Public IPv4 Addresses Cost Projection

- Project the estimated cost of Public IPv4 addresses starting the above date
- Project the increase in spend compared to the current pricing of idle and additional (secondary) Public IPv4 Addresses

Contributed by: Udi Dahan, Dan Sims, Martin Caden, Conor Manton, and Shlomo Dubrowin

On July 28th, 2023, AWS announced changes in public IPv4 address pricing, effective February 1st, 2024. Following this announcement, it’s crucial for customers to do the following:

• Project the estimated cost of Public IPv4 addresses starting the above date
• Project the increase in spend compared to the current pricing of idle and additional (secondary) Public IPv4 Addresses

This document will include background, caveats, and then the suggested process to project the cost.

Background

As part of this change, new usage types were introduced (PublicIPv4:IdleAddress and PublicIPv4:InUseAddress), in addition to existing ones (ElasticIP:IdleAddress and ElasticIP:AdditionalAddress). For full information on this change, please read the above-mentioned blog post. Additional important background on the new usage types and their relation with the existing usage types:

• The PublicIPv4:IdleAddress usage type fully overlaps with ElasticIP:IdleAddress in terms of usage amount.
• The PublicIPv4:InUseAddress contains the usage amount of ElasticIP:AdditionalAddress, and also the usage amount of the first public IP assigned on an ENI, which is the added charge starting February 1st, 2024.
• Until February 1st, 2024, the new usage types show $0 cost, and will show the usage amount.
  • The existing usage types will still be in place till February 1st, 2024.
• Starting February 1st, 2024, the new usage types (PublicIPv4:IdleAddress and PublicIPv4:InUseAddress) will show the actual cost ($0.005 per hour per public IP).
  • The existing usage types (ElasticIP:IdleAddress and ElasticIP:AdditionalAddress) will be removed.

Caveats

• The data for July 2023 contains the new usage types only from some point in July, and not from the beginning of the month.
  • It starts from a specific date that seems to vary in different accounts.
  • Before projecting the cost, the best practice is to aggregate the data daily in July, and compare the usage amount of the PublicIPv4:IdleAddress with the usage amount of the ElasticIP:IdleAddress (and only these usage types, as they’re the only ones fully overlap).
  • At some point in July, the usage amount of PublicIPv4:IdleAddress and ElasticIP:IdleAddress usage types should be equal, and this should be a good indication of the date when you can start your projection. Note: Be aware that due to the above, the cost projection for July 2023 isn’t for a full month, even if you start from July 1st, 2023.
• Roll-out of the new usage types might have not been completed yet.
  • Before you project, please check that you see the new usage types are shown for all linked accounts and regions.
    • To determine which accounts have the new usage types and which do not, follow the below (in Cost Explorer):
      • Set the date filter as per the caveat in first bullet
      • Filter based on ElasticIP:IdleAddress usage type
      • Group by linked account
      • Open a new tab, remove the previous filter and add PublicIPv4:IdleAddress
      • Group by linked account
      • Compare the results in both tabs. If the accounts lists are different, then it implies the accounts missing from the PublicIPv4:IdleAddress list don’t include the new usage types yet

Following the above background, here’s the process you can use, in Cost Explorer:

Cost Explorer

1. Due to the caveat mentioned in item 1 above in the “Caveats” section, please first identify at which month you start seeing full usage amount of the new usage types (as explained above). Then, change the date range to start in this date, and end when you’d like it to end (for example, the current date).
2. In the “Usage type” filter, start typing “PublicIPv4", and select all usage types that are shown
   1. The PublicIPv4:IdleAddress usage type is for the idle public IPv4 addresses. Your customers are already paying $0.005 per hour per public IPv4 for idle public IPv4 addresses.
   2. The PublicIPv4:InUseAddress is for both the first public IPv4 address assigned on an ENI, and any additional (secondary) public IPv4 address assigned on an ENI Your customers are already paying $0.005 per hour per public IPv4 for additional (secondary) public IPv4 addresses
3. Once you apply the above selection of usage types, you’ll see that the cost is $0, but there’s a usage amount.

You can see an example screenshot below.

Since we know that the price is $0.005 per hour per public IPv4 address (for first, additional and idle public IPv4 addresses in the new pricing), we can just multiply $0.005 by the usage amount, to get projected cost.

This will give your customers the indication what may be the cost of public IPv4 addresses based on current usage amount, including what they already pay for today.

• Please note the caveats mentioned in the 2nd bullet in the “Caveats” section, that can impact the projection accuracy.
• Please follow the suggestion in the “Caveats” section to identify if you’re impacted by the caveats, and if you still want to project, exclude the affected accounts and regions.

4. In addition to the above, your customers may want to know how much their invoice will increase considering the new pricing. The above projection in item 3 is only what they’ll pay in total, including what they pay today, so it’s not projecting how much their cost will increase. To calculate this, you need to know current cost for what AWS already charges (idle and additional public IPv4 addresses), and subtract this value from the total projected cost calculated above.

• Please note the caveats mentioned in the 2nd bullet in the “Caveats” section, that can impact the projection accuracy.

• Please follow the suggestion in the “Caveats” section to identify if you’re impacted by the caveats, and if you still want to project, exclude the affected accounts and regions.

  1. Remove all the “PublicIPv4” usage types that were filled out in the previous step, from the “Usage type” filter
  2. Type in “ElasticIP" in the “Usage type” filter, and select all usage types that are shown.
     • This will include the existing usage types named ElasticIP:IdleAddress and ElasticIP:AdditionalAddress, which are used for the current pricing.
  3. Make sure the date range is the same as set previously
  4. Subtract this amount from the total projected amount calculated in item 3 above.
     • This is the projected increase in spend

Based on the above examples:

The total projected cost is 19,715.82 * 0.005 = $98.5791.

The current idle and additional addresses cost is $10.29.

The projected increase in spend is 98.5791 - 10.29 = $88.2891

Optimization

Don’t stop with the above cost projection.

• Optimize your use of public IPv4 addresses based on this blog post.
• Remove unassociated Elastic IPs as per this blog

References

New – AWS Public IPv4 Address Charge + Public IP Insights

Identify and optimize public IPv4 address usage on AWS

CUDOS 4.79 supports Public IPv4 Cost and Projection for predefined visuals. Project Page