Load balancing costs explained: hours, requests, and traffic processed

A planning-safe load balancer estimate includes: (1) hourly baseline, (2) request volume, (3) traffic processed (GB), and (4) add-ons like WAF and logs. This hub links the strongest checklists and calculators.

1) Hourly baseline

  • Count load balancers per environment (dev/stage/prod).
  • Multiply by hours/month (usually ~730).

2) Requests and traffic processed

3) WAF and logging

  • WAF is request-driven and spikes with bot traffic.
  • Logs create ingestion + retention costs that can exceed the LB baseline.
  • Hubs: security costs, log costs

Related tools

Load balancer cost LCU/NLCU Request cost Networking costs

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FAQ

What usually drives load balancer cost?
Hourly baseline is the floor. After that, request volume and GB processed often dominate. Add-ons like WAF and logs can become meaningful at scale.
How do I estimate quickly?
Start with hours/month, requests/month, and an estimate of GB processed derived from response size. Then validate cross-zone traffic and WAF/logging settings.
What breaks estimates?
Underestimating traffic processed, forgetting WAF and logging, and ignoring cross-zone patterns that create extra data transfer charges.
Last updated: 2026-01-22