WorkSpaces

Amazon WorkSpaces for VDI partners Pricing

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Pricing Overview

WorkSpaces allows you to pay for usage hourly or monthly. With monthly billing, you pay a flat, predictable monthly rate per WorkSpace for unlimited usage during the month. Monthly billing is ideal for full-time users who require always-on, instant access to their desktops and applications.

With hourly billing, you pay for usage per hour when WorkSpaces are running. Hourly billing is ideal for use cases requiring low or variable usage when your VDI partner solution offers automated scaling and power management optimization to turn off or terminate WorkSpaces when they are not in use.

WorkSpaces pricing excludes licensing for VDI partner solutions. Learn more about partners by visiting the Amazon WorkSpaces for VDI partners page.

Deployment Options

Amazon WorkSpaces offers two deployment options with VDI partner solutions:

WorkSpaces bundles provide curated virtual desktop configurations with all-inclusive pricing that includes OS, compute, storage, automated backup and restore, default provisioning using multiple Availability Zones, and fully managed capacity. Bundles are ideal for simple VDI use cases such as persistent desktops when customers or VDI partners do not need lower level API access to instances or storage volumes, and prefer preset configurations for their users.

WorkSpaces managed instances provide managed Amazon EC2 instances allowing customers or VDI partners to choose the precise OS, instance types and storage configurations they need. Managed instances are ideal for more flexible and advanced VDI use cases when customers or VDI partners need lower level access to control instances and storage within your AWS account.

VDI partners can integrate with one or both deployment options. At this time, Citrix, Workspot, Dizzion, and Leostream support bundles and managed instances. Omnissa Horizon 8 and Horizon Cloud is available on WorkSpaces bundles.

Amazon WorkSpaces bundle pricing

With monthly billing for WorkSpaces bundles, you pay a flat, predictable monthly rate per WorkSpace for unlimited usag during the month. With hourly billing, you pay for usage per hour when WorkSpaces are running, in addition to a smaller, flat monthly rate per WorkSpace for storage and backup. You can mix monthly and hourly billing options within your AWS account, and switch between options at any time within a billing period.

WorkSpaces bundles are prorated on a per-day basis for monthly billing. For example, switching a bundle type mid-month results in charges for each bundle prorated by the number of days used.

* Must be eligible for License Portability for BYOL and have a WorkSpaces VDI 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 managed instances pricing

With monthly billing for WorkSpaces managed instances, you pay a flat, predictable monthly rate per managed instance for unlimited usage during the month. With hourly billing, you pay for usage per hour when managed instances are running, billed in one-second increments with a minimum of 60 seconds.

Managed instances can be terminated and replaced at any time. For monthly billing, charges are prorated on a per-day basis, allowing customers to avoid duplicate charges during the month if an instance is terminated and another instance is created with the same billing attributes (e.g. AWS Region, instance type, operating system, and tenancy).

WorkSpaces managed instances pricing is for instance usage only, covering the charge for running instances in your AWS account. Additional fees such as Amazon EBS volumes, EBS snapshots, and Amazon EC2 dedicated instances region fees (required for Windows BYOL configurations) are billed separately. You can mix monthly and hourly billing options within your AWS account.

  • Dedicated Instances for Windows BYOL

  • WorkSpaces offers customers the flexibility to use existing Windows 11 licenses. To learn more, view the Amazon Web Services and Microsoft FAQs.

  • Shared Tenancy

  • For Windows, each managed instance includes a Microsoft Server OS license and two remote connections for admin purposes only. For user connections, you will have to bring additional Remote Desktop Services CALs for use on AWS. Remote Desktop users CALs with active Software Assurance have License Mobility benefits and can be brought to AWS default (shared) tenant environments.

Amazon WorkSpaces managed instances examples

  • Multi-Session Windows Server Desktops

    Scenario: In the US West (Oregon) Region, you launch Amazon WorkSpaces managed instances to support 1000 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 between hourly billing and monthly billing for Windows-licensed m7i-flex.xlarge instances with 100 GB of gp3 storage per instance at $0.08/GB-month.

    Option 1: Estimated Monthly Cost with Hourly Billing

    • Instances: 1000 users / 16 users per instance = 63 instances
    • Instance usage: 63 instances × 21 hours × 30 days = 39,690 hours
    • Instance cost: 39,690 hours × $0.3863 per hour = $15,332.25
    • Storage: 63 instances × 100 GB × $0.08/GB-month = $504.00
    • Total estimated monthly cost: $15,332.25 + $504.00 = $15,836.25, or $15.84 per user

    Option 2: Estimated Monthly Cost with Monthly Billing

    • Instances: 1000 users / 16 users per instance = 63 instances
    • Instance cost: 63 instances × $61.82 per instance = $3,894.66
    • Storage: 63 instances × 100 GB × $0.08/GB-month = $504.00
    • Total estimated monthly cost: $3,894.66 + $504.00 = $4,398.66, or $4.40 per user

    Conclusion: At 21 hours of usage per day, selecting monthly billing reduces the monthly cost by $11,437.59 (72%) compared to hourly billing.

  • BYOL Dedicated Desktops for Full-Time Users

    Scenario: In the US West (Oregon) Region, you deploy Amazon WorkSpaces managed instances to support 500 users who bring their own Windows licenses (BYOL). Each user requires a dedicated desktop with 4 vCPUs and 16 GB of memory, using m7i.xlarge instances with 80 GB of gp3 storage per instance at $0.08/GB-month. Users are expected to login 8 hours per day and 5 days per week, e.g., 40 hours/week for a full-time employee or contractor. For this scenario, monthly pricing is recommended, allowing for unlimited usage.

    Estimated Monthly Cost with Monthly Billing

    • Instances: 500 users = 500 instances
    • Instance cost: 500 instances × $42.46 per instance = $21,230.00
    • Dedicated instances region fee: $1,460.00
    • Storage: 500 instances × 80 GB × $0.08/GB-month = $3,200.00
    • Total estimated monthly cost: $21,230.00 + $1,460.00 + $3,200.00 = $25,890.00, or $51.78 per user

Learn more about Amazon WorkSpaces

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