Migration cost beyond steady-state AWS
AWS DMS Pricing Calculator
Compare provisioned replication instances vs DMS Serverless and model parallel-run months before cutover.
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Rates reviewed
Read the full breakdown — Companion pricing guide covers billing dimensions, traps, and a 30-day cleanup plan.
Replication mode
us-east-1list rates, pricing as of 2026-10-17. Source/target data transfer and DMS Schema Conversion Tool excluded. Source: AWS public pricing.
Bursty full-load migrations often use fewer DCU-hours than a 24/7 instance.
Storage & migration window
730 = always-on for the full month.
$0.115/GB-month on the replication instance.
Weeks of cutover overlap before decommissioning DMS.
Estimated DMS Cost
Compute + storage
Total Monthly Cost
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FactualMinds plans DMS cutover windows, sizes replication instances, and names parallel-run costs in migration SOWs before finance is surprised.
Explore Migration Services →Who This Tool Is For
DBAs, migration leads, and IT directors budgeting database replication during cloud migration parallel-run periods.
Why We Built This Tool
DMS bills for replication instance hours (or Serverless DCU-hours) plus storage — modest per month, but parallel-run weeks across multiple databases compound fast.
What Problem It Solves
- Oversized instances. dms.r5.large at $190/month when dms.t3.medium ($47/month) handles the workload.
- Idle provisioned capacity. A 24/7 instance during a 2-week burst migration wastes 50% of compute hours.
- Missing parallel-run line item. Finance sees steady-state RDS — not the DMS months before cutover.
Read migration cost surprises or explore AWS migration services.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do these DMS prices come from?
AWS published us-east-1 list prices (AWS DMS pricing), pricing as of 2026-10-17.
When should I use DMS Serverless vs a provisioned instance?
Serverless fits short-burst full-load migrations where DCU consumption is sporadic. Long-running CDC workloads often cost less on a right-sized provisioned instance running 24/7.
What does Multi-AZ cost?
Multi-AZ doubles the replication instance hourly charge — appropriate for production CDC, often skipped during one-time migration cutovers.
Is DMS storage expensive?
Replication instance storage bills $0.115/GB-month. Right-size allocated storage and delete replication instances promptly after cutover.
Does DMS include data transfer charges?
No. Cross-region replication incurs standard AWS data transfer rates on top of DMS compute and storage.
How do I estimate parallel-run migration cost?
Multiply monthly DMS cost by (parallel-run weeks ÷ 4). A 4-week window at $190/month ≈ $190 total DMS compute for that migration wave.
