AWS CloudTrail Cost Calculator
Estimate CloudTrail-style costs from event volume: management events, data events, and Insights. Compare baseline vs peak event spikes using your effective per-100k prices.
Inputs
Management events (per month)
Avg 19.04 events/sec.
Data events (per month)
Avg 3.81 events/sec.
Insights events (per month)
Avg 0.38 events/sec.
Mgmt events (per day)
Data events (per day)
Insights events (per day)
Est 48,640,000 / 9,120,000 / 912,000 events per month.
Management price ($ / 100k events)
~$1.00 per 1M events.
Data price ($ / 100k events)
~$2.00 per 1M events.
Insights price ($ / 100k events)
~$3.50 per 1M events.
Scenario presets
Pricing can vary by region and product features. Use your effective prices.
Results
Estimated monthly total
$73.50
Management events
$50.00
Data events
$20.00
Insights events
$3.50
How to get your inputs
- Inputs: use billing exports, metrics, or logs to get real counts/GB where possible.
- Units: convert throughput (Mbps) or rates (RPS) into monthly units when needed.
- Scenarios: build a baseline and a high-usage scenario to avoid under-budgeting.
Result interpretation
- Data events often dominate; treat management and data events as separate drivers.
- Insights events are bursty; use a peak scenario if audits or incidents spike volume.
Common mistakes
- Using a single average and ignoring peak/incident scenarios.
- Double-counting or missing adjacent line items (transfer, logs, retries).
Input checklist
- Separate management events from data events (different volume profiles).
- Identify services that emit high-volume data events.
- Estimate Insights events for audit or incident months.
Scenario planning
| Scenario | Management | Data | Insights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | Expected | Expected | Low |
| Peak | High | High | Burst |
Validate after changes
- Compare your estimate to the first real bill and adjust assumptions.
- Track the primary driver metric (requests/GB/count) over time.
Next steps
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Example scenario
- 50M management + 10M data + 1M insights events/month with your per-100k pricing inputs.
- Peak 200% scenario helps budget for incident bursts and audits.
Included
- Management events cost estimate from events/month and $ per 100k.
- Data events cost estimate from events/month and $ per 100k.
- Insights events cost estimate from events/month and $ per 100k (if applicable).
- Optional daily event volume estimator.
- Baseline vs peak scenario table for event spikes.
Not included
- Storage, analysis, and downstream costs (S3 storage, Athena, SIEM, etc).
- Alternate products or features billed on different units (model separately).
How we calculate
- Cost per event type = (events per month / 100,000) x price per 100k.
- Total = management + data + insights.
FAQ
What's the difference between management events and data events?
Management events are control-plane actions (e.g., API calls that change resources). Data events cover high-volume data-plane activity (often much higher volume).
Why is my bill higher than this estimate?
Pricing can vary by region and configuration, and your total cost may include storage/analysis and downstream systems. Use your effective prices and add other line items you rely on.
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Disclaimer
Educational use only. Not legal, financial, or professional advice. Results are estimates based on the inputs and assumptions shown on this page. Verify pricing and limits with your providers and documentation.
Last updated: 2026-01-29