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AWS Lightsail sells fixed monthly bundles. A Linux server starts at $5 a month with a public IPv4 address, or $3.50 if it only needs IPv6, and each bundle includes a data transfer allowance. Managed databases start at $15 and container services at $7. The catch for India is the allowance: Mumbai bundles get half the transfer of Frankfurt ones, and overage there costs $0.13 per GB.
This post goes through each Lightsail product, the regional rules, and three monthly bills.
TL;DR
- Linux bundles run from $5 a month (0.5 GB memory, 2 vCPU, 20 GB SSD, 1 TB transfer) up to $1,764. IPv6-only bundles cost $1.50 to $4 less.
- Managed MySQL or PostgreSQL starts at $15 a month for 1 GB of memory and 40 GB of storage. High availability doubles the price.
- Container services start at $7 a month per node for 0.25 of a shared vCPU and 512 MB, with 500 GB of transfer per service.
- Mumbai, Sydney and four other regions get half the transfer allowance. Overage is $0.09 per GB in Frankfurt and $0.13 per GB in Mumbai.
- You manage the server yourself: updates, deploys and HTTPS on an instance are your job.
What do Lightsail instances cost?
Lightsail bills each bundle by the hour up to a monthly cap, so a server you delete mid-month costs a prorated amount. The general purpose Linux bundles:
| Price a month | Memory | vCPUs | SSD | Transfer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $5 | 0.5 GB | 2 | 20 GB | 1 TB |
| $7 | 1 GB | 2 | 40 GB | 2 TB |
| $12 | 2 GB | 2 | 60 GB | 3 TB |
| $24 | 4 GB | 2 | 80 GB | 4 TB |
| $44 | 8 GB | 2 | 160 GB | 5 TB |
| $84 | 16 GB | 4 | 320 GB | 6 TB |
| $164 | 32 GB | 8 | 640 GB | 7 TB |
The ladder keeps going to $1,764 for 256 GB and 64 vCPUs. Memory optimized bundles start at $74 for 16 GB, and compute optimized ones at $42 for 4 GB and 2 vCPUs.
Servers created on or before June 29, 2023 have one vCPU on the three smallest sizes.
A bundle bills while the server is running or stopped. Stopping a server keeps the charge going; only deleting it ends it.
IPv6-only and Windows bundles
| Bundle | With IPv4 | IPv6 only |
|---|---|---|
| 0.5 GB | $5 | $3.50 |
| 1 GB | $7 | $5 |
| 2 GB | $12 | $10 |
| 4 GB | $24 | $20 |
| 8 GB | $44 | $40 |
IPv6-only servers are cheaper because they skip the public IPv4 address. Visitors on IPv4-only networks can’t reach them directly, so most public sites keep the IPv4 bundle. Windows bundles start at $9.50 a month with IPv4 and $8 with IPv6 only.
A static IP is free while it is attached to an instance. Lightsail charges $0.005 an hour for one left unattached for more than an hour.
How does Lightsail data transfer work?
Every bundle includes a monthly allowance, and both inbound and outbound traffic count toward it. Past the allowance, Lightsail charges only for outbound traffic to the internet, to another region, or to AWS resources over a public IP. Traffic between instances over private IPs in the same region is free.
Allowances pool across instances of the same bundle in a region. Two $5 servers share 2 TB. Deleting a server and creating a new one does not reset what you used that month.
| Region | Transfer allowance | Overage per GB |
|---|---|---|
| Europe (Frankfurt) | Full allowance | $0.09 |
| Europe (Ireland) | Full allowance | $0.09 |
| Europe (London) | Full allowance | $0.09 |
| Asia Pacific (Mumbai) | Half allowance | $0.13 |
| Asia Pacific (Singapore) | Full allowance | $0.12 |
Half the allowance in Mumbai means the $12 bundle includes 1.5 TB there instead of 3 TB. The same applies in Sydney, Jakarta, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Sao Paulo. For most small sites either amount is plenty. A media-heavy app serving Indian users runs out sooner and pays more per GB once it does.
What do Lightsail managed databases cost?
Lightsail runs MySQL or PostgreSQL for you, with automatic backups and point-in-time restore over the last 7 days at no extra charge.
| Memory | Cores | Storage | Transfer | Standard | High availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 GB | 1 | 40 GB | 100 GB | $15 | $30 |
| 2 GB | 1 | 80 GB | 100 GB | $30 | $60 |
| 4 GB | 2 | 120 GB | 100 GB | $60 | $120 |
| 8 GB | 2 | 240 GB | 200 GB | $115 | $230 |
| 16 GB | 4 | 480 GB | 300 GB | $245 | $490 |
| 32 GB | 8 | 960 GB | 400 GB | $490 | $980 |
High availability adds a standby database in a second Availability Zone with synchronous replication and failover, and it costs twice the standard plan.
Two limits matter when you size a database. Storage comes fixed with the plan, so more disk means a bigger plan. And you can’t scale a Lightsail database down. To move up you restore a snapshot into a larger plan, and manual snapshots bill at $0.05 per GB a month.
For the same job on full AWS, AWS RDS pricing explained covers instance hours, storage and Multi-AZ.
What do Lightsail container services cost?
A container service runs Docker images behind an HTTPS endpoint with load balancing built in. You pick a power (the size of each node) and a scale (how many nodes), and the price is the two multiplied.
| Power | vCPU | Memory | Price per node a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nano | 0.25 (shared) | 512 MB | $7 |
| Micro | 0.25 (shared) | 1 GB | $10 |
| Small | 0.5 (shared) | 1 GB | $15 |
| Medium | 1 | 2 GB | $40 |
| Large | 2 | 4 GB | $80 |
| XLarge | 4 | 8 GB | $160 |
Two Micro nodes cost $20 a month. Each service includes 500 GB of transfer, and overage starts at $0.09 per GB depending on region.
A disabled container service still bills. Only deleting it stops the charge. Images come from a public registry or get pushed to Lightsail from your machine; private registries other than Lightsail’s own are not supported.
What else shows up on a Lightsail bill?
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Load balancer | $18 a month, certificates included |
| Block storage | $0.10 per GB a month, from 8 GB |
| Instance and disk snapshots | $0.05 per GB a month |
| Object storage | $1 (5 GB), $3 (100 GB) or $5 (250 GB) a month |
| DNS | Free for up to 6 zones and 3 million queries a month |
The load balancer is the usual way to get managed HTTPS in front of instances. On a single server without one, you set up certificates yourself.
Three worked Lightsail bills
| Setup | Monthly cost |
|---|---|
| WordPress on a $7 bundle with a snapshot of its 40 GB disk | about $9 |
| App on a $12 bundle plus a 1 GB managed database | $27 |
| Same app with a high availability database and two instances behind a load balancer | $72 |
The first is the classic Lightsail use: one server, the database on the same disk, and a snapshot for backup. The second moves the database to a managed plan. The third is $24 for two $12 servers, $30 for the HA database and $18 for the load balancer.
None of these include overage. In Frankfurt the $12 bundle covers 3 TB, so most apps never see an extra line. In Mumbai it covers 1.5 TB and extra traffic bills at $0.13 per GB.
When to stay on Lightsail
Stay if you are comfortable running a Linux server and your app fits on one or two of them. The bundles include a lot of transfer for the price, and a $12 server with 2 GB of memory is hard to beat on raw resources. If you already use other AWS services, Lightsail sits in the same account and can export a snapshot to EC2 when you outgrow it.
The trade is the work around the server. OS updates, deploys, process restarts and HTTPS on an instance are yours to run.
What does the same app cost on Ownkube?
Ownkube runs the app and its Postgres for you from a prepaid wallet. You push code, and the platform builds it, deploys it and gives it an *.ownkube.app hostname with HTTPS. Here is the second worked bill, an app with a small managed database, in the Germany region:
| Line | Monthly cost |
|---|---|
| App at 0.5 vCPU and 1 GiB | $13.50 |
| Postgres on a DB 1 box | $8 |
| 10 GB of database storage | $2.50 |
| 100 GB of outbound transfer at $0.02 per GB | $2 |
| Total | about $26 |
Compute bills about $18 per vCPU a month and $4.50 per GiB, by the minute. In the Mumbai region transfer is $0.13 per GB from the first GB, so the same 100 GB adds $13 instead of $2. Ownkube has no included transfer allowance, so a transfer-heavy app in Mumbai costs more on Ownkube than on a Lightsail bundle.
Some things cost less. Sleep is opt-in: an idle app bills nothing for compute, and a sleeping database bills storage only. Database storage bills separately at $0.25 per GB, so the disk size is not tied to the box. Backups are 7-day point-in-time restore on Personal and Team, turned on per database.
The wallet sets the ceiling. Pay as you go starts with a $5 top-up, Personal is $5 a month and loads $5 of credit, and Team is $20 a month and loads $20. Credit never expires. When it runs out, apps pause and keep their data until you top up.
Checklist before you pick
- Will you patch and maintain the server yourself, or do you want deploys from a git push?
- Which region are your users in, and how much outbound traffic do you send each month?
- Does the database need more disk than the plan includes?
- Do you need high availability, and is twice the database price worth it?
- Will the app sit idle for long stretches?
To price the same stack on other hosts, use the cloud cost calculator. For managed databases side by side, see managed Postgres pricing.
FAQ
How much does AWS Lightsail cost per month?
From $5 a month for a Linux server with a public IPv4 address, or $3.50 with IPv6 only. A small app with a managed database usually runs $27 a month: a $12 server and a $15 database.
Is AWS Lightsail free?
Lightsail is part of the AWS Free Tier, so new accounts can start without paying. Past the free tier offer, every bundle bills at its monthly price.
Does Lightsail charge for stopped instances?
Yes. An instance bills while it is running or stopped. Delete it to stop the charge, and take a snapshot first if you want to keep the disk.
Is Lightsail cheaper in Mumbai or Frankfurt?
The bundle prices are the same. Mumbai bundles include half the transfer allowance, and overage there is $0.13 per GB against $0.09 in Frankfurt.
Can Lightsail run Docker containers?
Yes, through container services. They start at $7 a month per node for 0.25 of a shared vCPU and 512 MB, with 500 GB of transfer per service.
What is the difference between Lightsail and EC2?
Lightsail bundles the server, disk and transfer into one monthly price. EC2 bills each of those separately and offers far more instance types. Lightsail can export a snapshot to EC2 when you outgrow it.
Where Ownkube fits
Lightsail is a good price for a server you are happy to run. If you would rather push code and have the app and its Postgres run for you in Mumbai or Germany, with a prepaid wallet as the ceiling on spend, Ownkube is built for that. Deploy my first app.