AWS EC2 按需定价

Question

I'm new to AWS EC2, and I wanted to deploy a web server in it. However I'm concerned about the price because the app will only be used for a few hours per day and I saw in the AWS Calculator that there's a Utilization per month as part of the billing computation https://calculator.aws/#/createCalculator/EC2 .

What does the Utilization mean? Let's say I have a running EC2 instance. How do I reduce the charges?

Does it depend on the amount of times the server APIs are invoked in the app? So for the hours that the APIs are NOT being invoked, I won't get charged?

Or

Will it keep on charging me as long as the EC2 instance is running so I should shut it down during idle hours to save up on costs?

Answer 1

Amazon EC2 is charged at an hourly price . The price varies by the Instance Type and the Operating System. Basically, machines with more memory and more CPUs are more expensive, and Windows is more expensive than Linux. There is also a charge for Data Transfer, which is traffic that goes out to the Inte.net.

If you have a small application, an alternative would be to use Amazon Lightsail, which offers a simple monthly price for both the computer and the traffic.

Answer 2

As long as the servers are up and running you will be charged for it. So yes, you should shut it down during idle hours if you want to save costs.

If you just want to try it out for a simple Rest API server, you can create a new account for a 12-month free tier that will basically entitle you to the smallest 24/7 running (750 hours/month) server.

I've used this server for one of my smaller projects, and it was enough to serve about 100 users in total, with about maximum 10 people coming in and out time to time per day. Had no problem with it.

Answer 3

I've added my response to each of your questions -

What does the Utilization mean? Let's say I have a running EC2 instance. How do I reduce the charges? - You will be charged for the time you let that EC2 instance running, start with a t2.micro under free tier account, you are allowed to run it for 750 hours a month!

Does it depend on the amount of times the server APIs are invoked in the app? So for the hours that the APIs are NOT being invoked, I won't get charged? - No, for EC2, it's the runtime and not the API queries.

Will it keep on charging me as long as the EC2 instance is running so I should shut it down during idle hours to save up on costs? - Shut it down, I would also to setup billing alarms to get an alert once my bill crosses a certain threshold