Purchase Savings Plans to reduce your AWS on-demand costs on EC2, Fargate and Lambda.
Difficulty
Commitment of compute
Description
We identified potential savings with Compute Savings Plans to reduce your AWS on-demand costs of EC2, Fargate and Lambda service. Savings Plans are a flexible pricing model that offer low prices on AWS usage, in exchange for a commitment to a consistent amount of usage, measured in $/hour.
Selection Criteria
Have on-demand spend in EC2, Fargate, or Lambda service
Analysis done with your historical usage patterns with a look back period of 30 days
On-demand spend exceeds the minimum threshold to make a commitment financially worthwhile
⚠️ Warning — Irregular or seasonal workloads: Compute Savings Plans are less suitable when usage fluctuates significantly. Verify usage consistency before committing.
Expected Saving
Compute Savings Plans offer discounts over On-Demand rates depending on commitment term and payment option:
Payment option | 1-year | 3-year |
No Upfront | ~17–28% | ~40–50% |
Partial Upfront | ~20–32% | ~42–54% |
All Upfront | ~22–35% | ~44–56% |
Savings apply across EC2, Lambda, and Fargate usage in all regions.
Example: $1,000/month of combined OnDemand EC2 + Lambda + Fargate spend:
1-year No Upfront plan → commit ~$0.96/hr → ~$200–$280/month saved (~20–28%)
3-year No Upfront plan → ~$400–$500/month saved (~40–50%)
Operational Impact
Downtime: None — this is a billing model change only. No infrastructure is modified.
⚠️ Warning — Irrevocable financial commitment: Savings Plans cannot be cancelled once purchased. The committed amount is billed regardless of actual usage.
⚠️ Warning — Under-utilization risk: If actual usage falls below the committed $/hr amount, the unused portion is still billed at the committed rate. Size the commitment conservatively.
⚠️ Warning — Compute SP scope: Covers EC2, Fargate, and Lambda across all regions and instance families. Ensure the recommended commitment amount reflects the combined cross-service usage, not just EC2.
Recovery: No cancellation is possible. The plan runs to expiration (1 or 3 years). If usage increases, additional Savings Plans can be purchased on top.