Reduce AWS Step Functions costs with these tips
Coordination for distributed applications
AWS Step Functions cost saving tips
Optimize your AWS Step Functions costs with these tips
Use Intrinsic Functions
Since you are billed by the number of transitions of your step function, it might be worthwhile to refactor your step functions to use intrinsic functions instead of Lambda or ECS tasks. If you are able to refactor such a state transition to an intrinsic function you might save on the number of transitions.
Switch To Express Workflows
Express workflows have some limitations, for example a maximum duration of 5 minutes and they do not support some integration patterns. However, these limitations come at a significant cost saving. Express Workflows are about 25x cheaper compared to Standard Workflows. You must however consider the refactoring of your step function.
Consider Using AWS EventBridge
If your step function is just orchestrating work in AWS Lambda or AWS Fargate you might be able to refactor your step function with EventBridge. You can start your work on an AWS event (for instance an S3 object created, AWS events are free). When the task stops, you can fire another event to retry if the task was unsuccessful.
Service information & pricing
About AWS Step Functions
- About AWS Step Functions
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AWS Step Functions is a visual workflow service that helps developers create distributed apps, automate processes, and set up data & machine learning pipelines. The drag-and-drop interface manages workflows across 220+ AWS services without code maintenance. Due to its serverless nature it can quickly get expensive at scale.
- AWS Step Functions pricing
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AWS Step Functions Standard Workflows costs depend on state transitions needed to run your app. You pay for all transitions including retries. The free tier includes 4,000 monthly transitions. Charges are calculated daily, billed monthly. Retry errors add to cost. Pricing varies by region. Express workflows are much cheaper than Standard Workflows.