Save Big with Cognito’s New Pricing Tiers – Up to 60% Off!

AWS Cognito is a fully managed identity and access management service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It simplifies the implementation of user authentication, authorization, and user management for web and mobile applications. One of its key offerings is Advanced Security Features (ASF), which enhances security by providing adaptive authentication, compromised credential protection, and event logging. These features help detect and mitigate risks such as unusual login attempts or the use of stolen credentials. The ASF was charged separately, which may resulted in high overall AWS Cognito cost.

AWS has introduced new pricing tiers for AWS Cognito on November 22, 2024.

The two new AWS Cognito pricing tiers, Essentials and Plus, offer significant value to customers by including partial or full Advanced Security Features (ASF) at no additional cost. Although the prices may be slightly higher than the previous tier, the inclusion of ASF in both tiers provides a substantial cost savings for organizations that require these advanced security features for their Cognito User Pool. Check out pricings of these new tiers.

The Essentials and Plus tiers of AWS Cognito include partial or all Advanced Security Features (ASF), which are typically billed separately as part of the Lite tier. For more information on the specific features included in each tier, refer to AWS documentation.

Note that with the introduction of these new tiers, all existing User Pools will remain in the Lite tier. However, when creating a new User Pool, it defaults to the Essentials tier.

For instance, consider a customer with a user pool in the Lite tier and 30,000 monthly active users (MAUs) using Advanced Security Features (ASF). Their current costs are approximately $110 for MAUs and $1,500 for ASF. By switching to either the Essentials or Plus tier, their monthly cost drops: from $1,610 to $300 (Essentials) or $600 (Plus). This represents a savings of more than 80% or 60%, respectively.

To calculate your potential savings, review your current invoice to find your MAU count and ASF usage. You can then use the provided Google Sheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GeED5Lk2IFkPTBWfobMo_5SNbQwr14Ivbe39fau4IV4/edit?usp=sharing) to estimate your costs based on your usage and determine how much you can save by switching to the Essentials or Plus tier.

With the introduction of new pricing tier, your existing user pool will remain in the Lite tier. To make the change, simply use the AWS CLI or AWS Management Console to update the pricing plan for the user pool. Note that this is a pricing change only and will not result in any downtime for your application.

If your user pool is currently in Lite tier, and it requires additional security features that are not included in the Essentials tier, you will need to upgrade to the Plus tier. In this case, you can only change the tier from Lite to Plus, as switching from Essentials to Plus is not an option.

If customer is using ASF, you can find relevant charge item in the monthly bill and cost explorer.

The monthly bill will have an item on “Congito User Pools <region> advanced security features use....”.

The Use Type contains “<REGION>-CognitoASFMAU”, where ASFMAU means Advanced Feature for Monthly Active Users.

In conclusion, AWS Cognito's new Essentials and Plus pricing tiers offer significant advantages for businesses aiming to optimize costs while enhancing security. By including partial or full Advanced Security Features (ASF) at no extra cost, these tiers provide substantial savings opportunities, with reductions up to 60%. Businesses are encouraged to evaluate their current usage and consider upgrading to these tiers to maximize savings and maintain robust security standards.