AWS SSM Parameter Store Cost Calculator

Estimate Parameter Store-style cost with a simple model: advanced parameter-month charges plus API call charges. Compare baseline vs peak request volume.

Inputs

Standard parameters (count)
Often free or low-cost; include for inventory sanity.
Advanced parameters (count)
Charged per parameter-month in many pricing models.
Price ($ / advanced parameter-month)
API calls (per month)
Avg 76.15 req/sec. GetParameter(s), PutParameter, List*, etc.
Price ($ / 10k API calls)
~$5.00 per 1M calls.
Instances (avg)
Refresh interval (minutes)
Calls per refresh
Est 1,313,280 calls/month.
Scenario presets
Simplified estimate: advanced parameter-month charges + API call charges. Additional features and downstream systems are excluded.

Results

Estimated monthly total
$1,010.00
Advanced parameters
$10.00
API calls
$1,000.00
API calls/month
200,000,000

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

  • Advanced parameters are fixed; API calls drive spikes.
  • If API costs dominate, cache parameters and avoid per-request reads.

Common mistakes

  • Using a single average and ignoring peak/incident scenarios.
  • Double-counting or missing adjacent line items (transfer, logs, retries).

Input checklist

  • Count advanced parameters by environment (prod, staging, dev).
  • Estimate API calls per app instance and startup frequency.
  • Identify chatty polling or retries that inflate calls.

Scenario planning

Scenario Advanced params API calls Drivers
Baseline Configured Expected Normal runtime
Peak Same Burst Deploy/incident

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

Guides All calculators Guide: Parameter Store pricing Guide: estimate API calls Guide: reduce costs KMS cost calculator
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Example scenario

  • 200 advanced parameters at $0.05 per parameter-month and 200M API calls/month at $0.05 per 10k calls.
  • Peak 240% scenario highlights deploy-driven API call spikes.

Included

  • Advanced parameter-month estimate from advanced parameter count and $/parameter-month.
  • API call estimate from API calls/month and $ per 10k calls.
  • Baseline vs peak scenario table for API call spikes.

Not included

  • Free-tier nuances, add-on features, and downstream costs unless modeled separately.
  • Secrets Manager-specific costs (model separately if you store secrets there).

How we calculate

  • Advanced parameter cost = advanced parameters x $ per parameter-month.
  • API cost = (API calls per month / 10,000) x $ per 10k calls.
  • Total = advanced parameters + API calls.

FAQ

Why do Parameter Store costs spike?
Most spikes are request-driven: applications fetching parameters on every request, many pods starting frequently, or retry loops causing repeated GetParameter calls.
What's the fastest lever to reduce cost?
Reduce API calls: cache parameters in memory, fetch once per process/startup, and avoid chatty polling patterns.

Related tools

Guide: Parameter Store pricing Guide: estimate API calls Guide: reduce costs KMS cost calculator

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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