AWS Pricing Calculator — Estimate Generator

Describe your AWS setup in plain English → get an official AWS Pricing Calculator link with real costs already filled in. No AWS account, no logins, no JSON.

$ aws-calc --prompt "2 t3.large EC2 with 50GB, RDS MySQL db.m5.large 100GB, 500GB S3, an ALB"

✅ Monthly cost: $352.13 USD
🔗 https://calculator.aws/#/estimate?id=03fecc46f00312e0f3e868b62365de5758b9621d

Use it from the command line, inside Claude / Cursor / any AI IDE (it's an MCP server), or as a small REST API. One install does all three.

Install

pipx install aws-calculator-mcp      # recommended
# or:  pip install aws-calculator-mcp

That's all. The first time you make an estimate it downloads a small browser engine once (~150 MB) to read live prices — you don't install anything else.

(On Ubuntu/Debian, if `pip` says "externally managed", use `pipx` or add `--break-system-packages`.)

3 ways to use it

1) Plain English (easiest)

aws-calc --prompt "1 t4g.medium server with 50GB and daily snapshot, plus a 100GB S3 bucket"

It prints exactly what it understood, then the link:

   Understood from your prompt:
     • ec2 (instances=1, instance_type=t4g.medium, storage_gb=50,
            snapshot_frequency=daily, snapshot_changed_gb=10)
     • s3 (storage_gb=100)
   Monthly cost: $40.83 USD
   🔗 https://calculator.aws/#/estimate?id=1096b9ed939063ec3e4e5ff0b16628c6b2ccc0da

↑ that's a real link from this exact prompt — open it to validate.

• Add --group to organise by category (Compute, Database, Network…).
• Add --region ap-south-1 (Mumbai) etc. Default is us-east-1.
• Typos are okay (lamda, buckit, dynmodb all work).

2) Interactive (it asks you)

aws-calc -i

Estimate name [My Estimate]: Prod
AWS region [us-east-1]: ap-south-1
Group services by category? (y/n) [y]: y
Describe your infrastructure: 2 m5.large EC2, RDS MySQL db.m5.large 100GB, an ALB
→ $417.81/mo 🔗 https://calculator.aws/#/estimate?id=5c6523f2ed925c250ddfa2c90f84a4def7c36858

Interactive mode is best when you want a quick guided run from the terminal. It accepts normal sentences, but for the most accurate results, describe one service at a time and separate services with commas.

Good:

3 Windows EC2 servers m6a.4xlarge with 300GB storage for 8 hours per month,
EDR with 4 disks and 2000GB storage,
1TB AWS data transfer

Risky:

Need DR app in Hyderabad 3 windows servers 8 hours EDR 4 disks 2000GB transfer 1TB make it cheap

The risky version may still work, but if many numbers are close together, the tool can confuse counts, hours, disk counts, storage, or transfer amounts. If you use Cursor/Claude/another AI client, ask the AI to rewrite your request into a clean service list before calling the MCP tool.

3) Inside Claude / Cursor / any MCP client

Add this to your MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aws-cost-estimator": {
      "command": "aws-calc-mcp"
    }
  }
}

In Cursor:

1. Install the package: pipx install aws-calculator-mcp
2. Check the command works: aws-calc-mcp
3. Open Cursor Settings → MCP → Add server.
4. Use command: aws-calc-mcp
5. Restart Cursor if the tool does not appear immediately.

If Cursor cannot find the command, use the full path:

which aws-calc-mcp

Then use that value in config, for example:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aws-cost-estimator": {
      "command": "/home/you/.local/bin/aws-calc-mcp"
    }
  }
}

For local development from this repository, point Cursor at your venv binary:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aws-cost-estimator-local": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/aws-mcp-calculator/.venv/bin/aws-calc-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Then just chat:

"I'm building a small website with ~10k visitors. Suggest a budget AWS setup and create a pricing link."

The assistant designs the stack and calls the tool — you get the official link back.

Quick verification prompt after adding it:

"Use the AWS cost estimator tool to create a draft estimate for 1 t4g.small EC2 with 20GB and 100GB S3 in Mumbai."

Expected shape of the response:

Services: 2
Understood from your prompt:
  • ec2 (instances=1, instance_type=t4g.small, storage_gb=20)
  • s3 (storage_gb=100)
https://calculator.aws/#/estimate?id=...

What you can put in an estimate

~50 services. Just name them; sizes/counts are optional (sensible defaults apply):

Handy things you can say:

• Instance type: "t4g.medium", "db.m5.large", "cache.r6g.large"
• Storage / transfer: "50GB storage", "1TB data transfer"
• Requests: "2M requests", "10k messages per day"
• Snapshots: "daily snapshot of 20GB" (also weekly / monthly)
• Savings: "reserved 3 year", "savings plan 1 year"
• Auto-scaling / part-time: "runs 5 hours per day"

Prompt recommendations

You do not need perfect JSON or AWS expertise, but the estimate is easier to validate when the prompt is specific.

• Put commas between services: 2 EC2..., RDS..., S3..., ALB...
• Put the count next to the service: 3 EC2 servers, 2 Aurora nodes, 4 EDR disks
• Put units on every number: 300GB storage, 1TB data transfer, 8 hours per month
• Say the region plainly: in Mumbai, in Hyderabad, or region ap-south-1
• Use exact AWS sizes when you know them: m6a.4xlarge, db.r6g.large, cache.r6g.large
• For DR, say EDR or DRS when you mean AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery. Use plain DR

only as context, for example Hyderabad DR setup with EDR...

• For EC2 pricing, prefer 1-year savings plan or 3-year savings plan over

generic reserved

• After every run, check the Understood from your prompt lines before trusting

the price

If the prompt is messy, this pattern works well:

Estimate this in ap-south-2:
3 Windows EC2 servers m6a.4xlarge, 300GB storage each, 8 hours per month
EDR, 4 disks, 2000GB storage, 10 percent change rate
AWS data transfer, 1TB outbound

Real examples — click to validate

Each prompt below produced a real, live AWS Pricing Calculator link. Open any of them to verify the costs yourself:

1. Vague idea — "a small website with a database and a 100GB bucket" → $148.62/mo https://calculator.aws/#/estimate?id=3bc90edb5879c1c8bda43ad2384ec052b0d69e49

2. Budget blog — "cheapest setup: 1 t4g.small server with 20GB for a personal blog" → $13.86/mo https://calculator.aws/#/estimate?id=b3a7dbb5284a327014f7330d670d6a2c16fa385a

3. Site + daily snapshot — "1 t4g.medium server 50GB with daily snapshot, plus a 100GB S3 bucket" → $40.83/mo https://calculator.aws/#/estimate?id=bff1a75683a9137aca838217b29e2e334db130ad

4. Web app (grouped) — "3 t3.large EC2 with 50GB, RDS MySQL db.m5.large 100GB multi-az, 500GB S3, an ALB, CloudFront 1TB" → $641.24/mo https://calculator.aws/#/estimate?id=8c3cf1097ccee1b08379067d882c064acb889503

5. Serverless API (grouped) — "Lambda with 10M requests, DynamoDB, API Gateway, 200GB S3" → $28.56/mo + $180 upfront https://calculator.aws/#/estimate?id=0dc7dcc6a28c504943f3d18d2ecffd66a8f18ad7

6. Enterprise (grouped) — "4 m5.xlarge EC2, Aurora MySQL db.r6g.large 2 nodes, Redis cache.r6g.large, CloudFront 2TB, WAF, GuardDuty, CloudTrail" → $1,311.13/mo https://calculator.aws/#/estimate?id=ddb66ce8d0a726a1e539dd7e742072717b084744

Use it with other AI tools

It's a standard MCP server, so any MCP-capable assistant can call it. The config block is the same everywhere — {"command": "aws-calc-mcp"}:

Once added, just ask the assistant in plain language:

"Design a budget AWS setup for a 10k-user app and create a pricing link."

It picks the services and calls the tool — you get the official link back.

Optional: run it as a REST API

Only if you want an HTTP endpoint (e.g. for ChatGPT actions or automation):

pip install "aws-calculator-mcp[api]"
aws-calc-api                # http://localhost:8080

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/v1/estimate -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"prompt": "2 m5.large EC2, RDS MySQL db.m5.large 100GB, 500GB S3", "group": true}'

Docs at /docs. For ChatGPT, import /openapi.json as a Custom GPT Action.

Good to know

• Costs come from AWS itself — the tool fills the official calculator and reads

the real numbers, so they match calculator.aws exactly.

• Friendly errors — unknown service → "did you mean…?"; it also tells you if it

skipped a part it didn't understand.

• Interactive mode is guided, not magic — it uses the same plain-English parser

as the CLI. It handles common sentences, typos and missing commas, but very long mixed prompts can still be ambiguous. Commas and units make it much more reliable.

• A few calculator forms may need manual tweaks after opening the link (notably

AWS Backup and EC2 standard Reserved — use Savings Plans instead).

• The natural-language reader is a helper; an AI client (Claude/ChatGPT) handles

messy descriptions even better.

Feedback

This is open source and improving through real-world prompts. If a generated calculator link is wrong, please open a GitHub issue with:

• the prompt or structured service list you used
• the generated calculator link
• what you expected to see in the AWS calculator

The goal is to make this MCP reliable for AWS, DevOps, FinOps and AI-agent workflows.

Changelog

• 1.3.4 — Cleaner calculator payloads: no empty optional transfer sections, default EC2 boot storage for plain-English prompts, fixed Aurora node parsing, DRS/data-transfer regressions covered by tests.
• 1.3.0 — EBS snapshots (daily/weekly/monthly); simpler README + real example links; AI-tool integration guide.
• 1.2.x — plain-English prompts, interactive mode, auto-grouping, self-contained baking (auto-installs the browser engine), multi-service phrases, friendly errors, typo tolerance.
• 1.0.x — initial release: MCP server + CLI + REST API, ~50 AWS services, real baked-in costs.

Issues & feedback: github.com/vireshsolanki/aws-calculator-mcp · MIT licensed · not affiliated with AWS (uses the public calculator.aws endpoints).