Cloud Egress Cost Calculator
The hidden bill for getting data OUT of the cloud — egress charges after the free tier, per month and per year.
How it works
cost = max(0, GB out − free tier) × rate per GB
Cloud providers usually let you upload and store data cheaply, then charge to move it back out — egress. That asymmetry is deliberate: it makes storage look cheap and quietly bills the traffic. Only data beyond the free tier is charged, at a per-GB rate that varies with volume and destination. Because a data-heavy app can rack up serious egress, this is the line item that most often surprises teams and drives architecture choices like CDNs and keeping compute next to storage.
Worked example
Serving 5,000 GB out with a 100 GB free tier at $0.09/GB: billable is 5,000 − 100 = 4,900 GB, so the bill is 4,900 × $0.09 = $441 a month, or $5,292 a year.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the cloud charge for egress but not ingress?
Uploading (ingress) is typically free because it grows the data you store and pay to keep. Downloading (egress) is metered because that is where providers recover network costs — and it raises the price of moving to a competitor.
How can I reduce egress costs?
Put a CDN in front so repeat downloads are served from cache at lower rates, keep compute in the same region as the data so internal transfer stays free, compress payloads, and cache aggressively. Some providers waive egress to their own CDN.
Does data transfer between regions count as egress?
Usually yes — cross-region and sometimes cross-zone transfer is billed, often at a lower rate than internet egress. Traffic within a single zone is typically free, which is why co-locating services matters.
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This calculator is for educational purposes. Double-check important results before acting on them.