CloudWatch Log Cost Calculator
Split a CloudWatch Logs bill into ingestion, archived storage and Logs Insights data scanned, and compare log classes.
Inputs
Archived logs are compressed, typically to 10-20% of raw size.
Estimated Monthly Cost
$769.25
Ingestion Cost
$750.00
Archived Storage Cost
$6.75
Logs Insights Query Cost
$12.50
Data Held at Steady State
225.0GB
Share of Bill From Ingestion
97%
Step by step
Values used
Log data ingested per day = 50 GB; Log class = Standard — full features and Live Tail; Retention period = 30 days; Archived size as a share of ingested = 15 %; Logs Insights queries per month = 500 queries; Data scanned per query = 5 GB; Standard ingestion price per GB = 0.5000 USD; Infrequent Access ingestion price per GB = 0.2500 USD; Archived storage price per GB-month = 0.0300 USD; Logs Insights price per GB scanned = 0.0050 USD
CloudWatch Log Cost
cost = ingested GB × ingest price + (daily GB × retention days × compressed share) × storage price + queries × GB scanned × query price.
Retention footprint
steady-state stored GB = daily ingest × retention days × compressed share — dropping retention cuts this linearly.
Estimated Monthly Cost
= 769.25
Ingestion Cost
= 750.00
Archived Storage Cost
= 6.75
Logs Insights Query Cost
= 12.50
Data Held at Steady State
= 225.0 GB
Share of Bill From Ingestion
= 97
How it works
CloudWatch Logs has three meters and ingestion almost always dominates, because it is priced roughly sixteen times higher per GB than a month of storage. Logs Insights bills on data scanned, so a broad query over a month of logs costs real money even when it returns three lines — narrowing the time range and the log group is the cheapest optimization available. Prices vary by region and by log class, so confirm the current figures before budgeting. Debug logging left on in production is one of the most common surprise line items in AWS: a chatty Lambda printing a full request payload can generate more CloudWatch cost than the compute it was logging about.
Formulas
CloudWatch Log Cost
cost = ingested GB × ingest price + (daily GB × retention days × compressed share) × storage price + queries × GB scanned × query price.
- ingested GB
- Raw bytes accepted by PutLogEvents, before compression
- compressed share
- How much smaller archived logs are than the raw stream
- GB scanned
- Bytes a Logs Insights query reads, not the bytes it returns
Retention footprint
steady-state stored GB = daily ingest × retention days × compressed share — dropping retention cuts this linearly.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is CloudWatch Log Cost calculated?
cost = ingested GB × ingest price + (daily GB × retention days × compressed share) × storage price + queries × GB scanned × query price. CloudWatch Logs has three meters and ingestion almost always dominates, because it is priced roughly sixteen times higher per GB than a month of storage. Logs Insights bills on data scanned, so a broad query over a month of logs costs real money even when it returns three lines — narrowing the time range and the log group is the cheapest optimization available. Prices vary by region and by log class, so confirm the current figures before budgeting.
Why does CloudWatch Log Cost matter?
Debug logging left on in production is one of the most common surprise line items in AWS: a chatty Lambda printing a full request payload can generate more CloudWatch cost than the compute it was logging about.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 10 inputs: Log data ingested per day, Log class, Retention period, Archived size as a share of ingested, Logs Insights queries per month, Data scanned per query, Standard ingestion price per GB, Infrequent Access ingestion price per GB, Archived storage price per GB-month, Logs Insights price per GB scanned. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.
Is Infrequent Access worth switching to?
It roughly halves ingestion price, which is the dominant meter, at the cost of Live Tail, metric filters, subscription filters and some Insights features. It fits high-volume logs you keep for audit or occasional debugging, not the logs your alarms are built on.
Does shortening retention reduce the bill much?
It only reduces the storage meter, which is usually a small slice. If ingestion is 95% of your bill, cutting retention from 90 to 30 days barely moves the total — reducing log volume or moving to Infrequent Access does.