Database Savings Plans cover Aurora, RDS, DynamoDB, ElastiCache and more with one hourly commitment, up to 35% off, on a one-year term with no upfront payment. RIs still discount more for workloads that will not change. How to choose, and how to avoid buying both for the same database.
Until December 2025 the only way to discount a database on AWS was a Reserved Instance: a fixed engine, instance family and Region for one or three years. Database Savings Plans replaced that with an hourly spend commitment that applies across engines, families, sizes, deployment options and Regions.
Aurora (provisioned and Serverless), RDS, DynamoDB, ElastiCache for Valkey, DocumentDB, Neptune, Keyspaces, Timestream, DMS and OpenSearch Service.
Up to 35% off, on a one-year term with no upfront payment.
Serverless and provisioned usage both count, which is new: Aurora Serverless had no commitment discount before.
For SQL Server, only the instance price is discounted. Windows and SQL Server licence charges stay at on-demand rates.
Book a free 30-minute call. You'll leave knowing what we'd do first and roughly what it costs, whether or not you hire us.
Buy a Savings Plan when the database estate is changing: a migration from RDS to Aurora, a move to Graviton, a Region expansion, or a plan to try Aurora Serverless. The commitment survives all of them.
Keep RIs for a database you are certain will run on the same family in the same Region for three years. That certainty is what the deeper discount pays for.
Commit to your floor, not your average. Size the plan to the lowest hourly database spend of the last few months, and let on-demand cover the rest.
If you hold RIs today, let them expire and replace them with plan coverage rather than buying both. Usage covered by an RI is not discounted again by the plan.
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As of October 25, 2026. Provided as is, for general information, and accurate to the best of our knowledge on the date shown. Not legal, compliance, tax, financial or other professional advice. Prices, limits and vendor services change; check current vendor documentation before relying on anything here. Terms of use.