Databricks Pricing on AWS
AWS is the most popular cloud for Databricks deployments and typically offers the lowest total cost. Full DBU rate tables, recommended EC2 instances, and real monthly cost examples.
Why AWS Is the Default Choice
Databricks was built on AWS first and the platform has the deepest feature set on this cloud. AWS offers the widest selection of instance types, the most mature spot market (60% to 70% savings on worker nodes), and Graviton ARM instances that deliver 15% to 20% better price-performance than x86 equivalents. Most Databricks benchmarks and documentation use AWS instance types as the reference.
For organizations without a strong Azure or GCP commitment, AWS is typically the lowest-cost option for Databricks workloads.
AWS DBU Rate Table
Premium tier rates on AWS. Enterprise tier pricing is available through Databricks sales.
| Compute Type | DBU Rate | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Jobs Light Compute | $0.07 | Lightweight automated jobs |
| Jobs Compute | $0.15 | Production ETL pipelines |
| Delta Live Tables Core | $0.20 | Declarative ETL |
| Delta Live Tables Pro | $0.25 | ETL with CDC and expectations |
| All-Purpose Compute | $0.40 | Interactive notebooks, dev work |
| SQL Classic | $0.22 | Classic SQL warehouses |
| SQL Pro | $0.55 | SQL with query profiling |
| SQL Serverless | $0.70 | Fully managed SQL (includes compute) |
| Model Training | $0.65 | ML model training |
| Model Serving | $0.07 | Real-time model endpoints |
Recommended EC2 Instances
Common instance types for Databricks clusters on AWS with their DBU consumption rates and hourly costs.
| Instance | vCPU | Memory | $/hr (On-Demand) | DBU/hr | Total $/hr* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| m5.xlarge | 4 | 16 GB | $0.192 | 0.75 | $0.30 |
| m5.2xlarge | 8 | 32 GB | $0.384 | 1.50 | $0.61 |
| i3.xlarge | 4 | 30.5 GB | $0.312 | 1.00 | $0.46 |
| i3.2xlarge | 8 | 61 GB | $0.624 | 2.00 | $0.92 |
| i3.4xlarge | 16 | 122 GB | $1.248 | 4.00 | $1.85 |
| r5.xlarge | 4 | 32 GB | $0.252 | 1.00 | $0.40 |
| r5.2xlarge | 8 | 64 GB | $0.504 | 2.00 | $0.80 |
| p3.2xlarge | 8 | 61 GB | $3.060 | 5.50 | $3.93 |
*Total includes EC2 on-demand + Jobs Compute DBU rate ($0.15/DBU). Actual costs vary by workload type and region. US East (N. Virginia) pricing shown.
Monthly Cost Examples
Solo Data Engineer
$35/mo1x m5.xlarge, 6 hrs/day, 22 days, spot workers
DBU Cost
$20
AWS Cost
$15
Notes
Minimal setup for development and light ETL
Startup Data Team (3 people)
$134/mo3x i3.xlarge, 8 hrs/day, 22 days, spot workers
DBU Cost
$79
AWS Cost
$55
Notes
Small-scale production pipelines
Mid-Size ETL Platform
$673/mo5x i3.2xlarge, 12 hrs/day, 22 days, spot workers
DBU Cost
$396
AWS Cost
$277
Notes
Multiple production pipelines
Analytics Team (20 users)
$2,816/moSQL Pro warehouse, Medium size, 10 hrs/day
DBU Cost
$1,936
AWS Cost
$880
Notes
Business intelligence and reporting
Enterprise ML Platform
$11,678/mo8x p3.2xlarge, 10 hrs/day, 22 days, on-demand
DBU Cost
$6,292
AWS Cost
$5,386
Notes
GPU training clusters, model serving
AWS-Specific Optimizations
Spot Instances
Use spot instances for worker nodes to save 60% to 70% on EC2 costs. Keep the driver node on-demand for reliability. Spark handles spot interruptions gracefully by redistributing work to remaining nodes. Best for ETL jobs, batch processing, and ML training. Not recommended for streaming or interactive notebooks.
Graviton Instances
AWS Graviton3 (m6g, r6g, c6g families) offer 15% to 20% better price-performance than x86 equivalents. Databricks fully supports Graviton for Spark workloads. Lower per-hour cost plus slightly lower DBU consumption rates make Graviton the best default choice for non-GPU workloads.
Reserved Instances / Savings Plans
For clusters running 12+ hours daily, AWS Reserved Instances (1-year or 3-year) or Compute Savings Plans can reduce EC2 costs by 30% to 40%. These apply to the cloud infrastructure portion of your bill. Combine with Databricks committed-use discounts for maximum savings on both sides.
AWS Marketplace
Purchase Databricks through AWS Marketplace to apply spend against your Enterprise Discount Program (EDP) commitments. Billing consolidates to your AWS invoice. No price difference versus buying direct, but simplifies procurement and can offset existing AWS commitments.