Plant a Vine
Cost Sidebar
Real-time cost estimation sidebar with AWS Pricing API integration.
Cost Sidebar
The cost sidebar appears on the right side of the Plant a Vine form (visible on desktop screens). It shows the estimated monthly infrastructure cost, updating in real-time as you change configuration values.
For a deeper technical explanation, see Cost Estimation.
How It Works
- When a region is selected, pricing data is fetched from the AWS Pricing API via the
fetchPrices(region)store action - Prices are cached in the Zustand store with a 24-hour TTL
- Each form change triggers a recalculation
- Fallback hardcoded rates are used if the API call fails
Cost Breakdown
The sidebar shows individual line items:
| Component | Calculation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| EKS Control Plane | Fixed $0.10/hour × 730 | $73/mo |
| Compute Nodes | avg_instance_rate × desired_nodes × 730 | $182/mo (3× t3.large) |
| NAT Gateway | $0.048 × count × 730 | $35/mo (single) |
| Database (Aurora) | min_ACU × $0.14 × 730 per instance | $51/mo (0.5 ACU) |
| Cache | node_rate × count × 730 | $50/mo (1× cache.t3.medium) |
| WAF | $5 per enabled option | $5–$10/mo |
| Secrets | $0.40 per secret | $1.60/mo (4 secrets) |
| NoSQL/Queues/Topics | Usage-based | $0 (not estimable) |
Total is the sum of all line items.
Pricing Sources
| Resource | Source | Fallback |
|---|---|---|
| EC2 instances | AWS Pricing API (on-demand, Linux, shared tenancy) | Hardcoded rates per type |
| EKS control plane | Hardcoded ($0.10/hr) | — |
| NAT Gateway | AWS Pricing API | Hardcoded ($0.048/hr) |
| Aurora ACU | AWS Pricing API | Hardcoded ($0.14/ACU-hr) |
| ElastiCache | AWS Pricing API | Hardcoded rates per type |
| WAF | Hardcoded ($5/mo) | — |
| Secrets | Hardcoded ($0.40/secret) | — |
Limitations
- Pricing is currently AWS-only — GCP and Azure sections show approximate costs based on similar resource profiles
- Data transfer costs are not estimated (highly variable)
- NoSQL, messaging, and storage costs are usage-based and show $0
- Infracost provides more accurate post-plan costs — see Cost Estimation