On September 19th, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the leading public cloud service from Amazon, revealed a major change to its billing model. Starting October 2nd, AWS will begin charging customers for EC2 virtual server usage in seconds, rather than by the hour. This marks a significant shift in how cloud resources are priced and managed.
This new approach could have a major impact on businesses that rely heavily on EC2 instances. For years, AWS has billed users hourly since its launch in 2006. In 2013, Google Cloud, part of Alphabet, introduced minute-based billing as a competitive move. Microsoft Azure followed closely, also offering more granular pricing. Now, AWS is taking a step forward with second-by-second billing, aiming to give users more control over their costs and encourage more efficient resource utilization.
Although this change might lead to lower costs for some workloads—especially those that run for short periods—it could also make companies more cautious about how they use EC2 for longer or more complex tasks. The shift reflects a broader trend in the cloud industry toward more precise and flexible pricing models.
Amazon’s decision aligns with its long-standing strategy of using pricing as a tool to gain and maintain market share. While Microsoft had already introduced second-by-second billing earlier this year, it was limited to containerized workloads—technologies that are still not as widely adopted as traditional virtual machines. By expanding this model to EC2, AWS is pushing the industry further toward dynamic, usage-based pricing.
As competition in the cloud space intensifies, such moves are likely to become more common. Companies will need to adapt their strategies to take full advantage of these new billing options while managing costs effectively. Whether this change ultimately benefits all users remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the cloud computing landscape is evolving rapidly, and AWS is leading the charge.
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