Calculate EBS volume performance (IOPS, throughput) and monthly cost by volume type.
Last verified: April 2026
Output will appear here...Your PostgreSQL RDS instance on a 500 GB gp2 volume has intermittent latency spikes every afternoon. CloudWatch shows IOPS hitting the 1,500 baseline (500 GB x 3 IOPS/GB) and burst credits depleted. You plug the workload into the calculator: switching to gp3 gives you 3,000 baseline IOPS for $40/month (the same price as gp2) — doubling your IOPS for free. If you need more, adding provisioned IOPS on gp3 costs $0.005/IOPS vs. $0.065/IOPS on io2. The switch eliminates the latency spikes and saves $0 because gp3 is cheaper by default.
The EBS IOPS Calculator helps you determine the performance characteristics and monthly cost of Amazon Elastic Block Store volumes. It covers all major EBS volume types including gp3, gp2, io2 Block Express, io1, st1, and sc1, each with their unique IOPS and throughput baselines. Enter your desired volume size, provisioned IOPS, and throughput to see whether your configuration falls within AWS limits and what it will cost per month. The calculator highlights bottlenecks such as instance-level IOPS caps and burst credit depletion so you can right-size volumes before attaching them to EC2 instances.
The calculator models EBS volume performance by applying type-specific formulas: gp3 uses independently provisioned IOPS and throughput with included baselines, gp2 scales IOPS linearly at 3 per GB with burst credit simulation, io2 uses provisioned IOPS pricing tiers, and st1/sc1 use throughput-based formulas scaled by volume size. Cost is computed by summing per-GB storage charges and per-IOPS provisioning charges (where applicable) at the current regional pricing.
gp3 is almost always better than gp2 for new workloads. gp3 gives you 3,000 IOPS and 125 MiB/s baseline for free regardless of size, while gp2 only gives you 100 IOPS on a 33 GB volume. gp3 is also 20% cheaper per GB. The only reason to keep gp2 is if you rely on burst credits for a workload that's idle most of the time and needs short bursts above 3,000 IOPS.
EBS IOPS are capped at the instance level, not just the volume level. A t3.medium maxes out at 11,800 IOPS no matter what volume you attach. Provisioning 16,000 IOPS on an io2 volume attached to a t3.medium wastes money. Always check the instance type's EBS-optimized throughput limits before sizing your volume.
gp2 burst credits are a hidden time bomb. A 100 GB gp2 volume gets only 300 baseline IOPS and can burst to 3,000 IOPS using credits. Once credits deplete (after sustained high-IO for about 30 minutes), performance drops to 300 IOPS — a 90% reduction that causes sudden database latency spikes. Switch to gp3 where the 3,000 IOPS baseline is guaranteed.
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