Straightforward, usage‑based pricing with low egress fees and no surprises. Estimate monthly spend with the Cloud Computing Calculator, then launch or talk to sales when you’re ready.
Egress overage: US$0.005 per GB (free inbound traffic; pooled transfer across instances)
Distributed compute regions: egress US$0.01 per GB
Hourly billing up to a monthly cap; bill rounds to the nearest hour
Use the Cloud Computing Calculator to model scenarios and export to Excel/PDF. Open the calculator.
How cloud costs work
Cloud costs combine a few building blocks:
Compute: Virtual machines (CPU, GPU, high‑memory, accelerated compute) priced per hour with a monthly cap. Transfer allowances vary by plan; overage is US$0.005/GB.
Storage: Block Storage at a flat monthly $/GB; Object Storage at $0.02/GB‑month with the first 1 TB/month of egress free, then $0.005/GB (a $5 minimum applies if your total account storage is under 250 GB). Images and Backups are add‑ons.
Databases: Fully managed MySQL and PostgreSQL, priced per cluster per month by node size and node count (1–3 nodes).
Networking: NodeBalancers at US$10/month (US$0.015/hour).
Kubernetes: Pay only for the worker resources you use. Optional HA control planes: LKE HA at US$60/cluster/month; LKE‑Enterprise with HA and dedicated control plane at US$300/cluster/month.
Services: Optional Managed Service (US$100 per compute instance/month) plus consulting and migration services by request
Details on billing cadence and examples are in the guide to billing. See how billing works.
Compare pricing models across providers
Cloud providers use different models that impact value:
Pay‑as‑you‑go vs. complex commitments: Akamai Cloud uses simple, pay‑as‑you‑go pricing without long‑term commitments. Many hyperscalers emphasize reserved or savings plans that lower unit price but add lock‑in and forecasting risk.
Egress policy: Akamai Cloud keeps egress simple and low (US$0.005/GB; first 1 TB/month free on Object Storage), which can materially reduce total cost of ownership for bandwidth‑heavy apps. Some providers have tiered, higher, or more complex egress.
Bundled transfer: Many Akamai plans include generous transfer allowances (e.g., Shared CPU starts at 1 TB on the 1 GB plan), while some newer shapes list 0 TB included and rely on the low overage rate. Always factor included transfer plus overage into TCO.
Per‑resource transparency: Instance price, RAM, vCPU, storage, network I/O, and transfer are shown together so you can quickly compute $/vCPU, $/GB RAM, $/GB‑mo storage, and expected egress. This helps compare apples‑to‑apples across vendors.
Tip: For bandwidth‑sensitive workloads (media, gaming, data pipelines), low, predictable egress often delivers better value than a slightly cheaper vCPU with expensive egress.
Choose your compute
All inbound traffic is free. Egress overage is US$0.005/GB (US$0.01/GB in distributed compute regions). Below are representative plans; see each product page for full options.
GPU (NVIDIA)
Dedicated VMs with NVIDIA GPUs for AI/ML and accelerated workloads. See GPU details.
Object Storage: US$0.02/GB‑month; first 1 TB egress each month free, then US$0.005/GB. Regional pricing may vary. See Object Storage
Images: From US$0.10/GB‑month (up to 25 images/account; 150 GB max per account)
Backups: Priced per instance and billed hourly to a monthly cap; see instance‑specific backup prices in the Backups section. See Backups
Managed databases
Fully managed MySQL and PostgreSQL clusters, billed monthly by node size and node count (1–3 nodes). Choose dedicated CPU or shared CPU node types for cost/performance fit. See Managed Databases
Egress overage: US$0.005/GB (free inbound; pooled across instances)
Regional pricing options
Distributed compute regions provide dedicated CPU in metros with limited cloud options; egress is US$0.01/GB. Access is granted per account by sales. See distributed regions pricing
To evaluate high‑performance computing (HPC) or intensive workloads, focus on:
CPU generation and shape: Newer CPUs (e.g., AMD EPYC Gen 5) and 1:2 vs. 1:4 vCPU‑to‑RAM shapes impact throughput and memory bandwidth.
Dedicated vs. shared cores: Use dedicated cores (G8/G7) for consistent performance under load.
Memory capacity and bandwidth: Ensure the RAM per vCPU matches your working set; High Memory plans favor in‑memory analytics and caches.
Storage IOPS/throughput: Consider Block Storage size and performance for scratch space and checkpointing.
Network I/O: Check the listed network in/out (e.g., 40/x Gbps) for inter‑node traffic and data ingest.
Cost metrics: Normalize offers by $/vCPU‑month, $/GB RAM‑month, and expected egress cost. Include any included transfer.
Run a quick benchmark on trial instances: Validate with your workload (e.g., micro‑benchmarks, inference throughput, or your CI test suite) before scaling out.
Use the calculator to compare shapes and include storage and expected egress. Estimate costs.
Enterprise cloud cost management: what works
Enterprises typically combine platform features and FinOps practices to control spend:
Design for low egress: Place storage and compute together and take advantage of low, predictable egress (and free inbound).
Rightsize and autoscale: Start small, measure, then scale up; use autoscaling to match demand.
Choose the right shape: Pick 1:2 or 1:4 vCPU‑to‑RAM based on workload profile to avoid overprovisioning.
Kubernetes cost controls: Use cluster autoscaler, requests/limits, and separate dev/prod node pools.
Use the calculator and budgets: Model TCO before deploying; monitor pooled transfer and set usage alerts. Model your TCO
Managed services selectively: Offload ops with Managed Service (US$100 per instance/month) where it reduces your internal cost of operations.
Consider regional placement: Deploy in regions that minimize latency and data transfer between services; use distributed regions when locality wins.
For large‑scale deployments or migrations, our team can help optimize architecture, performance, and cost. Talk to sales.
FAQs
Hourly billing: Billed hourly up to the monthly price cap; charges round to the nearest hour. Invoices are issued monthly (or mid‑month if you reach a threshold). How billing works
Transfer overage: US$0.005/GB over your pooled quota; all inbound is free. Transfer usage and costs
Promotional credits: Your card is charged only after credits are used or expire.
Payment methods: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover; you can also add credit via PayPal. A valid card on file is required by our Master Services Agreement.
Powered off instances: Still billed (we retain your data and reserved resources). Remove a service to stop billing. Removing services