

The shift from AWS to Bare Metal is not just a theoretical cost-saving strategy. Several companies have experienced it firsthand, with significant financial and operational improvements.

Before changing to Latitude.sh, Neon Labs faced steep egress traffic costs when transmitting large amounts of data to the blockchain. After migrating from AWS and GCP to Latitude.sh, they cut their cloud costs by an impressive 60%.

Not only did they save money, but they also saw improvements in real-time response performance, a critical factor for their operations.

Similarly, BTCS (Nasdaq: BTCS) struggled with high traffic and log-related expenses on AWS and performance bottlenecks that hindered their growth.

By moving to Latitude.sh’s bare metal infrastructure, they doubled their infrastructure performance and achieved around 30% savings on cloud costs. And as they continue to migrate more of their workloads, they expect further savings, reinforcing the financial advantages of making the switch.

For Decent Land Labs, the transition to Latitude.sh resulted in up to 60% cost savings. They also benefited from high-performance compute capabilities without the "noisy neighbor" effect that often plagues shared virtualized environments like AWS, ensuring consistent and reliable performance at a lower price.

Meanwhile, eOracle realized a 3x reduction in compute costs after moving to Latitude.sh, showcasing how substantial the savings can be when switching to a provider focused on cost efficiency and performance.

The reasons for these outcomes often stem from the same underlying issues AWS customers face: high egress fees, idle resource wastage, and costly cross-AZ data transfer.

These cost inefficiencies can be a problem for everyone, and even large organizations with substantial cloud budgets are starting to see the benefits of switching.

Latitude.sh customers consistently report better performance and lower costs, especially when it comes to high-throughput workloads.

Sign up on Latitude.sh and get rid of surprising AWS costs

If you want to take control of your cloud strategy and experience the benefits of a tailored, dedicated solution, Latitude.sh is here to help.

Explore how our bare metal servers can provide the reliability, performance, and value your business deserves, without the billing surprises that come with virtualized instances.

Let’s support your long-term growth with cost-effective compute instances. Contact our team today to get started.