Amazon WorkSpaces Core pricing

WorkSpaces Core allows you to pay for usage based on monthly subscriptions or hourly meters. With the monthly subscription offering, you pay a fixed monthly fee per virtual desktop for unlimited usage during the month. Unlimited usage pricing is ideal for workers who use the service as their primary desktop.

With the hourly metering option, you pay a small, fixed monthly fee per virtual desktop to cover infrastructure and storage cost, and a low flat rate for each hour of usage during the month. Hourly metering is better suited for workers who only require part-time access to their virtual desktop.

You can mix the monthly subscription and hourly metering options within your AWS account, and you can switch between options at any time within a billing period.

In addition to the costs for WorkSpaces Core, you can purchase third-party VDI management software licensing separately if you require licenses plus any additional OS or software you want to run on the virtual desktop.

WorkSpaces Core pricing components are the same as WorkSpaces with monthly subscription and hourly metering options. However, because WorkSpaces Core provides VDI hardware only, it is offered at a lower cost than the all-inclusive WorkSpaces. Customers can bring their own supported VDI management software license or purchase one from AWS Marketplace.

WorkSpaces Core APIs require integration from third-party VDI management solution providers. We are currently working with numerous VDI solution providers to implement the WorkSpaces Core APIs. Please check with your AWS account representative or contact us for availability and pricing for these integrated solutions.

Amazon WorkSpaces Core bundle pricing

WorkSpaces Core bundles allow you to pay for usage based on monthly subscriptions or hourly metering. With the monthly subscriptions, you pay a fixed monthly fee per virtual desktop for unlimited usage during the month. Subscription pricing is ideal for workers using the service as their primary desktop. With hourly metering, you pay a small, fixed monthly fee per virtual desktop to cover infrastructure and storage cost, plus a low flat rate for each hour of usage during the month. Hourly metering is intended for workers who only require part-time access to a desktop. You can mix monthly subscription and hourly metering options within your AWS account, and switch between options at any time within a billing period.

WorkSpaces Core bundle pricing components are similar to WorkSpaces with monthly subscription and hourly metering options. However, because WorkSpaces Core includes VDI infrastructure only, it is offered at a lower price than all-inclusive WorkSpaces. With WorkSpaces Core bundles, customers can use their own supported VDI software licenses or purchase them from AWS Marketplace. Any additional operating system and software licenses required are purchased separately from WorkSpaces Core.

WorkSpaces Core APIs require integration with partner VDI management solutions. We are currently working with numerous VDI solution providers to implement the WorkSpaces Core APIs. Please check with your AWS account representative or contact us for availability and pricing for these integrated solutions. Citrix, Omnissa, and Leostream integrate with WorkSpaces Core bundles.

* Must be eligible for License Portability for BYOL and have a WorkSpaces Core partner. For more information about these, visit this page.

  • Windows Bundle Options - Bring Your Own License (BYOL)
  • Windows Bundle Options

  • Each Windows Bundle Option includes a Microsoft Server OS license. Customers are required to bring their own Remote Desktop Services (RDS) user client access licenses (CALs) with active Software Assurance or eligible subscriptions per WorkSpace.

  • Using the US West (Oregon) Region, you need to provision virtual desktops for two sets of users. The first group of 100 users requires the monthly subscription option because they will use the service as their full-time desktop for general productivity. The second group of 10 users is better suited to hourly metering because they require occasional access to higher-performance machines for graphics- intensive workloads.

    For the first group of 100 users you select the Value Bundle with 1vCPU, 2 GB memory, 80 GB root volume, and 10 GB user volume, running Windows, with a fixed price of $16.80 per virtual desktop per month. With the monthly subscription, these users have unlimited access to their virtual desktops. Monthly spend for this group of users is 1,680 (100 users x $16.80 per virtual desktop per month).

    For the second group of 10 part-time users you select an hourly metered Power Bundle with 4 vCPU, 16 GB memory, 80 GB root volume, and 10 GB user volume. With hourly metering, this virtual desktop has a fixed price of $5.80 per month + $0.51 per hour of usage. Let’s assume each of the 10 users spends 5 hours a week using their virtual desktop. Monthly spend for this group is calculated as follows using details in the pricing tables below:

    Estimated Monthly Cost:

    Access cost:10 users x $5.80 access cost = $58 per month

    Usage cost: 10 users X 5 hours per week x 4 weeks x $0.51 per hour = $102 per month

    Total estimated monthly cost: $58 access cost + $102 usage cost = $160 per month

    For more pricing/billing details on Amazon WorkSpaces Core, please access the pricing section of our FAQ.

Amazon WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances pricing

With Amazon WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances, you pay Amazon EC2 instance pricing plus a service fee of $0.02 per hour of usage, prorated and billed separately by the second. This fee covers management and maintenance of your instances. You can use Amazon EC2 instance purchase options including On-Demand, 1-year and 3-year Reserved Instances, and Compute Savings Plans. However, the Amazon WorkSpaces Core service fee applies regardless of the EC2 instance purchase option. You also pay for additional resources used with Amazon WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances, such as Amazon EBS volumes, and dedicated instances region fee.

WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances APIs require integration with the partner’s VDI management software. We are currently working with numerous VDI solution providers to implement the WorkSpaces Core APIs. Please check with your AWS account representative or contact us for availability and pricing for these integrated solutions. Citrix and Workspot integrate with WorkSpaces Core Managed Instances.

  • Dedicated Instances for Windows BYOL
  • Shared Tenancy

Amazon WorkSpaces Managed Instances examples

  • In the US West (Oregon) Region, you launch Amazon WorkSpaces Core managed instances to support 128 users who need Windows Server desktops with 4 vCPUs and 16 GB of memory. Each instance runs approximately 21 hours per day and supports 16 users via multi-session. You are deciding whether to use On-Demand Windows-licensed m7i-flex.xlarge instances, which cost $0.3663 per hour with 100 GB of gp3 storage per instance at $0.08/GB-month, or to use 1-year Savings Plan Windows-licensed m7i-flex.xlarge instances, which cost $0.301480 per hour with the same storage cost. Refer to the tables below for detailed pricing information.

    Option 1: Estimated Monthly Cost for On Demand Option:

    Instances: 128 users / 16 users per instance = 8 instances

    Instance usage: 8 instances x 21 hours x 30 days = 5,040 hours

    Instance cost: 5,040 hours x × $0.36632 per hour = $1,846.25

    WorkSpaces Core service fee: 5,040 hours × $0.02 per hour = $100.8

    Storage: 8 instances × 100 GB × $0.08/GB = $64

    Total estimated monthly cost: $1,846.25+ $100.8 + $64 = $2011.05, or $15.71 per user

    Option 2: Estimated Monthly Cost for 1-Year Savings Plan:

    Instances: 128 users / 16 users per instance = 8 instances

    Savings Plans instance hours: 8 instances x 730 hours in a month = 5840 hours

    Instance cost: 5840 hours x × $0.30148 per hour = $1,760.64

    WorkSpaces Core service fee: 5840 hours × $0.02 per hour = $116.8

    Storage: 8 instances × 100 GB × $0.08/GB = $64

    Total estimated monthly cost: $1,760.64 + $116.8 + $64 = $1,941.44, or $15.17 per user

    Based on the above estimates, selecting the 1-year Savings Plan option reduces the monthly cost and offers better cost efficiency.

  • In the US West (Oregon) Region, you deploy Amazon WorkSpaces Core managed instances to support 100 users who bring their own Windows licenses (BYOL). Each user requires a dedicated desktop with 4 vCPUs and 16 GB of memory, using m6i.xlarge on-demand instances, at a cost of $ $0.2112 per hour. Each instance includes 80 GB of gp3 storage, priced at $0.08 per GB per month. Each instance runs approximately 8 hours per day and 5 days per week. Refer to the tables below for detailed pricing information.

    Estimated Monthly Cost:

    Instance usage: 100 instances x 8hours x 5 days x 4 weeks= 16,000 hours

    Instance cost: 16,000 hours x $ $0.2112 per hour = $3,379.2

    Dedicated per Region fee: 730 hours x $2 = $1,460

    Total compute costs (monthly): $ 4,839.2

    WorkSpaces Core service fee: 16,000 hours × $0.02 per hour = $320

    Storage: 100 instances × 80 GB × $0.08/GB = $640

    Total estimated monthly cost: $ 4,839.2 +$320 + $640 = $5,799.2 or $57.99 per user

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