Calculator

NAT Gateway Cost Calculator

See how much you can save by replacing NAT Gateway with VPC endpoints for S3, DynamoDB, and other AWS services. Engineers routinely cut 80–91% off their NAT bills.

Current Setup
10,000 GB/month
$450.00/mo at $0.045/GB
3 AZs
$98.55/mo fixed cost
730 hrs
730 = full month (24×30.4)
Traffic Breakdown

What percentage of your NAT traffic goes to AWS services? Gateway endpoints (S3, DynamoDB) are free.

60 %
Gateway endpoint → FREE (no data charge)
15 %
Gateway endpoint → FREE (no data charge)
10 %
Interface endpoints → $0.01/AZ/hr (replaces data cost)
Remaining NAT traffic15%
Still priced at $0.045/GB through NAT
Optimized Architecture
VPC
EC2 / LambdaECS Tasks
→ S3 Gateway
FREE
→ DynamoDB GW
FREE
→ Interface EP
$0.01/AZ/hr
→ NAT Gateway
$0.045/GB
✅ 85% of traffic avoiding NAT charges
Estimated Monthly Savings
$459.15
84% reduction
$5.5k/year in avoided NAT costs
Before
$548.55/mo
NAT hourly$98.55
Data transfer$450.00
After
$89.40/mo
VPC endpoints$21.90
Remaining NAT$67.50
Savings Breakdown
S3 gateway (free)60%
DynamoDB (free)15%
Interface endpoints10%
Remaining NAT15%
How to Get There
  1. 1Create S3 + DynamoDB Gateway endpoints (free, 2 min)
  2. 2Update route tables in each AZ to point to endpoints
  3. 3Deploy Interface endpoints for ECR, Secrets Manager, etc.
  4. 4Monitor flow logs to confirm traffic shift
🎯

Gateway Endpoints Are Free

S3 and DynamoDB support Gateway VPC endpoints at zero cost. Traffic routes through AWS's private network — no data processing fee, no per-hour charge. This is the lowest-hanging fruit in AWS networking.

📊

Interface Endpoints Cost Less Than NAT

PrivateLink Interface endpoints cost $0.01/AZ/hr + $0.01/GB. Compare that to NAT Gateway at $0.045/hr + $0.045/GB. For high-volume services like ECR, Secrets Manager, and SSM, endpoints win decisively.

🚀

The 91% Savings Scenario

Teams running Kubernetes with ECR image pulls through NAT Gateway routinely see 80–91% savings after optimization. A 10TB/month cluster at $900+/month drops to under $100 with proper endpoint routing.