# AWS Monthly Cost Estimate v0.3

## Assumptions

- **Development environment:** 1 developer (Nathan), light usage, synthetic data only
- **Staging environment:** Mirror of production topology, used for pre-deployment testing
- **Production environment:** Estimated for ~50-100 active beneficiaries (early operations)
- **All estimates are monthly, in USD, based on US-East-1 (N. Virginia) pricing**
- **Pricing is approximate and subject to change. Actual costs will vary based on usage.**

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## Development Environment

| Service | Configuration | Est. Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|
| RDS PostgreSQL (db.t3.micro) | 2 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM, 20 GB gp3 storage, single-AZ, no encryption | ~$12 |
| S3 Standard | 5 GB storage, ~10K requests/month | ~$0.10 |
| Fargate (dev tasks) | 0.25 vCPU, 0.5 GiB RAM, ~50 hrs/month running | ~$10 |
| SQS | ~10K requests/month | ~$0.01 |
| Secrets Manager | 1-2 secrets | ~$0.50-1.00 |
| KMS | Default key, ~10K requests/month | ~$0.03 |
| ECR | 1 repository, <1 GB storage | ~$0.01 |
| CloudWatch Logs | ~1 GB ingested | ~$0.50 |
| CloudTrail | Management events only (free tier) | $0 |
| CodePipeline + CodeBuild | ~20 builds/month | ~$1-2 |
| VPC + ALB | ALB hourly + data processing (~50 hrs) | ~$16 |
| **Development Subtotal** | | **~$40-45** |

---

## Staging Environment

| Service | Configuration | Est. Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|
| RDS PostgreSQL (db.t3.small) | 2 vCPU, 2 GiB RAM, 50 GB gp3 storage, single-AZ, KMS encrypted | ~$35 |
| S3 Standard | 25 GB storage, ~50K requests/month | ~$0.60 |
| Fargate tasks | 0.5 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM, ~400 hrs/month (2 tasks, always-on) | ~$85 |
| SQS | ~50K requests/month | ~$0.03 |
| Secrets Manager | 4-5 secrets | ~$1.00-1.50 |
| KMS | 1 key, ~50K requests/month | ~$0.06 |
| ECR | 1 repository, ~5 GB storage | ~$0.05 |
| CloudWatch Logs | ~5 GB ingested | ~$2.50 |
| CloudTrail | Management + data events | ~$0.50 |
| ALB | Always-on, ~400 hrs | ~$16 |
| VPC endpoints | 4 endpoints (S3, Secrets Manager, KMS, SQS) | ~$1-2 |
| **Staging Subtotal** | | **~$143-145** |

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## Production Environment (Early Phase, ~50-100 Beneficiaries)

| Service | Configuration | Est. Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|
| RDS PostgreSQL (db.t3.medium, Multi-AZ) | 2 vCPU, 4 GiB RAM, 100 GB gp3, Multi-AZ, KMS encrypted | ~$110 |
| S3 Standard + Intelligent Tiering | 100 GB storage, ~200K requests/month | ~$3 |
| Fargate tasks | 1 vCPU, 2 GiB RAM, auto-scale 2-4 tasks, ~2,400 hrs total | ~$340 |
| SQS | ~200K requests/month | ~$0.10 |
| Secrets Manager | 5-8 secrets, rotation enabled | ~$2-3 |
| KMS | 2-3 keys, ~200K requests/month | ~$0.25 |
| ECR | 1 repository, ~20 GB storage | ~$0.20 |
| CloudWatch Logs | ~20 GB ingested | ~$10 |
| CloudTrail | Management + data events, multi-region | ~$2 |
| ALB | Always-on, 24/7 | ~$18 |
| VPC endpoints | 4-5 endpoints | ~$2-3 |
| Backup storage (RDS snapshots) | Automated + manual | ~$5 |
| **Production Subtotal** | | **~$495-500** |

---

## Summary

| Environment | Monthly Estimate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Development | **~$40-45** | Light usage, single-AZ, minimal encryption |
| Staging | **~$143-145** | Production-like topology, always-on |
| Production (early) | **~$495-500** | Multi-AZ, auto-scaling, full encryption |
| **Combined (dev + staging)** | **~$185-190** | Phase 1 budget estimate |
| **All three environments** | **~$680-690** | Full deployment |

## Cost Drivers (What Will Change the Bill)

1. **Fargate compute** — the largest cost. Scales with traffic and task count. At rest, 2 tasks is the minimum.
2. **RDS instance size** — db.t3.medium for production is conservative. Could start with db.t3.small if data volume is low.
3. **S3 storage** — grows with document uploads (lab PDFs, imaging reports). Intelligent Tiering can reduce cost for infrequently accessed files.
4. **CloudWatch Logs** — grows with application log volume. Can reduce cost by adjusting log retention and log level.
5. **ALB** — fixed hourly cost. Could be eliminated in dev by running behind a simpler entry point (e.g., nginx in a single Fargate task).

## Cost Reduction Options for Phase 1

- **Dev:** Use a free-tier RDS (db.t3.micro qualifies for some free tier) or skip dev DB and use local Docker PostgreSQL.
- **Dev:** Skip the ALB and use a direct Fargate task or ECS service without load balancer for local development.
- **Staging:** Reduce to single task, stop when not actively testing.
- **Combined dev + staging could be reduced to ~$50-80/month** with these optimizations.