What a Lightsail machine really costs per month

Lightsail is sold as "a server for a fixed monthly price", and in essence that is true: the plan includes the machine, its disk, an IP address and a data transfer quota. The problem is that almost nobody pays only for the plan. Over time you add an IP that was left loose, a few snapshots, an extra disk, a test database... and the bill for a "12-dollar" machine ends up being 30 or 40.

None of those charges is a trick: they are all on the price list. But they are switched on with one click and do not switch themselves off. Here is what each one is, roughly what it costs and, above all, a short review of your account to find what you are paying for without using.

All figures are approximate, in dollars and for a European region. The official list is on the Lightsail pricing page.

Step by step

1. Open the Lightsail bill and look at the total

   In the Lightsail console, your account menu (top right), go to Account and then the Billing tab. You will see the current month's spend broken down by type: instances, databases, storage, snapshots, data transfer. Note down the total and compare it with the sum of the plans of the machines you know you have. The difference is what we are going to look for.

2. Review the static IPs under Networking

   In the left-hand menu go to Networking. The static IPs you have reserved are listed there. Each one shows which machine it is attached to. The ones marked "Not attached" are charged by the hour and are of no use. If you are not going to use them in the next few days, delete them (three-dot button, Delete). Reserving a new one later is free and takes a minute; you will only lose that specific address.

3. Count the snapshots

   Go to Snapshots. There are two lists: manual and automatic. Each snapshot shows its size in GB. Add up the GB and multiply by about 0.05 dollars: that is what you pay per month to keep them. Delete the ones that no longer make sense (months-old versions of a machine you have reinstalled three times, tests, duplicates).

4. Look for loose disks and stopped machines

   Under Storage you will see the additional disks. The ones shown as "Not attached" are charged just as if they were connected to a machine. Decide whether to delete them or take a snapshot of the disk first.

   Go back to Instances and look at the ones in Stopped state. Lightsail charges them the same as if they were running. If they have been stopped for weeks, take a snapshot and delete the machine; we explain it further down.

5. Look at the databases, load balancers and containers

   These are three menus many people never open: Databases, Networking (the load balancers part) and Containers. Every item in there has its own fixed monthly price, independent of the machines. A test database that someone created to try out WordPress and never deleted costs more than the machine itself.

What the plan includes and what it does not

Each Lightsail plan is a closed bundle: memory, processor, an SSD disk of fixed size and a monthly data transfer quota. Linux plans go roughly from 3.50-5 dollars a month (half a GB or 1 GB of memory, 20-40 GB of disk) up to 160 dollars (32 GB of memory). Windows plans cost more because of the licence. The public IP the machine comes with when you create it is also included.

What the plan does not include and is charged separately:

• Static IPs that you reserve and do not attach to a machine.
• Snapshots, manual or automatic, per GB stored.
• Additional disks, per GB per month.
• Outbound data transfer above the quota.
• Managed databases, load balancers, container services and distributions (CDN).
• DNS zones beyond a certain number.

Unattached static IP: the classic

A static IP attached to a machine is free. An unattached static IP is charged by the hour, around 0.005 dollars an hour, about 3.60 dollars a month. It is not much, but it is money thrown away, and it happens all the time: you delete a machine, the IP stays reserved "just in case", and there it still is six months later.

Simple rule: no static IP without a machine for more than a week.

Snapshots: cheap individually, expensive when they pile up

A snapshot costs roughly 0.05 dollars per GB per month. A machine with a 40 GB disk, of which it uses 15, produces a snapshot of about 15 GB: less than a dollar a month. Fine. The problem is that snapshots do not expire. Ten manual snapshots of an 80 GB machine are more than 30 dollars a month, more than the machine.

Automatic snapshots are well designed: Lightsail keeps one per day and retains the last seven, deleting the oldest. They amount to seven times the used size of the disk. For a production machine they are worth it; for a test machine probably not.

Additional disks and traffic

Additional disks cost around 0.10 dollars per GB per month: a 100 GB disk is about 10 dollars. Like IPs, they are charged even if they are not connected to any machine. When you delete a machine, its additional disks are not deleted with it.

The data transfer included in the plan ranges from 1 to 7 TB a month, depending on the size. For a normal website it is more than enough. Those who go over are the ones serving video or large downloads, or making backups to outside AWS every night. The excess costs around 0.09 dollars per GB in European regions; 500 GB over is about 45 dollars. Note that the quota is for all your machines in the region added together, not for each one.

Stopped machines: charged all the same

This is the one that most surprises people coming from EC2. In EC2 you pay per hour running; in Lightsail you pay the monthly bundle as long as the machine exists, running or stopped. Stopping a Lightsail machine saves nothing; it only keeps it from consuming or receiving traffic.

If a machine is not going to be used for a while, the way to go is: snapshot, delete the machine, release or delete its static IP. You go from paying the full plan to paying for the GB of the snapshot. When you need it again, you create a new machine from the snapshot in a few minutes (you can even choose a bigger or smaller plan). The only thing that does not come back is the original public IP, unless you keep it as a static one, paying for it in the meantime.

Databases and load balancers: the great forgotten ones

Lightsail managed databases (MySQL and PostgreSQL) start at about 15 dollars a month and go up to more than 100 with high availability. They include automatic backups and their own disk. They are convenient, but a 1 GB database for a small website usually fits on the machine itself for zero extra dollars.

Load balancers cost around 18 dollars a month each, used or not. They make sense with two or more machines behind them; with a single one it is money going out for a certificate you could install on the machine for free. Container services and distributions (CDN) also have their own monthly price.

An example of a "12-dollar" account

A typical real account, with a single 12-dollar machine, may be paying like this (approximate figures):

• Machine plan: 12 dollars.
• Seven automatic snapshots of 20 GB: about 7 dollars.
• Four old manual snapshots of 20 GB: about 4 dollars.
• Two static IPs from deleted machines: about 7 dollars.
• A test database: 15 dollars.
• A 5-dollar machine stopped "for when it is needed": 5 dollars.

Total: about 50 dollars for a 12-dollar machine. With the review above it comes down to 19-20 (plan plus automatic snapshots) in a quarter of an hour.

What can go wrong