AWS Directory Service pricing calculator
Managed Microsoft AD Cost Estimator. Estimate your costs using AWS list prices.
Estimates from AWS list prices, not an AWS quote. Discounts, taxes and credit terms may affect your bill.
01 · How AWS Directory Service pricing works
What you pay for
- Per domain controller-hour by edition (Standard $0.06, Enterprise $0.20; the hybrid edition is priced at $0.325 in this data). Two DCs are the minimum.
- Directory sharing per shared account-hour.
- Multi-Region replication: additional DCs plus inter-Region data transfer.
- AD Connector and Simple AD are priced per directory-hour (not modelled here).
Common cost traps
- A directory always runs at least two DCs, so the minimum is about $88/month (Standard) or $292/month (Enterprise).
- Each added DC and each replica Region bills per hour.
- Directory sharing is billed per account-hour, which adds up across many accounts.
Ways to reduce cost
- Use Standard edition for fewer than about 30,000 objects.
- Use AD Connector if you already run AD on premises.
- Share one directory instead of creating one per account where possible.
Free Tier & account eligibility
Free Tier depends on account age. Accounts created on or after 15 July 2025 get a $100 sign-up credit plus up to $100 more for completing onboarding activities; on the Free plan these last 6 months (or until used up), on the Paid plan unused Free Tier credits stay usable for 12 months from sign-up. Accounts created before 15 July 2025 keep the legacy Free Tier (12-month offers plus always-free offers). Always-free offers apply on both plans. AWS Managed Microsoft AD has a 30-day limited free trial (limited hours; multi-Region replication data transfer is not included); there is no always-free allowance. New-plan accounts can pay from Free Tier credits.
02 · AWS credits & runway
Do credits cover AWS Directory Service?
AWS Managed Microsoft AD domain controllers, directory sharing and cross-Region replication data transfer are eligible usage and are offset by credits. General rules: credits only offset charges from the billing cycle in which they were applied onward (never past bills), they apply only to the services listed on the credit in Billing and Cost Management > Credits, they expire on the date shown there, and accounts on the AWS Free plan cannot receive Activate credits until they upgrade to the Paid plan.
Check my creditsExcluded charges & conditions
- Upfront payments for Savings Plans and Reserved Instances (All Upfront, and the upfront part of Partial Upfront). The recurring hourly fee of a No Upfront commitment is billed as normal usage and can be offset.
- AWS Marketplace charges (Activate credits make an exception for third-party foundation models used through Amazon Bedrock).
- AWS Enterprise Support, Enterprise On-Ramp, Unified Operations, resold support and partner-led support.
- Amazon Route 53 domain name registration and transfer fees.
- Taxes (sales, use, VAT and similar), AWS Professional Services, Training and Certification, Mechanical Turk, AWS Managed Services, and any use for cryptocurrency mining.
Illustrative credit runway
Single-service examples from the supplied data, not your calculator result. Months = credit amount ÷ monthly cost, before credit expiry. Credits can expire before these theoretical months are used; coverage and other AWS services can shorten runway.
| Usage profile | Monthly estimate | $10,000 | $25,000 | $100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small | $87.60 | 114.2 mo. | 285.4 mo. | 1,141.6 mo. |
| Medium | $511.00 | 19.6 mo. | 48.9 mo. | 195.7 mo. |
| Large | $1,756.00 | 5.7 mo. | 14.2 mo. | 56.9 mo. |
Small profile assumptions
Managed Microsoft AD Standard, 2 domain controllers 24/7 | Standard DCs: 1,460 DC-hours x $0.06 = $87.60 | Total ~$87.60/month, us-east-1 on-demand list prices, before Free Tier, taxes and support.
Medium profile assumptions
Managed AD Enterprise, 2 DCs, shared with 5 accounts | Enterprise DCs: 1,460 DC-hours x $0.2 = $292.00; Shared accounts: 3,650 account-hours x $0.06 = $219.00 | Total ~$511.00/month, us-east-1 on-demand list prices, before Free Tier, taxes and support.
Large profile assumptions
Managed AD Enterprise, 6 DCs (primary + 2 replica Regions), shared with 20 accounts, 200 GB replication to us-west-2 | Enterprise DCs: 4,380 DC-hours x $0.2 = $876.00; Shared accounts: 14,600 account-hours x $0.06 = $876.00; Replication data transfer: 200 GB x $0.02 = $4.00 | Total ~$1,756.00/month, us-east-1 on-demand list prices, before Free Tier, taxes and support.
04 · Questions
AWS Directory Service pricing FAQ
What is the minimum cost?
Two domain controllers: about $87.60/month for Standard and $292/month for Enterprise in us-east-1.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, a 30-day limited free trial for Managed Microsoft AD; check the hour limits on the pricing page.
Do credits cover Directory Service?
Yes, it is eligible usage.
What adds cost beyond DCs?
Directory sharing per account-hour, extra DCs and replication data transfer.
05 · Sources & estimate notes
Content pack dated 2026-10-19. Calculator rates remain their existing snapshots; this content update is not a price refresh.
Verification notes
- The hourly limits of the Directory Service trial and the "hybrid" edition price ($0.325/DC-hour in local data) should be checked on the pricing page.
- Runway prices come from the calculator repository snapshot rate card directoryservice (no AWS Price List mapping in the build). Confirm the main unit prices on https://aws.amazon.com/directoryservice/pricing/ before publishing.