🌐 Frontend & Web

AWS Networking Bills: How NAT Gateways and Cross-AZ Hops Turned One Team's Oversight into $10K Daily Burn

Your AWS bill looks fine until 'EC2-Other' balloons. Inside? Networking sneak-attacks via NAT and cross-AZ traffic. Here's the how, why, and fixes that actually stick.

DevTools Feed Apr 03, 2026 4 min read
AWS VPC diagram showing NAT Gateway data flow, cross-AZ traffic, and cost breakdowns

⚡ Key Takeaways

  • Traffic within single AZ on private IPs is free; every boundary crossed incurs fees that stack fast.
  • NAT Gateway + egress = $0.135/GB; real teams saved $310K/month switching to Direct Connect.
  • Enable topology-aware routing in Kubernetes for one-line cross-AZ savings up to 94% of data bills.
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#AWS networking costs #NAT Gateway #VPC data transfer #cross-AZ fees

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Originally reported by dev.to

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