AWS Cost & Infrastructure
All prices are for the eu-north-1 (Stockholm) region. Prices are ex. VAT / USD, billed per second for EC2 instances. Always verify against the AWS Pricing Calculator before planning.
NOTE: Benchmark figures for compute per WES sample are pending. This page will be updated once production runs in eu-north-1 are available. The OVHcloud benchmark (~1.10 € / sample) is provided as a reference.
Pricing References
| Service | AWS Documentation |
|---|---|
| EC2 instances | EC2 Pricing (eu-north-1) |
| EKS control plane | EKS Pricing |
| EFS storage | EFS Pricing |
| EBS volumes | EBS Pricing |
| S3 object storage | S3 Pricing |
| ECR registry | ECR Pricing |
| ALB / Network LB | ELB Pricing |
| Data transfer | EC2 Data Transfer Pricing |
| Spot instances | EC2 Spot Pricing |
| Full pricing page | AWS Pricing Calculator |
Baseline Cost (Always-On Infrastructure)
Estimated cost for all resources running 24/7 with zero tasks executing.
| Component | Service / Size | Rate | Monthly (~730 h) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EKS control plane | — | $0.10/hr | ~$73 | Fixed per cluster |
| System node | t4g.medium (2 vCPU, 4 GB) |
~$0.0336/hr | ~$24.55 | Hosts Karpenter + Funnel server |
| EBS (system node OS disk) | gp3, 20 GB | $0.0928/GB-month | ~$1.86 | |
| Application Load Balancer | — | $0.018/hr + LCU | ~$13–20 | For Funnel TES endpoint |
| EFS shared storage | Standard 1-AZ, 50 GB | $0.16/GB-month | ~$8 | Shared workflow scratch space |
| ECR private registry | ~20 GB stored images | $0.10/GB-month | ~$2 | Container image registry |
| S3 standing data | ~5 GB | $0.023/GB-month | ~$0.12 | Reference data, logs |
| Total baseline | ~$122–130 / month |
EKS control plane at $0.10/hr = $73/month is the dominant fixed cost item, contrasting with OVH MKS Free tier (€0). AWS Standard tier has no free control plane option.
Data transfer: Outbound to the internet is charged at $0.09/GB (first 10 TB/month) in eu-north-1. This is a significant difference from OVHcloud where egress is free. Factor this into per-sample costs if analysis results are downloaded externally.
Per-Sample Variable Cost (WES Analysis) — Estimates Pending
A typical WES sample generates ~50 GB of intermediate data, with ~5 GB final results, completing in approximately 2 hours.
Compute (Karpenter workers — Spot)
| Component | Estimated Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Karpenter worker nodes (Spot) | ~$0.80–1.20 | Pending benchmark; reference OVH: ~€1.10 |
| EBS volumes (temp, per-task) | ~$0.02–0.05 | ~100 GB × 2 h × $0.0000001268/GiB/s (gp3) |
Storage (S3)
| Component | Estimated Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| S3 during analysis (50 GB × 2 h) | ~$0.001 | Negligible |
| S3 egress — results to internet (5 GB) | ~$0.45 | $0.09/GB × 5 GB — significant vs OVH (free) |
| S3 long-term retention (5 GB cold archive) | ~$0.005 / month | S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval: $0.004/GB-month |
Per-Sample Total (Estimate)
| Scenario | Estimated Cost |
|---|---|
| Analysis only (results in S3, no download) | ~$0.85–1.25 |
| + Download 5 GB results to external | ~$1.30–1.70 |
| + 1 month Glacier archive (5 GB) | +~$0.02 |
Long-Term Archive Accumulation (6 000 Samples / Year)
Using S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval ($0.004/GB-month), 5 GB per sample retained.
| End of Year | Samples Archived | Total Stored | Monthly Rate | Annual Cost | Cumulative Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 000 | 30 TB | ~$120 | ~$720 | ~$720 |
| 2 | 12 000 | 60 TB | ~$240 | ~$2 160 | ~$2 880 |
| 3 | 18 000 | 90 TB | ~$360 | ~$3 600 | ~$6 480 |
| 5 | 30 000 | 150 TB | ~$600 | ~$6 480 | ~$18 000 |
| 10 | 60 000 | 300 TB | ~$1 200 | ~$13 680 | ~$72 000 |
Glacier Deep Archive ($0.00099/GB-month) would reduce the 10-year total to ~$18 000, but retrieval takes 12 hours (standard) and costs $0.0025/GB. Suitable for compliance archives not expected to be retrieved.
Cost Scaling (Estimates)
| Samples / Month | Compute Cost | Baseline | Total | Effective Cost / Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | ~$10 | $125 | ~$135 | ~$13.50 |
| 50 | ~$50 | $125 | ~$175 | ~$3.50 |
| 100 | ~$100 | $125 | ~$225 | ~$2.25 |
| 500 | ~$500 | $125 | ~$625 | ~$1.25 |
| 1 000 | ~$1 000 | $125 | ~$1 125 | ~$1.13 |
Compute cost estimates are preliminary. Benchmark against production runs.
Cost Optimization Notes
- Spot instances: Karpenter on AWS natively supports Spot with interruption handling. 60–70% savings over On-Demand. See Quota Guide for required quota increases.
- EKS control plane cost: At $73/month this is unavoidable — factor it into per-sample amortization. At 1 000 samples/month it adds ~$0.07/sample.
- Egress charges: Unlike OVH (free egress), AWS charges $0.09/GB out to internet. Keep analysis consumers (Cromwell, downstream tools) within the same AWS region to minimize data transfer costs.
- Graviton instances:
c7g/c6g(Graviton) are ~20% cheaper than equivalent Intelc6iin eu-north-1 and available for EKS worker nodes. Bioinformatics tools compiled for x86 run via Rosetta-equivalent on arm64; verify tool containers supportlinux/arm64. - S3 Intelligent-Tiering: For intermediate results with uncertain access patterns, use S3 Intelligent-Tiering to auto-move data to cheaper storage classes after 30/90 days.
- Savings Plans: EKS-managed node Savings Plans (Compute Savings Plans) apply to Karpenter-managed EC2 instances. A 1-year Compute Savings Plan for the system node yields ~20% savings.