NetTools

Cloud Compute Cost Calculator

A quick monthly cost estimate for a cloud compute instance — the starting point before reserved or spot pricing.

Hours used per month

Price per hour ($)

Monthly cost ($)

70.08

730 hours is roughly a full month running 24/7 — reduce this if the instance is stopped part of the time, or check reserved/spot pricing for savings.

What you entered

Hours used per month: 730Price per hour ($): 0.096

1
Cost = hours used × price per hour
730 hrs × $0.096= $70.08/mo

Result

Monthly cost ($): 70.08

730 hours at $0.096/hr costs about $70.08 per month.

Monthly cost of an always-on cloud instance

A month of continuous running is about 730 hours. These rows use representative on-demand rates for general-purpose instance sizes.

Instance class	Hourly rate	Hours/month	Monthly cost
Small (2 vCPU)	$0.0416	730	$30.37
Medium (2 vCPU, 8 GB)	$0.096	730	$70.08
Large (4 vCPU, 16 GB)	$0.192	730	$140.16
XLarge (8 vCPU, 32 GB)	$0.384	730	$280.32
GPU instance	$1.006	730	$734.38
Medium, business hours only	$0.096	200	$19.20

The last row is the same instance run 200 hours instead of 730: shutting non-production instances outside business hours cuts their cost by roughly three quarters. Reserved and spot pricing cut it further.

730 hours is the 'always-on' baseline

There are about 730 hours in an average month (365.25 days × 24 ÷ 12) — use that figure for an instance running continuously, or a lower number if it's stopped part of the time (like a dev environment shut down overnight).

On-demand is usually the most expensive option

Reserved instances (committing to a term) and spot/preemptible instances (using spare capacity) can cost significantly less than on-demand pricing for predictable or interruption-tolerant workloads.

Frequently asked questions

I'm running a t3.medium at $0.0416/hr 24/7 — what's my monthly bill?

About $30.37/month (730 hours x $0.0416). A 1-year reserved instance for the same type costs roughly $19/month — a 37% savings for committing to the term.

How many hours are in a month for cloud billing?

Cloud providers typically use 730 hours (365.25 days x 24 / 12). For an always-on instance, that's the number to use. Dev environments shut down nights and weekends might run only 250-300 hours.

How does this compare to the cloud storage cost calculator?

This estimates compute costs (virtual machine hours). The storage cost calculator estimates data storage costs. Your total cloud bill combines both, plus networking, data transfer, and managed service charges.

When are spot instances worth using?

Spot instances cost 60-90% less than on-demand but can be terminated with 2 minutes notice. They work well for batch processing, CI/CD, data analysis, and any workload that can checkpoint and resume. Not suitable for databases or user-facing web servers.