AWS cross-region data transfer cost
Moving data between AWS regions is a separate meter from internet egress, and it is the surprise line item on most multi-region and DR bills. This is the full inter-region corridor table with worked replication math.
Headline rate: $0.02/GB from us-east-1 to almost every region, $0.01/GB to us-east-2. Source →
How much does AWS cross-region transfer cost?
From us-east-1 (N. Virginia), AWS charges $0.02/GB for inter-region data transfer out to almost every other region — US West, all EU regions, standard Asia Pacific, South America, Canada, Africa, and the Middle East. The one cheaper corridor is us-east-1 to us-east-2 (Ohio) at $0.01/GB. A few newer or remote regions cost more: Thailand is $0.08/GB, and the European Sovereign Cloud and Senegal are $0.05/GB.
Cross-region transfer is billed on the source (sending) region as data transfer out to another region. Inbound to the destination region is free. It is separate from, and additional to, internet egress — if the data later leaves AWS to a user, you also pay internet egress from wherever it exits.
See the full AWS picture on the AWS data transfer reference →, or the hidden costs breakdown →.
One direction · source region · excludes internet egress
[01]Inter-region corridor rates from us-east-1
AWS prices inter-region transfer per source-destination corridor, but from us-east-1 (the most common source) the picture is simple: almost everything is $0.02/GB. Rates are the outbound charge on the sending region.
| Destination region | Rate /GB | Note |
|---|---|---|
| us-east-2 (Ohio) | $0.01 | The one $0.01/GB corridor from us-east-1. |
| us-west-1 / us-west-2 (California, Oregon) | $0.02 | Standard cross-country US rate. |
| ca-central-1 (Canada Central) | $0.02 | Same rate as US West. |
| eu-west-1 / eu-central-1 (Ireland, Frankfurt) | $0.02 | All standard EU regions. |
| eu-west-2 / eu-north-1 (London, Stockholm) | $0.02 | All standard EU regions. |
| ap-northeast-1 / ap-southeast-1 (Tokyo, Singapore) | $0.02 | Standard Asia Pacific. |
| ap-southeast-2 (Sydney) | $0.02 | Standard Asia Pacific. |
| ap-south-1 (Mumbai) | $0.02 | Standard Asia Pacific. |
| sa-east-1 (Sao Paulo) | $0.02 | South America. |
| af-south-1 (Cape Town) | $0.02 | Africa. |
| me-central-1 (UAE), me-south-1 (Bahrain) | $0.02 | Middle East. |
| ap-southeast-7 (Thailand) | $0.08 | Outlier: newer region, highest rate. |
| AWS European Sovereign Cloud (Germany) | $0.05 | Outlier. |
| Africa (Senegal, Dakar) | $0.05 | Outlier: remote region. |
Rates verified against the AWS pricing offer file (pricing.us-east-1.amazonaws.com, AWSDataTransfer, published 2026-08-31), read directly September 2026. Corridors from other source regions vary; us-west-2 and EU sources also sit at $0.02/GB to most destinations. AWS source →
[02]Worked example: daily DR replication
A common pattern: replicate a 10 TB dataset from us-east-1 to eu-west-1 every day for disaster recovery. The transfer alone, before any storage or request costs, is where teams get surprised.
Our arithmetic over the verified $0.02/GB inter-region rate (1 TB = 1,024 GB). Excludes destination storage, request, and any internet-egress costs. Only re-transfer changed data (incremental replication) to avoid paying full-dataset rates every sync.
[03]How to cut cross-region costs
Replicate incrementally
Sync only changed objects, not the full dataset each cycle. The single biggest lever on replication bills.
Keep chatty services co-located
A microservice fabric split across regions pays $0.02/GB on every hop. Keep tightly-coupled services in one region.
Prefer us-east-2 for a US standby
us-east-1 to us-east-2 is $0.01/GB, half the cross-country rate, if your DR region choice is flexible.
Use VPC peering, not NAT
Cross-region VPC peering carries the same $0.02/GB with no extra peering fee. Routing through NAT adds $0.045/GB.
Compress before transfer
Inter-region transfer bills raw bytes on the wire. Columnar/compressed formats cut the volume directly.
Question the DR RPO
Continuous replication is expensive. If a 24-hour RPO is acceptable, batched nightly sync is far cheaper than streaming.
More levers on the reduce egress costs guide →, and the full surprise-fee list on the hidden costs page →.
Multi-region on AWS adds up fast
Cross-region transfer, internet egress, and NAT stack on top of each other. See how AWS compares to zero-egress alternatives for multi-region and multi-cloud patterns.
[04]Frequently asked
Q.01How much does AWS cross-region data transfer cost?
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From us-east-1 (N. Virginia), AWS charges $0.02/GB for inter-region data transfer out to almost every other region — US West, all EU regions, standard Asia Pacific regions, South America, Canada, Africa, and the Middle East. The one cheaper corridor is us-east-1 to us-east-2 (Ohio), which is $0.01/GB. A handful of newer or remote regions cost more: Asia Pacific (Thailand) is $0.08/GB, and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud and Africa (Senegal, Dakar) are $0.05/GB. Cross-region transfer is billed on the sending (source) region and is separate from internet egress. Verified against the AWS pricing offer file, September 2026.
Q.02How much is us-east-1 to us-west-2 data transfer?
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Data transfer from us-east-1 (N. Virginia) to us-west-2 (Oregon) is $0.02/GB. So moving 1 TB between the two costs $20.48, 10 TB costs $204.80, and 100 TB costs $2,048. This is charged once, on the source region's outbound meter; inbound to the destination region is free. It is separate from, and in addition to, any internet egress you pay when data finally leaves AWS.
Q.03Is AWS cross-region transfer cheaper than internet egress?
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Yes, substantially. Internet egress from a US region starts at $0.09/GB, while inter-region transfer is $0.02/GB (or $0.01/GB us-east-1 to us-east-2). But cross-region transfer is not a substitute for internet egress — if data ultimately leaves AWS to a user, you pay internet egress from the destination region on top. Cross-region charges hit hardest on always-on patterns: multi-region replication, DR standbys, and chatty services split across regions.
Q.04Which direction is charged for AWS inter-region transfer?
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AWS charges inter-region data transfer on the source (sending) region as 'data transfer out to another region'. Data transfer in to the destination region is free. So a bidirectional replication stream is billed on both regions' outbound meters — each region pays for what it sends. This is why cross-region replication for disaster recovery effectively doubles the transfer bill when both sides push updates.
Q.05Does cross-region transfer stack with NAT Gateway and other fees?
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It can. Inter-region transfer at $0.02/GB is the base rate for traffic leaving one region for another over the AWS backbone. If that traffic routes through a NAT Gateway, you also pay $0.045/GB in NAT processing on top. VPC peering across regions carries the same $0.02/GB inter-region rate with no extra peering fee, which is why VPC peering or Transfer Family patterns are usually cheaper than routing cross-region traffic through NAT.