AWS discounts come in two stacked layers: Savings Plans and Reserved Instances on compute, and an Enterprise Discount Program (EDP) commitment on total spend on top of that. Around those sit egress fees and a support percentage that quietly balloons. Winning the AWS deal is about sizing the commitment correctly and bringing a credible alternative to the table.
What you should really pay
| Lever | Benchmark |
|---|---|
| Reserved Instances (3-yr, all-upfront) | up to ~72% off on-demand |
| Compute Savings Plan (3-yr) | ~38–66% off; most flexible |
| EC2 Instance Savings Plan (3-yr) | ~44–72% off (locked to family/region) |
| EDP discount (on top of SP/RI) | ~8–30% by commit size |
| Enterprise Support | 10%→3% tiered; min $15,000/mo |
EDP is a 3–5 year all-account spend commitment, entry around $1M+/year, and its discount stacks on top of Savings Plans and RIs. Directional tiers: $1–3M ~8–12%, $3–10M ~10–16%, $10–25M ~14–20%, $25M+ ~18–30%+. It's private and deal-specific — so benchmarks matter.
The cost traps
- Data egress. Internet data-out runs ~$0.05–0.09/GB with only 100GB/mo free — the classic lock-in and margin trap.
- Cross-AZ transfer. ~$0.01/GB each way silently accrues on Multi-AZ RDS, EKS, and ElastiCache; NAT gateways add ~$0.045/GB.
- EDP overcommitment. You pay the commit regardless of usage and shortfalls are billed — negotiate a back-loaded ramp.
- Idle and oversized resources and forgotten RIs burning commit dollars with no benefit.
- Support percentage on spend — charged on usage before many discounts, a large hidden line.
The levers that work
- Size the EDP commit to real usage and negotiate a back-loaded ramp so early-year floors match actual consumption.
- Stack SP/RI under the EDP for combined savings (up to ~72% plus the EDP percentage).
- Confirm marketplace routing — retire commitment via ISV purchases, but the cap toward EDP is often ~25%, so get it in writing.
- Use migration credits (MAP) for net-new migrations, and negotiate the support percentage and egress waivers at large commits.
- Bring a documented alternative. AWS calibrates offers to quantified, credible multi-cloud evaluations — a real Azure or GCP assessment is the biggest non-volume lever.
Timing
Amazon's fiscal year ends December 31. Start renewal talks 12–18 months out; peak leverage is 6–9 months before EDP expiration. Waiting until 60–90 days out loses leverage.
Bottom line
Right-size and clean up idle resources, size the EDP to real usage with a back-loaded ramp, stack SP/RI underneath, and document an Azure or GCP alternative timed to the December year-end.
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