EKS Pricing Calculator - Compare Auto Mode vs EC2 Node Costs

EKS Auto Mode lets AWS handle node provisioning, patching, scaling, and Kubernetes version upgrades automatically. You pay EC2 instance costs plus an Auto Mode charge (billed per-second with a 1-minute minimum). This is ideal for teams that want Kubernetes without infrastructure management.

EC2 launch type gives you full control over nodes using managed node groups or self-managed nodes. You manage patching, scaling, and upgrades yourself. There's no additional node fee beyond EC2 costs. Best for teams with specific infrastructure requirements.

EKS charges a cluster fee of $0.10/hour for Kubernetes versions in standard support (first 14 months). After standard support ends, you can use extended support for $0.50/hour per cluster, providing an additional 12 months of updates. This fee applies regardless of the number of nodes - it's per cluster, not per node.

EKS Provisioned Control Plane offers pre-allocated capacity for demanding workloads. The standard tier scales automatically at no extra cost. For AI/ML training, multi-tenant SaaS, or high API call volumes, you can choose XL ($1.65/hr), 2XL ($3.40/hr), 4XL ($6.90/hr), or 8XL ($13.90/hr) tiers for guaranteed control plane capacity and performance.

EKS Auto Mode pricing includes three components: cluster fee ($0.10/hr standard or $0.50/hr extended), EC2 instance cost (based on instance type and pricing model), and an Auto Mode charge that varies by instance type. For example, an m5.large in us-east-1 has an Auto Mode charge of approximately $0.01152/hour. All charges are billed per-second with a 1-minute minimum.

Yes! Compute Savings Plans apply to EKS node costs (both Auto Mode and self-managed EC2 nodes). They also cover Fargate workloads, making them ideal for mixed EKS deployments. EC2 Instance Savings Plans also work but are locked to specific instance families. Note: The cluster fee, control plane tier fee, and Auto Mode charges are always charged at standard rates.

Fargate is best for variable workloads, rapid deployment, or when you don't want to manage nodes. EKS on EC2 (including Auto Mode) is typically more cost-effective for steady-state workloads at scale and gives you access to all EC2 instance types and GPU instances. Use our Fargate Pricing Calculator to compare costs.

Yes! Both EKS Auto Mode and self-managed nodes support Spot Instances, offering up to 90% savings. EKS Auto Mode with Spot automatically handles interruptions using Karpenter-based consolidation. Spot is ideal for fault-tolerant Kubernetes workloads like batch processing, CI/CD pipelines, and stateless services.

For a comprehensive guide to EC2 pricing including On-Demand, Spot, Reserved Instances, and Savings Plans, see our Amazon EC2 Pricing Guide. It covers hidden costs, pricing gotchas, and cost optimization strategies that apply to EKS node costs.

No, this calculator focuses on compute costs (cluster fee, control plane, EC2 nodes, and Auto Mode charges). EBS storage is billed separately. Use our EBS pricing calculator to estimate storage costs for persistent volumes, then add them to your EKS compute costs for a complete picture.

EKS is AWS's managed Kubernetes service, offering full Kubernetes ecosystem compatibility with a $0.10/hour cluster fee. ECS is AWS's native container orchestration service with simpler pricing (no cluster fee for EC2 launch type). EKS is best for teams already using Kubernetes or needing multi-cloud portability. Use our ECS pricing calculator to compare.