---
title: Amazon Fargate & ECS Task Pricing: vCPU-Seconds, Ephemeral Storage, and Fargate vs EC2 Launch Type (2026)
description: Fargate bills per vCPU-second and GB-second, not per task hour. In us-east-1 a 0.25 vCPU / 0.5 GB task runs ~$9/mo; a 4 vCPU / 16 GB task ~$170/mo. Prefer arm64 + C9g/C8g when moving steady-state to ECS on EC2.
url: https://www.joinhorizon.co/blog/amazon-fargate-ecs-task-pricing-2026/
datePublished: 2026-06-17T00:00:00.000Z
dateModified: 2026-10-28T00:00:00.000Z
author: kevin-w
category: Cost Optimization & FinOps
tags: aws-fargate, aws-ecs, container-pricing, cost-optimization, finops
---

# Amazon Fargate & ECS Task Pricing: vCPU-Seconds, Ephemeral Storage, and Fargate vs EC2 Launch Type (2026)

> Fargate bills per vCPU-second and GB-second, not per task hour. In us-east-1 a 0.25 vCPU / 0.5 GB task runs ~$9/mo; a 4 vCPU / 16 GB task ~$170/mo. Prefer arm64 + C9g/C8g when moving steady-state to ECS on EC2.

import PricingHeroStats from '~/components/blog/PricingHeroStats.astro';
import PricingCalculatorCta from '~/components/blog/PricingCalculatorCta.astro';

As of **June 2026**, Fargate prices Linux x86 at **$0.04048/vCPU-hour** and **$0.004445/GB-hour** in us-east-1; Graviton (arm64) runs ~20% lower. ECS itself has no per-task control-plane fee on EC2 launch type. You pay EC2 (or Fargate) plus optional Service Connect, CloudWatch, and data transfer.

<PricingHeroStats
  stats={[
    { value: '$0.04048', label: 'vCPU-hour', note: 'Fargate Linux x86 us-east-1' },
    { value: '$0.004445', label: 'GB-hour', note: 'Task memory' },
    { value: '~55%', label: 'Utilization crossover', note: 'ECS EC2 vs Fargate (typical)' },
    { value: '20 GB', label: 'Free ephemeral', note: 'Per task; then per-GB-hour' },
  ]}
/>

<PricingCalculatorCta blogSlug="amazon-fargate-ecs-task-pricing-2026" />

## Quantified pattern

A **B2B API platform** (~$22k/mo containers, 40 Fargate services) averaged **38% CPU utilization** on rightsized tasks. Moving steady-state services to ECS on EC2 with Spot capacity providers cut container compute **$6,800/mo** (~31%) with two weeks of platform engineering. Bursty webhook workers stayed on Fargate. For **net-new** ECS-on-EC2 capacity providers, prefer **arm64 + C9g/C8g** over legacy c7g (see the [ECS C9g capacity-provider diagram](https://www.joinhorizon.co/examples/architecture-blog-2026/c9g-graviton5/ecs-c9g-capacity-provider.drawio)).

## Fargate vs ECS on EC2

| Factor       | Fargate                      | ECS on EC2                      |
| ------------ | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------- |
| Ops burden   | Lowest                       | AMI, patching, scaling          |
| Billing unit | vCPU + GB seconds            | EC2 instance hours              |
| Best fit     | Spiky / small teams          | Sustained utilization           |
| Spot         | Fargate Spot (interruptions) | EC2 Spot via capacity providers |

Model all three paths: [Fargate calculator](https://www.joinhorizon.co/tools/aws-fargate-pricing-calculator/), [ECS on EC2 calculator](https://www.joinhorizon.co/tools/aws-ecs-pricing-calculator/), [Fargate vs EC2 calculator](https://www.joinhorizon.co/tools/aws-fargate-vs-ec2-pricing-calculator/).

> **New (June 18, 2026):** ECS service auto scaling now supports 20-second high-resolution metrics (vs the default 60s). AWS measured scale-out trigger time dropping 363s → 86s (76% faster) and total scale-and-provision 386s → 109s (72% faster), on Fargate, ECS Managed Instances, and EC2. Faster reaction lets you hold a thinner steady-state baseline and let scaling absorb spikes, which trims the always-on vCPU/GB bill (high-resolution metrics bill at standard CloudWatch rates).

## If you only do one thing this week

Pull **ECS CPUUtilization** and **MemoryUtilization** for your top five services by cost. Any service under **30% average CPU and memory** for 14 days is a Fargate rightsizing candidate. Drop one vCPU or 1 GB and re-measure before changing launch type. For spiky services, also enable **20-second high-resolution metrics** on the target-tracking policy so the thinner baseline scales out before users notice.

## More in This Series

Part of the **AWS Service Pricing** series (June 2026).

- Previous: [Part 25](https://www.joinhorizon.co/blog/amazon-elasticache-pricing-nodes-serverless-2026/)
- Related: [Part 19 — Amazon EKS Pricing](https://www.joinhorizon.co/blog/amazon-eks-pricing-control-plane-addons-auto-mode/)
- Browse all: [Cost Optimization & FinOps category](https://www.joinhorizon.co/category/cost-optimization-and-finops/)
- Hub: [AWS cost optimization resources](https://www.joinhorizon.co/resources/aws-cost-optimization/)

## FAQ

### How is Fargate priced?
Per vCPU-hour and per GB-hour of task memory, billed per second with a 1-minute minimum. Ephemeral storage above 20 GB is charged per GB-hour. OS choice (Linux vs Windows) and architecture (x86 vs arm64/Graviton) change the rate. Regional multipliers apply.

### When is ECS on EC2 cheaper than Fargate?
When average cluster CPU utilization exceeds roughly 50 to 60% over a month and you can tolerate EC2 operations (AMI patching, capacity providers, Spot blending). Prefer arm64 Graviton hosts: C9g for new compute-optimized capacity in GA Regions, C8g when RI-locked. Fargate wins for spiky, low-utilization, or ops-light workloads where engineer time to run EC2 exceeds the compute premium.

---

*Source: https://www.joinhorizon.co/blog/amazon-fargate-ecs-task-pricing-2026/*