Methodology
CloudCostKit tools are built for planning: fast, transparent estimates you can validate against billing and metrics. This page explains how to use the calculators so results stay reliable under real traffic.
What these calculators are and are not
- Planning models: directional estimates focused on main drivers (requests, GB transferred, GB-month stored, instance-hours, and vCPU or memory hours).
- Not official quotes: providers bill by region, tiering, free allowances, rounding, and product-specific rules.
- Bounded intentionally: each calculator states included and excluded items to reduce double counting.
How to get a useful estimate in 10 minutes
- Pick one workload and one environment (mixing environments usually breaks assumptions).
- Start with measurable drivers: requests/month, GB/month, instance-hours, and GB-month stored.
- Use effective blended rates first, then refine with tier and region detail.
- Add multipliers: retries, fan-out, cache hit rate, and incident windows.
- Validate against a real week of metrics and billing before optimization work.
Boundary and unit quality checks
- GB vs GiB: billing usually uses decimal GB while tooling may show binary GiB. Convert explicitly with the Units converter.
- Request units: pricing units differ (per 10k, 100k, or 1M). Unit mismatch creates large errors.
- Origin egress vs CDN bandwidth: cache fill and edge delivery are separate line items.
- Ingestion vs retention vs scan: observability often has three distinct billing drivers.
Validation workflow
- Define primary driver metrics for each line item.
- Compare estimates to the first real bill and adjust drivers before rates.
- Audit incident windows separately to capture retry-driven spikes.
- Maintain baseline and peak scenarios for each workload.
Editorial and update standards
- Every page must include unique decision guidance, failure patterns, and validation steps.
- Similar slugs must keep distinct intent and user outcomes.
- Calculator pages and guide pages are maintained as pairs for explanation plus execution.
- High-impression pages are reviewed first during monthly refresh cycles.
Data and pricing source policy
Most calculators accept user-provided pricing because rates vary by region and discount model. Official pricing pages and billing exports are the source of truth.
- AWS pricing overview: aws.amazon.com/pricing
- Azure pricing overview: azure.microsoft.com/pricing
- Google Cloud pricing overview: cloud.google.com/pricing
Privacy
Calculator inputs are processed in your browser. See Privacy Policy and Cookie Notice.