Pricing comparison
What cloud extended support costs
AWS and Azure sell extended support as a surcharge on top of the service bill. On 26 Oct 2026: RDS $0.10 per vCPU-hour in US East in years 1 and 2, then $0.20; EKS $0.50 per cluster-hour extra; ElastiCache an 80% node premium; Azure PostgreSQL $0.07 per vCore-hour; OpenSearch a flat rate per instance hour.
Prices checked 26 Oct 2026 on the AWS and Microsoft pricing pages listed under Sources. US East rates unless stated. Written by the OSSeva team, which sells a competing service for self-managed software.
Extended support surcharges by service
Every row below is an extra charge on top of the instance, node or cluster you already pay for. OSSeva is listed first as the self-managed alternative: it publishes no price, and it cannot patch any of the managed services below.
| Service | Surcharge | Billing unit | When it starts and stops |
|---|---|---|---|
| OSSeva, self-managed alternative | Not published. A senior engineer replies within 1 business day with a quote. | Per cluster for most technologies | A subscription for software you run yourself; you choose when to upgrade. |
| Amazon RDS and Aurora (PostgreSQL, MySQL) RDS Extended Support detail | $0.100 per vCPU-hour in years 1 and 2, $0.200 in year 3 (US East, Ohio) | vCPU-hour, standby instances in Multi-AZ included | Starts the day after RDS end of standard support. Stops when you upgrade or delete the database. |
| Amazon ElastiCache (Redis OSS) ElastiCache detail | An 80% premium on the on-demand node price in years 1 and 2, 160% in year 3 | Node-hour, provisioned nodes | Redis OSS 4 and 5: from 1 Feb 2026. Redis OSS 6: from 1 Feb 2027. |
| Amazon OpenSearch Service | $0.0065 per Normalized Instance Hour from 7 Nov 2027 for Elasticsearch 6.8, 7.9, 7.10 and OpenSearch 1.3, 2.11 to 2.17, 2.19. For older lines, 7 Nov 2026 to 7 Nov 2027, a fee equal to the instance price. | Normalized Instance Hour, on top of the instance price | Elasticsearch 5.6 carries the $0.0065 rate to 7 Nov 2028. Storage costs are not affected. |
| Amazon EKS | $0.60 per cluster-hour for extended Kubernetes version support: the $0.10 standard fee plus $0.50 | Cluster-hour | A version is in standard support for 14 months after release, then extended support for the next 12 months. |
| Azure Database for PostgreSQL | $0.070 per vCore-hour (East US) | vCore-hour, running servers only | Versions 11 to 13: billing began 1 Sep 2026. Version 14: extended support starts 1 Feb 2027 and runs to 11 Nov 2029. |
| Azure Database for MySQL | $0.07 per vCore-hour (East US) | vCore-hour | Up to three extra years after standard support ends. |
| Azure Kubernetes Service | Long Term Support is in the Premium tier: $438 per cluster per month against $73 for Standard (Central US) | Cluster-month | LTS applies to LTS-capable Kubernetes versions, for 2 years, Standard clusters only. |
Sources are listed at the foot of the page, each checked 26 Oct 2026. Rates differ by Region: for RDS, Ireland is $0.112 and São Paulo $0.210 in years 1 and 2 (AWS Price List, copied 20 October 2026). Google Cloud is not covered on this page.
What a full year costs: annual examples
Annual figures multiply the published rate by 8,760 hours, or by 12 months for monthly rates. Each service has its own unit, so compare per cluster or per node, never per service.
| Example | Years 1 and 2 | Year 3 | Arithmetic |
|---|---|---|---|
| RDS: one 8 vCPU instance | $7,008 | $14,016 | 8 x 8,760 x $0.10, then x $0.20 |
| RDS: three 16 vCPU primaries, each with a Multi-AZ standby (96 vCPUs) | $84,096 | $168,192 | 96 x 8,760 x $0.10, then x $0.20 |
| ElastiCache: one cache.m5.large node, surcharge only | $1,093 | $2,186 | AWS example, US East (Ohio): $0.1248 then $0.2496 per hour x 8,760 |
| ElastiCache: the same node including its $0.156 on-demand price | $2,460 | $3,553 | $0.2808 then $0.4056 per hour x 8,760 |
| EKS: one cluster, surcharge only | $4,380 | $4,380 | $0.50 x 8,760; a flat fee with no year 3 step |
| EKS: ten clusters, surcharge only | $43,800 | $43,800 | 10 x $4,380 |
| OpenSearch: one m7g.medium.search instance, Elasticsearch 7.10 from 7 Nov 2027 | $114 | Not stated | $0.0065 x 2 (medium factor) x 8,760; the instance itself is $0.068 an hour |
| Azure PostgreSQL or MySQL: 8 vCores | $4,906 | Not stated | 8 x 8,760 x $0.07 |
| AKS: one cluster on Premium against Standard | $4,380 more | $4,380 more | ($438 - $73) x 12 months |
One result stands out: EKS and AKS both add exactly $4,380 per cluster per year, so the cost scales with how many clusters you keep on an old Kubernetes version, not with their size. RDS and Azure charge per vCPU or vCore, so the cost scales with hardware. The pages read show no year 3 rate for OpenSearch, EKS or the Azure services.
Work out your own RDS bill
Enter your Region, vCPU count and instances. The calculator multiplies your numbers by the AWS RDS rates and holds no OSSeva price. Its Region rates were copied from the AWS Price List on 20 October 2026, and the US East rate was rechecked on 26 Oct 2026.
| Period | Rate per vCPU-hour | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 and 2 (from 1 March 2027) | $0.100 | $584 | $7,008 |
| Year 3 (from 1 March 2029) | $0.200 | $1,168 | $14,016 |
| Three years (two at year 1 rate, one at year 3) | 8 billed vCPUs | $28,032 | |
AWS rates copied 20 October 2026 from the AWS RDS for PostgreSQL pricing page and its price list. Extended Support is charged on top of your instance, storage and I/O costs, and every instance in a Multi-AZ deployment is billed, standby included. AWS lists these rates for PostgreSQL 10 to 13 and has not yet published a separate PostgreSQL 14 line, so this assumes the same per-vCPU rate applies to 14. Confirm in the AWS Pricing Calculator before you budget.
Alternatives to paying the surcharge
The first alternative is always the upgrade: every charge above stops when you move to a version in standard support. Run that against the extended support bill in the upgrade vs extended support calculator. When the upgrade has to wait, there is one more route for databases you are prepared to run yourself.
| Managed service | Can OSSeva patch it? | Self-managed route |
|---|---|---|
| RDS, Aurora, Azure Database for PostgreSQL and MySQL | No. Only the cloud provider can change those engine builds. | Move to PostgreSQL or MySQL on EC2, Kubernetes or your own hardware: PostgreSQL, MySQL. See cloud database repatriation. |
| ElastiCache | No. | Self-managed Redis and Valkey. |
| Amazon OpenSearch Service | No. | Self-managed Elasticsearch, including 7.10.2 and 7.17. |
| EKS and AKS | No. Kubernetes control planes are not among the technologies OSSeva supports. | Upgrade the cluster, or pay the surcharge. |
Moving a database off a managed service is a project with its own cost, so for databases that stay in the cloud the surcharge is often the lower-effort choice. OSSeva prices self-managed support per cluster; a quote depends on the technologies, versions, environments and tier. Critical CVEs are patched within 48 hours and High within 7 days; Operate adds 24/7 monitoring and a 15-minute P1 response.
The two detailed spokes cover the service-specific rules: Amazon RDS Extended Support and Amazon ElastiCache Extended Support. For the cross-vendor view, see what extended support costs across vendors.
Sources
Every third-party figure on this page was read on the vendor's own page on 26 Oct 2026. Prices change; confirm with the vendor before you budget.
- AWS, Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL pricing: aws.amazon.com/rds/postgresql/pricing/ (checked 26 Oct 2026)
- AWS, RDS Extended Support charges: docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/extended-support-charges.html (checked 26 Oct 2026)
- AWS, Amazon ElastiCache pricing: aws.amazon.com/elasticache/pricing/ (checked 26 Oct 2026)
- AWS, Amazon OpenSearch Service pricing: aws.amazon.com/opensearch-service/pricing/ (checked 26 Oct 2026)
- AWS, Amazon EKS pricing: aws.amazon.com/eks/pricing/ (checked 26 Oct 2026)
- Microsoft, Azure Database for PostgreSQL pricing: azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/postgresql/flexible-server/ (checked 26 Oct 2026)
- Microsoft, Azure Database for PostgreSQL extended support: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/postgresql/configure-maintain/extended-support (checked 26 Oct 2026)
- Microsoft, Azure Database for MySQL pricing: azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/mysql/ (checked 26 Oct 2026)
- Microsoft, Azure Kubernetes Service pricing: azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/kubernetes-service/ (checked 26 Oct 2026)
How much is RDS extended support?
AWS charges $0.100 per vCPU-hour in years 1 and 2 and $0.200 in year 3 for RDS for PostgreSQL in US East (Ohio), per its pricing page on 26 Oct 2026. Over a full year that is $876 per vCPU in years 1 and 2 and $1,752 in year 3. Standby instances in Multi-AZ deployments are billed too, and charges start the day after standard support ends.
Is EKS extended support worth it?
EKS adds $0.50 per cluster per hour to the $0.10 standard fee, which is $0.60 in total or $5,256 per cluster per year against $876. Extended support lasts 12 months after the 14-month standard window. It is worth it when an upgrade cannot finish before the standard window closes and $4,380 a year per cluster is less than the cost of rushing it. The fee is flat per cluster, so it adds up fastest across many small clusters.
How much does Amazon OpenSearch Service Extended Support cost?
AWS charges a flat fee per Normalized Instance Hour on top of the instance price: $0.0065 in US East (N. Virginia) for Elasticsearch 6.8, 7.9 and 7.10 and OpenSearch 1.3, 2.11 to 2.17 and 2.19 from 7 November 2027. For older lines AWS lists an extension period from 7 November 2026 to 7 November 2027 in which the fee equals the instance price. AWS's example is an m7g.medium.search instance at $0.068 an hour.
What is cheaper than Amazon OpenSearch Service Extended Support for Elasticsearch 7.10?
Upgrading ends the charge. OSSeva supports self-managed Elasticsearch 7.10.2, priced per cluster, but it cannot patch the Amazon OpenSearch Service itself, because only AWS can change that service's builds. Moving a domain to your own servers is a project with its own cost, so compare a quote against your instance sizes and the NIH figures on this page.
Does Azure charge for extended support?
Yes. On 26 Oct 2026 Azure listed $0.070 per vCore-hour for Azure Database for PostgreSQL extended support and $0.07 per vCore-hour for Azure Database for MySQL, both for East US. AKS Long Term Support is part of the Premium tier at $438 per cluster per month against $73 for Standard.
Get a quote
Price the alternative.
Send your instance types, versions and Regions. A senior engineer replies within 1 business day with a quote for the self-managed route.
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