AWS NAT Gateway cost calculator
Hourly and per-GB cost of your NAT gateways at us-east-1 prices ($0.045 an hour and $0.045 per GB processed), and what S3 and DynamoDB gateway endpoints would save. Prices for other regions are below.
How AWS NAT Gateway pricing works
A NAT gateway lets instances in private subnets reach the internet and AWS services. AWS bills two things: hours, for every hour the gateway exists whether or not traffic flows (a partial hour counts as a full one), and data processed, per GB passing through it in either direction.
The hourly charge makes idle gateways expensive in accounts with many VPCs and zones. The per-GB charge is the one that grows with traffic, and a large part of that traffic often goes to AWS services that can be reached without the NAT gateway.
| Region | Per hour | Per GB processed | One gateway, 730 hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| US East (N. Virginia) (us-east-1) | $0.045 | $0.045 | $32.85 |
| US West (Oregon) (us-west-2) | $0.045 | $0.045 | $32.85 |
| Europe (Ireland) (eu-west-1) | $0.048 | $0.048 | $35.04 |
| Europe (Frankfurt) (eu-central-1) | $0.052 | $0.052 | $37.96 |
| Asia Pacific (Singapore) (ap-southeast-1) | $0.059 | $0.059 | $43.07 |
Standard (zonal) public NAT gateways. Data transfer charges are extra.
Worked example: three zones, 5 TB a month
One NAT gateway in each of 3 Availability Zones in US East (N. Virginia), processing 5,000 GB a month between them.
Hours = 3 × 730 × $0.045 = $98.55
Data = 5,000 GB × $0.045 = $225.00
Total = $323.55 a month, before data transfer
If half of that traffic went to S3 or DynamoDB, gateway endpoints would take $112.50 a month off the data line.
Ways to lower NAT Gateway cost
- Add S3 and DynamoDB gateway endpoints to every VPC with private subnets. They cost nothing and take that traffic off the NAT gateway.
- Use interface endpoints for busy AWS services such as ECR, CloudWatch Logs and Secrets Manager, where the traffic is large enough that their hourly charge is outweighed by the lower per-GB rate.
- Remove gateways nobody uses. Dev and test VPCs often keep a gateway per zone running around the clock.
- Keep traffic in its zone. Route each subnet to the NAT gateway in its own zone to avoid cross-zone data transfer.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an AWS NAT Gateway cost?
In US East (N. Virginia), $0.045 for every hour it exists ($32.85 for a 730-hour month) plus $0.045 per GB of data it processes. Of the regions on this page, US East (N. Virginia) and US West (Oregon) are the cheapest at $0.045 an hour, and Asia Pacific (Singapore) is the most expensive at $0.059.
Is NAT Gateway data processing charged in both directions?
Yes. AWS charges data processing for each gigabyte that passes through the NAT gateway regardless of the traffic’s source or destination, and standard AWS data transfer charges apply on top.
Do I need a NAT gateway in every Availability Zone?
It is common, for two reasons. If resources in several zones share one NAT gateway and that zone fails, the others lose outbound access; and traffic that crosses zones to reach the gateway adds data transfer charges. AWS suggests keeping heavy senders in the same zone as their NAT gateway, or creating one in each zone that has resources. Each extra gateway adds its hourly charge.
Are VPC gateway endpoints free?
Yes. AWS charges no hourly or data processing fee for gateway endpoints, which exist for Amazon S3 and DynamoDB. Traffic to those services from private subnets can use them instead of the NAT gateway.
Why is my NAT gateway bill so high?
Often because traffic to AWS services goes through it: S3 and DynamoDB reads and writes, container image pulls from ECR, logs sent to CloudWatch, and calls to other AWS APIs. Each GB of that pays the data processing rate. VPC Flow Logs, or the NatGateway-Bytes usage type in Cost Explorer, show how much traffic there is and where it goes.
What does this calculator leave out?
Data transfer charges (for example to the internet or across Availability Zones), Elastic IP addresses, interface endpoint charges, and Regional NAT gateways, which AWS offers alongside the standard per-zone kind. The calculator uses us-east-1 prices; the table shows other regions.
Prices are public list prices in US dollars, before tax, retrieved on 2026-09-19 from the AWS Price List API (AmazonEC2) and the Amazon VPC pricing page. They change; check the source before committing to a number. Your bill also depends on discounts, credits and usage this calculator does not see.