AWS NAT Gateway Cost Calculator
Estimate what your AWS NAT gateways cost each month, from the hourly charge plus the per-GB processing fee, and see how much free S3 and DynamoDB gateway endpoints would save.
Free, no signup. Runs entirely in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
Defaults are the US East example rates from the Amazon VPC pricing page, checked 2026-10-30. Edit them for your region. Internet egress (data transfer out) is billed separately.
Why NAT gateways get expensive
A NAT gateway charges twice: an hourly fee for every gateway (commonly one per availability zone) and a fee for every GB it processes, in either direction, regardless of destination. In AWS's US East example both are $0.045, so three gateways cost about $99 a month before any traffic, and 10 TB of image pulls or S3 reads adds about $450 more. Internet egress is billed on top as data transfer.
The cheapest fix: gateway endpoints
Gateway VPC endpoints for S3 and DynamoDB have no hourly or data-processing charge. Add one to your private route tables and that traffic stops flowing through NAT entirely. For container image pulls, a registry pull-through cache or an interface endpoint for ECR often wins too. Our breakdown of NAT gateway costs covers finding the top talkers with VPC flow logs.
Questions people ask
How much does an AWS NAT gateway cost?
In AWS's US East example, $0.045 per gateway-hour (about $32.85 a month for one gateway) plus $0.045 per GB processed, as of October 2026. Rates vary by region, and internet data transfer is billed separately.
How can I reduce NAT gateway costs?
Route S3 and DynamoDB traffic through free gateway VPC endpoints, cache container images close to the cluster, keep traffic in the same availability zone as its NAT gateway, and find the top talkers with VPC flow logs. Removing processed GB usually saves more than removing gateways.
Do VPC gateway endpoints cost anything?
No. Gateway endpoints for Amazon S3 and DynamoDB have no hourly or data-processing charges, per the Amazon VPC pricing page. Interface endpoints for other services do have hourly and per-GB charges.