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Postgres pricing

Is Neon cheaper than Amazon RDS?

Short answer: it depends on your workload. Neon scales to zero, so it is cheapest when your database can idle; Amazon RDS bills around the clock. The two cases below flip the answer.

Bursty or idle workload
1 CU, ~4 h/day, scale-to-zero, 10 GB
Neon$16.39
Amazon RDS$47.87
Neon is cheaper here
Steady, always-on workload
2 CU, 24/7, 50 GB
Neon$172
Amazon RDS$129
Amazon RDS is cheaper here

Neon: Serverless Postgres that scales compute to zero when idle. It bills usage-based, no monthly minimum, billed per compute-hour.

Amazon RDS: Managed Postgres on AWS, billed around the clock per instance. It bills per instance-hour, 24/7, no scale-to-zero.

So Neon is cheaper than Amazon RDS for bursty or idle databases, and more expensive for the other. Your real answer depends on your compute size, how many hours a day the database is active, and your storage.

Run your exact numbers

Move the sliders for your workload and see Neon, Amazon RDS, and the others side by side.

Open the comparator
Is Neon cheaper than Amazon RDS?

It depends on your workload. For a bursty or idle database, Neon is usually cheaper (about $16.39 vs $47.87 in our reference case). For a steady, always-on database, Amazon RDS comes out ahead. Run your own numbers in the comparator.

What decides which is cheaper?

Mostly whether your database can idle. Neon scales to zero and bills only while active; Amazon RDS bills around the clock. Compute size and storage matter too.

Whichever you pick, FluentDB is the Mac client for it.

Download FluentDB for Mac
See also: Is Amazon RDS cheaper than Neon? · Prices last verified 2026-08-01.