AWS NAT Gateway Pricing Calculator & Complete Cost Guide
Interactive AWS NAT Gateway pricing calculator. Compare Standard vs Provisioned models, understand data processing costs, and discover optimization strategies.
Pricing TLDR
- • Hourly charge: $0.045/hour (~$32.85/month per NAT Gateway)
- • Data processing: $0.045 per GB processed
- • No free tier: All NAT Gateway usage is billable
Official pricing:
AWSAWS NAT Gateway Pricing Calculator
Quick Examples:
AWS Region
Standard: $0.045/hr + $0.045/GB | Provisioned: $1.076/Gbps-hr (FREE data processing)
NAT Gateway Type
Number of NAT Gateways
1
10
Use 1 per Availability Zone for high availability (typical: 3 AZs)
Data processed (GB/month)
0 GB
50,000 GB
Total data processed through all NAT Gateways per month
Include data transfer costs
Provisioned Break-even Point
With 1 Gbps provisioned capacity, provisioned becomes cheaper at 16,725 GB/month (~22.9 GB/hour consistent throughput)
Estimated Monthly Cost
$55.35
Hourly charges (730 hrs × 1 gateway)
$32.85
Data processing (500 GB)
$22.50
Annual cost: $664.20
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About AWS NAT Gateway
What is AWS NAT Gateway?
AWS NAT Gateway is a managed network address translation (NAT) service that enables instances in private subnets to connect to the internet or other AWS services while preventing inbound connections from the internet. It's a fully managed, highly available solution that eliminates the operational overhead of running NAT instances on EC2.
- Outbound-Only Internet Access: Allows private subnet resources to initiate outbound connections to the internet while blocking inbound traffic, enhancing security for backend systems.
- Managed High Availability: Automatically redundant within an Availability Zone. AWS recommends one NAT Gateway per AZ for fault-tolerant architectures.
- No Server Management: Fully managed by AWS - no patching, scaling, or maintenance required. Supports up to 100 Gbps throughput with automatic scaling.
- Two Pricing Models: Standard model charges hourly + per-GB, while Provisioned model offers fixed bandwidth pricing with FREE data processing for high-throughput workloads.
When to Use AWS NAT Gateway
NAT Gateway is ideal for providing secure internet access to resources in private subnets.
Ideal for
- Backend services in private subnets needing outbound internet access
- Databases accessing external APIs or downloading updates
- Lambda functions in VPCs requiring internet connectivity
- Multi-AZ architectures requiring high availability
Not ideal for
- AWS service access (use free VPC Gateway Endpoints instead)
- Development environments with limited budget (consider NAT instances)
- Very low traffic scenarios (<100 GB/month)
- Bidirectional internet access (use Internet Gateway for public subnets)
AWS NAT Gateway Free Tier
No free tier
No free allowance. Usage is billed from the first request.
New accounts · since July 2025
No free tier, on any account type. NAT Gateway bills from the first hour: about $0.045/hour (~$32/month) plus $0.045 per GB processed. New-account $200 credits can offset it, but there is no free allowance.
Watch out for
- Charged per hour even when idle (about $32/month)
- Plus $0.045 per GB of data processed through it
- A self-managed NAT instance or VPC endpoints can be cheaper for low traffic
Full service-by-service breakdown, the July 2025 changes, and the common billing traps in the AWS Free Tier reference.
AWS NAT Gateway Pricing Breakdown
Pricing Models
Standard NAT Gateway uses hourly + data processing charges. Provisioned NAT Gateway charges per Gbps-hour with FREE data processing.
- Standard - Hourly Charge ($0.045 - $0.093/hour): Always running, even with zero traffic. Varies by region (us-east-1: $0.045/hr, sa-east-1: $0.093/hr). Monthly base: ~$32.85 - $67.89 per NAT Gateway. Charged every hour the NAT Gateway exists, regardless of usage.
- Standard - Data Processing ($0.045 - $0.093/GB): Matches hourly rate in each region. Charged for every GB processed through the gateway, both inbound and outbound. Separate from AWS data transfer charges.
- Provisioned - Bandwidth ($1.076 - $1.481/Gbps-hour): Fixed capacity pricing for 1-10 Gbps throughput. Varies by region. Example: 2 Gbps in us-east-1 = $1,570.96/month. Data processing is FREE with provisioned model.
Regional Pricing Comparison
Pricing varies significantly by region. Choose cheaper regions when latency allows.
Region
us-east-1
Location
N. Virginia
Standard Hourly
$0.045
Data Processing
$0.045/GB
Provisioned
$1.076
Monthly Base
$32.85
Region
us-east-2
Location
Ohio
Standard Hourly
$0.045
Data Processing
$0.045/GB
Provisioned
N/A
Monthly Base
$32.85
Region
us-west-2
Location
Oregon
Standard Hourly
$0.045
Data Processing
$0.045/GB
Provisioned
$1.076
Monthly Base
$32.85
Region
eu-west-1
Location
Ireland
Standard Hourly
$0.048
Data Processing
$0.048/GB
Provisioned
$1.164
Monthly Base
$35.04
Region
ap-northeast-1
Location
Tokyo
Standard Hourly
$0.062
Data Processing
$0.062/GB
Provisioned
$1.481
Monthly Base
$45.26
Region
sa-east-1
Location
São Paulo
Standard Hourly
$0.093
Data Processing
$0.093/GB
Provisioned
N/A
Monthly Base
$67.89
Hidden Costs & Gotchas
NAT Gateway has several hidden costs that can significantly increase your bill beyond the advertised rates.
- Data Transfer Charges Stack: NAT Gateway data processing ($0.045/GB) is charged PLUS AWS data transfer OUT fees ($0.09/GB for internet traffic). Total: $0.135/GB for internet-bound traffic - 3x the advertised rate.
- Multi-AZ Architecture Multiplies Costs: AWS best practice requires one NAT Gateway per Availability Zone. A 3-AZ deployment costs 3x a single gateway: $98.55/month base in us-east-1.
- Always-On Billing: Hourly charges apply 24/7 even with zero traffic. Minimum $32.85/month in cheapest region just for having it exist.
- Cross-AZ Data Transfer: Traffic between NAT Gateway and resources in different AZs costs extra $0.01-0.02/GB each direction, even within the same region.
Real-World AWS NAT Gateway Costs
Small Development Environment
$17.70
• NAT hours: $10.95
• Data processing: $2.25
• Transfer OUT: $4.50
• Off-hours saving: 67%
Single AZ development environment with minimal internet access, 1 Standard NAT Gateway, 50 GB/month outbound, 8 hours/day usage (deleted when not needed)
Production Web Application (3-AZ HA)
$789.75
• NAT hours x3: $98.55
• Data processing: $230.40
• Transfer OUT: $460.80
• VPC endpoints save $230
Multi-AZ production environment with moderate traffic, 3 Standard NAT Gateways (one per AZ), 5 TB/month distributed across AZs, 24/7 uptime
High-Traffic Analytics Platform
$3,414.16
• Provisioned: $1,570.96
• Data processing: free
• Transfer OUT: $1,843.20
• Break-even ~34 TB/mo
Analytics platform with very high consistent outbound traffic, 1 Provisioned NAT Gateway (2 Gbps), 20 TB/month outbound, 24/7 uptime
8 AWS NAT Gateway Cost Optimization Tips
Use VPC Gateway Endpoints for AWS Services
S3 and DynamoDB traffic through NAT Gateway costs $0.045/GB processing + $0.09/GB transfer = $0.135/GB. VPC Gateway Endpoints are FREE. For 1TB monthly S3 access, save $138.24/month per NAT Gateway.
Delete NAT Gateways in Non-Production Environments
Dev/test NAT Gateways running 24/7 cost $32.85+/month even when idle. Use Infrastructure-as-Code (CloudFormation/Terraform) to create on-demand and delete when not needed. Save 67% for 8-hour workdays.
Right-Size Multi-AZ Architecture
Don't deploy multi-AZ if high availability isn't critical. Single NAT Gateway costs $32.85/month; 3-AZ costs $98.55/month base. For dev environments, single AZ may be sufficient.
Consider Provisioned for High-Throughput Workloads
If you consistently process >17-24 TB/month (varies by region), provisioned bandwidth with FREE data processing becomes cost-effective. Monitor usage patterns with CloudWatch before switching.
Choose Cost-Effective Regions
Regional pricing varies by 106%. If latency allows, deploy in cheaper regions: us-east-1/us-east-2/us-west-2 ($0.045/hr) vs sa-east-1 ($0.093/hr). Can save $420/year per gateway.
Use NAT Instances for Very Low Traffic
For <100 GB/month, EC2-based NAT instances on t3.micro ($0.0104/hr = $7.59/month) with free tier (first 12 months) can be cheaper than NAT Gateway ($32.85/month base).
Analyze Traffic with VPC Flow Logs
Enable VPC Flow Logs to identify traffic patterns. Look for AWS service traffic that could use endpoints, idle resources generating traffic, and opportunities to reduce unnecessary outbound connections.
Monitor NAT Gateway Costs in Real-Time
Track NAT Gateway spending across all regions and AZs with CostGoat. Get instant alerts when data processing costs spike unexpectedly or when idle gateways in dev environments are forgotten, preventing $400+ annual waste per forgotten NAT Gateway.
Start Tracking Your AWS Spending
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