NAT Gateway pricing is simple on paper — two line items — but the way AWS environments are typically built means the actual monthly cost is almost always higher than engineers expect. This post breaks down exactly what you pay, why it compounds, and what the alternatives cost.
NAT Gateway Pricing: The Two Components
Hourly charge
Per NAT Gateway, per hour. Charged from creation to deletion — even when no traffic flows.
Data processing charge
Per GB of data processed by the NAT Gateway — both directions count.
These are the us-east-1 rates. Other regions vary slightly — ap-southeast-1 (Singapore) is $0.059/hr and $0.059/GB. Check the AWS VPC pricing page for your region.
Important: Cross-AZ data transfer fees are separate and on top of NAT Gateway pricing. If your EC2 instance is in us-east-1a and your NAT Gateway is in us-east-1b, you pay $0.01/GB each way in addition to the $0.045/GB NAT processing charge.
What That Costs Per Month: Real Examples
Scenario 1: Small team, 1 NAT Gateway, 500 GB/month
| Hourly charge (730 hrs) | $32.85 |
| Data processing (500 GB × $0.045) | $22.50 |
| Monthly total | $55.35 |
Scenario 2: 3 AZs, 3 NAT Gateways, 2 TB/month total
| Hourly charge (3 × $0.045 × 730) | $98.55 |
| Data processing (2,048 GB × $0.045) | $92.16 |
| Monthly total | $190.71 |
Scenario 3: High-throughput environment, 20 TB/month
| Hourly charge (3 × $0.045 × 730) | $98.55 |
| Data processing (20,480 GB × $0.045) | $921.60 |
| Monthly total | $1,020.15 |
At high data volumes, the per-GB charge dominates. This is where the type of traffic matters most — because S3 traffic and AWS API traffic don't need to go through NAT at all.
NAT Gateway vs VPC Endpoints: Cost Comparison
The most common source of unnecessary NAT cost is traffic that could use a VPC endpoint instead.
| Traffic type | Via NAT Gateway | Via VPC Endpoint | Saving per TB |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 (same region) | $46.08/TB | $0 (Gateway Endpoint) | $46.08 |
| DynamoDB | $46.08/TB | $0 (Gateway Endpoint) | $46.08 |
| SSM, ECR, Secrets Manager | $46.08/TB | ~$10.24/TB (Interface Endpoint) | $35.84 |
| General internet egress | $46.08/TB + $92.16/TB egress | Not applicable | — |
S3 Gateway Endpoints are free. There is no hourly charge and no per-GB charge. If any of your workloads read from or write to S3 — and almost all do — adding a Gateway Endpoint is the single highest-ROI action you can take to reduce NAT costs.
How to Find Your NAT Gateway Cost Right Now
In AWS Cost Explorer, filter by Service = "EC2-Other" and Group by Usage Type. Look for NatGateway-Hours and NatGateway-Bytes line items. This gives you the total — but not which workloads are responsible.
To find which instances are driving the data processing charge, query VPC Flow Logs:
SELECT srcaddr, sum(bytes)/1073741824.0 as gb_processed
FROM vpc_flow_logs
WHERE year='2026' AND month='06'
GROUP BY srcaddr
ORDER BY gb_processed DESC
LIMIT 20;The top results are your biggest NAT spenders. Cross-reference with ENI metadata to get instance IDs and names.
How to Reduce Your NAT Gateway Bill
- Add S3 Gateway Endpoint — free, takes 5 minutes, stops all S3 traffic from going through NAT.
- Fix cross-AZ routing — deploy one NAT Gateway per AZ and route each private subnet to the NAT in its own AZ.
- Add Interface Endpoints for AWS services — SSM, ECR, Secrets Manager, STS. Each eliminates that service's traffic from NAT.
- Delete idle NAT Gateways — the $0.045/hr hourly charge applies even with zero traffic. Unused gateways from old environments cost $32/month each.
Getting Started
Register at basavytix.com/netway
Run the CloudFormation deploy command shown in your dashboard
Netway scans your VPC Flow Logs and identifies which traffic patterns are inflating your NAT bill
Review findings with estimated monthly savings and the exact CLI command to fix each one
Related Articles
→ AWS NAT Gateway Costs: Why Your Bill Is Too High → How to Read VPC Flow Logs → AWS Internet Gateway Cost: What You Actually PayFrequently Asked Questions
How much does AWS NAT Gateway cost per month?
A single NAT Gateway costs $0.045/hr = $32.85/month just to exist, plus $0.045 per GB processed. One gateway processing 1 TB/month costs about $78/month. Most production environments have 2–3 gateways (one per AZ), so multiply accordingly.
What is the AWS NAT Gateway pricing per GB?
$0.045 per GB in us-east-1. Both inbound and outbound traffic through the NAT Gateway count toward this charge. Cross-AZ data transfer ($0.01/GB each way) applies separately if the EC2 instance and NAT Gateway are in different availability zones.
Is NAT Gateway included in the AWS free tier?
No. NAT Gateway has no free tier. The $0.045/hr hourly charge begins the moment you create a gateway, even with zero traffic. This is why idle gateways left over from old test environments show up on your bill.
How does NAT Gateway pricing compare to VPC endpoints?
S3 and DynamoDB Gateway VPC Endpoints are completely free — no hourly charge, no per-GB charge. For S3 traffic routed through NAT at $0.045/GB, switching to a free Gateway Endpoint saves the full $0.045 per GB immediately. Interface Endpoints for other services cost $0.01/hr + $0.01/GB, still much cheaper than NAT at volume.