AWS Lightsail Pricing 2026: VPS Bundles and Hidden Costs
AWS Lightsail Pricing 2026: VPS Bundles and Extra Costs
Last reviewed: July 20, 2026. AWS prices and free-tier offers can change. Confirm the selected region and bundle on the official Lightsail pricing page before launching an instance.
Amazon Lightsail packages compute, SSD storage and a transfer allowance into a predictable VPS-style bundle. It is simpler than building the same small server from EC2, EBS and separate networking products, but IP choice, snapshots, attached disks and regional transfer rules can still affect the bill.
Official references:
Linux Bundle Prices
Public IPv4 Bundles
| Monthly price | Memory | vCPUs | SSD | Transfer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $5 | 512 MB | 2 | 20 GB | 1 TB |
| $7 | 1 GB | 2 | 40 GB | 2 TB |
| $12 | 2 GB | 2 | 60 GB | 3 TB |
| $24 | 4 GB | 2 | 80 GB | 4 TB |
| $44 | 8 GB | 2 | 160 GB | 5 TB |
The 512 MB bundle is a minimal server. For WordPress, a database-backed application or several containers, 1 GB is a more realistic floor and 2 GB provides safer headroom.
IPv6-Only Bundles
| Monthly price | Memory | vCPUs | SSD | Transfer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $3.50 | 512 MB | 2 | 20 GB | 1 TB |
| $5 | 1 GB | 2 | 40 GB | 2 TB |
| $10 | 2 GB | 2 | 60 GB | 3 TB |
| $20 | 4 GB | 2 | 80 GB | 4 TB |
IPv6-only is cheaper, but it is not a direct replacement for a public IPv4 server. Verify that visitors, APIs, monitoring systems and administration networks can all reach an IPv6-only service. A reverse proxy or CDN can solve some public access cases, but it adds another dependency.
Windows Bundle Prices
Windows bundles include the operating-system license and cost more than equivalent Linux bundles. Current public IPv4 Windows bundles start at $9.50/month, while IPv6-only Windows bundles start at $8/month.
Choose Windows only when the application needs Windows Server, .NET Framework, IIS or RDP-specific tooling. A Linux instance is usually more economical for a generic web server.
How Lightsail Billing Works
Instances are billed hourly up to the monthly bundle price. The monthly figure assumes the instance remains allocated for the billing period; stopping an instance does not necessarily eliminate all charges. Delete unused instances and separately inspect snapshots, disks, static IPs and other retained resources.
Lightsail includes browser-based SSH or RDP access, monitoring, DNS management and static IP functionality, subject to the service's usage rules. Treat these as bundle features, not proof that every surrounding AWS service is free.
Transfer Rules And Regional Differences
The transfer shown in the bundle is primarily an outbound allowance. Incoming transfer is generally not the expensive part, but traffic patterns and transfers to other AWS services should be checked against the official terms.
Lightsail bundles in Asia Pacific Mumbai, Sydney, Jakarta and Malaysia include half the transfer allowance shown for the standard bundles. This is easy to miss when comparing a US price table with an Asia deployment.
Before buying, select the real region and answer three questions:
- Is the displayed allowance the one for this region?
- Will the application serve large downloads, media or backups over the public internet?
- Will data move between Lightsail and separately billed AWS services?
Storage, Snapshots And Load Balancers
Block Storage
Additional SSD block storage costs $0.10/GB-month. A 100 GB disk adds $10/month. The disk can remain billable after an instance is removed, so include unattached disks in cleanup checks.
Snapshots
Manual and automatic snapshots are billed separately by stored data. Snapshot growth is easy to overlook on long-running servers. Check snapshot retention rather than assuming the base bundle includes unlimited backups.
Load Balancers
The Lightsail load balancer is $18/month. For a $5 or $7 instance, the load balancer can cost more than the server itself. Add it only when availability or traffic distribution justifies the fixed monthly cost.
Free Tier And Promotions
AWS advertises three free months on selected Lightsail bundles for eligible new usage, limited to one bundle per account under the offer. Standard charges begin after the free period or allowance ends. Evaluate the normal monthly price before launching, not only the promotional first bill.
Lightsail Versus Other VPS Providers
- Choose Lightsail when you want a simple AWS-hosted server with bundled transfer and storage.
- Choose DigitalOcean or Linode when you prefer a provider centered on developer cloud infrastructure with simpler account-wide pricing.
- Choose Vultr when region variety and small plan choices are priorities.
- Check Hetzner when its available locations fit and price-to-resource value matters most.
Lightsail is not automatically cheaper than EC2 for every architecture, and it is not automatically more expensive. It is most useful when a small, predictable bundle matches the workload without many separately billed AWS components.
Cost Checklist
- Choose public IPv4 or IPv6-only deliberately.
- Confirm the target region's transfer allowance.
- Add block storage, snapshots and load balancing.
- Check whether a stopped resource continues billing.
- Estimate the normal post-promotion cost.
- Set AWS billing alerts before production use.