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It’s actually hard to say. The prices these companies pay can be very different than list prices for us mortals. It’s one of my biggest complaints about AWS; th

It’s actually hard to say. The prices these companies pay can be very different than list prices for us mortals. It’s one of my biggest complaints about AWS; the prices seem high, but in reality they are very opaque.

woleium 2y ago
they probably pay around 40% of list, depending on how much their ARR is.
andersa 2y ago
This really needs to be made illegal already. All prices should be public and you should not be allowed to charge different customers different prices for the same automated service. I should be able to store my data at the exact same $/TB price as Epic Games, for example. They once mentioned it costs them less than a penny to serve several GB from AWS - why the fuck is it more expensive for me?
- rescbr 2y ago
  If you are willing to sign a contract and commit to spend $ millions per year on AWS services for 5+ years like Epic Games did, then sure, you can get the same $/TB price they got. At some point of very large usage, you also have to work with AWS teams to give input on your demand forecast. Unless you have such large usage you get list price, that also gives you the illusion of infinite elasticity. This is not exclusive to AWS though, all hyperscalers have this policy.
- tnmom 2y ago
  Because you’re a more expensive customer per dollar of revenue, statistically - there are constant costs per customer for support, billing, etc.
  - andersa 2y ago
    Billing is automated. What support? S3 doesn't care whether it serves a PB of Epic traffic or from thousands of small customers, it's all automated. There is no actually reasonable explanation for the service being 10-100 times more expensive than greed.
    - tnmom 2y ago
      Cards get declined. Support tickets get created. Customers die and you have to hold all their stuff open for 90 days while trying to reach them, without a chance of getting paid. You might not be stupid, but there are people who look _just like you_ who will email support over a six cent billing issue which turns out to be correct anyway - but just burned a couple hours of support people’s time. Epic probably doesn’t do stuff like that.
- maxerickson 2y ago
  Would it also be illegal to have 2 very similar services, with no small tier on one of them?
- scarface_74 2y ago
  Every business negotiates volume discounts. Do you think consumer goods companies charge Walmart for products at the same rate that they charge a mom and pop shop? I’m sure if you had the same volume as Netflix you would pay less than the retail price to. If you ever flew on a plane, I can guarantee you that there are probably 20+ different prices being charged for the same seat.
- greggsy 2y ago
  Many jurisdictions do require prices to be clearly displayed for goods, but services are a different beast. You have limited resources to deliver these services, customer needs can be complex, and differ across regions.
- belter 2y ago
  So what you are saying is that if I buy one Tesla, and you buy one hundred Tesla cars, they are not authorized to give you a discount?
- quickthrowman 2y ago
  > They once mentioned it costs them less than a penny to serve several GB from AWS - why the fuck is it more expensive for me? You spend far less money than a corporation, and there are customer costs beyond the actual bandwidth/compute charges.
- hodgesrm 2y ago
  > This really needs to be made illegal already. All prices should be public and you should not be allowed to charge different customers different prices for the same automated service. Why? Different people get different prices for products all the time. It's fundamental to a functioning free market.
- dekhn 2y ago
  Why should it be illegal for service providers to negotiate prices?

woleium 2y ago

they probably pay around 40% of list, depending on how much their ARR is.

andersa 2y ago

This really needs to be made illegal already. All prices should be public and you should not be allowed to charge different customers different prices for the same automated service. I should be able to store my data at the exact same $/TB price as Epic Games, for example. They once mentioned it costs them less than a penny to serve several GB from AWS - why the fuck is it more expensive for me?

rescbr 2y ago
If you are willing to sign a contract and commit to spend $ millions per year on AWS services for 5+ years like Epic Games did, then sure, you can get the same $/TB price they got. At some point of very large usage, you also have to work with AWS teams to give input on your demand forecast. Unless you have such large usage you get list price, that also gives you the illusion of infinite elasticity. This is not exclusive to AWS though, all hyperscalers have this policy.
tnmom 2y ago
Because you’re a more expensive customer per dollar of revenue, statistically - there are constant costs per customer for support, billing, etc.
- andersa 2y ago
  Billing is automated. What support? S3 doesn't care whether it serves a PB of Epic traffic or from thousands of small customers, it's all automated. There is no actually reasonable explanation for the service being 10-100 times more expensive than greed.
  - tnmom 2y ago
    Cards get declined. Support tickets get created. Customers die and you have to hold all their stuff open for 90 days while trying to reach them, without a chance of getting paid. You might not be stupid, but there are people who look _just like you_ who will email support over a six cent billing issue which turns out to be correct anyway - but just burned a couple hours of support people’s time. Epic probably doesn’t do stuff like that.
maxerickson 2y ago
Would it also be illegal to have 2 very similar services, with no small tier on one of them?
scarface_74 2y ago
Every business negotiates volume discounts. Do you think consumer goods companies charge Walmart for products at the same rate that they charge a mom and pop shop? I’m sure if you had the same volume as Netflix you would pay less than the retail price to. If you ever flew on a plane, I can guarantee you that there are probably 20+ different prices being charged for the same seat.
greggsy 2y ago
Many jurisdictions do require prices to be clearly displayed for goods, but services are a different beast. You have limited resources to deliver these services, customer needs can be complex, and differ across regions.
belter 2y ago
So what you are saying is that if I buy one Tesla, and you buy one hundred Tesla cars, they are not authorized to give you a discount?
quickthrowman 2y ago
> They once mentioned it costs them less than a penny to serve several GB from AWS - why the fuck is it more expensive for me? You spend far less money than a corporation, and there are customer costs beyond the actual bandwidth/compute charges.
hodgesrm 2y ago
> This really needs to be made illegal already. All prices should be public and you should not be allowed to charge different customers different prices for the same automated service. Why? Different people get different prices for products all the time. It's fundamental to a functioning free market.
dekhn 2y ago
Why should it be illegal for service providers to negotiate prices?