Financial Cost Estimation and Analysis
This document provides a breakdown of the estimated operating costs for "My Roadmap" on AWS, focusing on the MVP phase and transition points beyond the AWS Free Tier.
1. AWS Service Cost Breakdown (MVP Scale)
Estimated for ~100 monthly active users (MAU) with moderate task management activity.
| Service | Component | Free Tier Coverage | Estimated Monthly Cost (Post-Free Tier / Over Limit) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS Amplify | Hosting & Build | 1,000 build mins/mo, 5GB storage, 15GB transfer | $0.01 per build min, $0.023/GB storage, $0.15/GB transfer |
| AWS Cognito | Authentication | 50,000 MAUs per month | $0.0055 per MAU beyond 50,000 |
| Amazon DynamoDB | Data Storage | 25GB Storage, 25 WCU/RCU (Provisioned) | ~$0.25 per GB, ~$1.25 per million write units (On-Demand) |
| AWS AppSync | GraphQL API | 250,000 queries/mo (first 12 months) | $4.00 per million queries |
| CloudWatch | Logs & Metrics | 5GB logs, 3 dashboards, 10 alarms | $0.50 per GB ingested beyond 5GB |
2. Total Estimated Monthly Cost
- Under AWS Free Tier: $0.00
- Slightly Beyond Free Tier (Small Scale): <$5.00
- Growth Phase (1,000+ users): $10.00 - $30.00 (primarily driven by Amplify data transfer and AppSync queries)
3. Cost Transition Points & Optimization
High-Impact Thresholds
- Amplify Data Transfer: Large image assets or high traffic can quickly exceed the 15GB free tier.
- AppSync Query Volume: Complex frontends with frequent polling can hit the 250k limit if not optimized.
Optimization Strategies
- Log Retention: Limit CloudWatch log retention to 14 days to avoid storage costs.
- DynamoDB Capacity: Use On-Demand capacity for unpredictable traffic to pay only for what is used.
- Amplify Builds: Optimize build scripts to keep build times under 5 minutes per deployment.
4. Summary for Stakeholders
The project is designed to be highly cost-effective, remaining within the AWS Free Tier for the entire development and initial launch phase. Ongoing monitoring via AWS Budgets will ensure that any unexpected scaling or misconfiguration is caught before significant charges are incurred.