AWS EKS Control Plane Pricing in 2025: Is it still $0.10/hour?

A common confusion for new AWS users is: “How much does EKS cost before I deploy any apps?”

As of January 2025, the price remains: $0.10 per hour per cluster.

The Math

• Hourly Rate: $0.10
• Hours per Month: ~730
• Monthly Cost: $73.00

This fee pays for the managed Control Plane (the API Server, etcd database, and controllers). You do not see these instances; AWS manages them for you.

Why “Per Cluster” Matters

If you follow a “One Cluster Per Team” strategy, this cost adds up fast.

Clusters	Monthly Fixed Cost
1 (Shared)	$73
10 (Per Team)	$730
50 (Micro-clusters)	$3,650

This is why many organizations move to Multi-Tenant Clusters (using Namespaces for isolation) rather than paying the $73 tax for every small project.

[!TIP] Check your bill: Look for the line item AmazonEKS-Hours:Hrs in your AWS invoice. If the quantity is higher than 730, you have multiple clusters running (or you spun one up and forgot to delete it).