The same workload priced three ways: 1,000 users connected through the workday, 48 million messages a month. On AWS, API Gateway and AppSync Events charge about $1 per million messages and differ mostly in connection minutes and in who does the fan-out. Vercel charges almost nothing per message but bills memory for every instance holding connections. Where each one wins.
The workload: 1,000 users connected 8 hours a workday for 22 days. Each sends 200 messages and receives 2,000 a day, all small. That is 10.56 million connection minutes and 48.4 million messages a month (4.4 million in, 44 million out). US East prices on AWS, iad1 on Vercel Pro, November 2026.
Prices from the API Gateway, AppSync and Vercel Fluid compute pricing pages. Workload costs are our arithmetic and exclude data transfer.
On AWS, messages dominate. At 48 million a month either service is about $50; at 480 million it is about $500. Batching small updates into fewer messages is the biggest lever.
AppSync Events is the cheaper AWS option when connections are many and idle, and it does fan-out for you. API Gateway gives you full control of routing with your own Lambda code, and 32 KB metering matters if messages are large.
Vercel turns the bill around: messages are nearly free, and the cost is memory for each instance holding connections. Busy connections are cheap. Thousands of quiet ones spread across many instances are not, and Vercel doesn't publish how many connections share an instance.
None of these prices include the engineering: reconnects, catch-up, authorization over long connections, and load testing. That is usually larger than the bill.
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As of November 2, 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.