How much does it cost to leave AWS? Egress fees and waivers

Originally published on moveinfra.eu.

When calculating how much it costs to leave AWS, the data egress bill is often the smallest part of the budget and can usually be waived. At list prices as of 28 October 2026, transferring 1 TB of data out of one AWS server in Frankfurt to the internet costs €72.72, and 10 TB costs €799.92. However, AWS waives these data transfer charges if you move all your data off the platform or off a specific service by requesting a waiver through AWS Support before you start. Furthermore, under the EU Data Act, cloud switching charges are capped at the provider's direct cost until 12 January 2027, when they are banned entirely. The real costs of leaving AWS are engineering time, running two cloud environments in parallel during the transition, and any remaining financial commitments like Savings Plans or Reserved Instances.

Key takeaways

• Egress fees are rarely the blocker: Moving 10 TB of data out of an AWS Frankfurt server costs €799.92 at list prices as of 28 October 2026, and you can get this credited back through the AWS exit waiver program or EU Data Act switching rules.
• You must ask before you move: AWS only waives egress charges if you contact AWS Support and get approval before transferring your data.
• Switching fees end in January 2027: Under Article 29 of the EU Data Act, providers can only charge their direct cost for switching egress today, and must charge €0 starting 12 January 2027.
• Budget for the transition, not just the network: Your actual expenses will come from running your old and new environments in parallel for a few weeks, rewriting AWS-specific configurations, and paying off unused reserved capacity.
• Lower monthly bills pay back the switch: Moving a typical web stack from AWS (€774.30/month list price) to a European cloud like UpCloud (€496.00/month), OVHcloud (€430.19/month), Scaleway (€363.92/month), or Hetzner (€336.85/month) creates immediate monthly savings.

What AWS charges for data egress at list prices

Data egress (what AWS calls "Data Transfer Out" to the public internet) is metered per gigabyte. Whenever you copy database backups, container images, or object storage buckets from AWS to another cloud provider over the internet, that traffic counts as egress.

To put the numbers in perspective, the table below shows monthly list prices fetched on 28 October 2026 from the EU Cloud Price Index. All figures are in euros, excluding VAT, with no discounts or commitments, and with USD prices converted at the ECB rate of 1.1133. AWS prices are for the Frankfurt region (eu-central-1), and Azure prices are for Germany West Central.

*Note on €0.00 egress on EU providers: UpCloud, Hetzner, Scaleway, and OVHcloud either include generous monthly traffic allowances with their servers or offer unmetered public bandwidth under fair-use terms. Always check each provider's current pricing page and traffic limits for your specific server tier.

For most small and mid-sized European companies (10 to 300 employees), total production data in PostgreSQL, MySQL, and S3 is between 500 GB and 10 TB. Even if you paid full list price without a waiver, moving 1 TB out of an AWS server costs €72.72, and 10 TB costs €799.92. That is a noticeable line item, but rarely enough to trap a business on a platform.

If you want to estimate the exact egress cost for your own data volume and check which waivers apply, you can use our free cloud exit fee calculator.

How to waive AWS egress fees when leaving

You do not need to pay standard egress rates when migrating away from AWS. Depending on whether you are leaving AWS completely, moving a single workload, or exercising your legal rights as a European customer, you have two formal paths to reduce or eliminate data transfer fees.

Note that provider terms change, so always check the official AWS Service Terms and Data Transfer documentation before starting your migration.

Path 1: The standard AWS exit program

Since March 2024, AWS has offered free data transfer out to the internet when a customer moves all of their data off AWS, or moves all data out of a specific AWS service (for example, moving all object storage out of Amazon S3 while keeping EC2 running).

How the standard waiver works in practice:

1. Apply before you move data: You must open a ticket with AWS Customer Support before initiating the migration. AWS does not credit egress fees retroactively if you transfer the data first and ask later.
2. Provide migration details: AWS Support will ask which accounts and services you are vacating, the approximate volume of data in gigabytes or terabytes, and your planned timeline.
3. Complete the move within the window: Once approved, AWS gives you a set window (typically up to 60 or 180 days depending on the program terms applicable to your account) to export the data.
4. Delete the remaining data and receive credits: After you move the data and delete it from the AWS service (or close the account), AWS issues billing credits to offset the data transfer charges incurred during the migration window.

Path 2: Switching under the EU Data Act

If your company is based in the European Union, you have statutory switching rights under the EU Data Act (Regulation (EU) 2023/2854), which AWS incorporates into its contracts via the AWS EU Data Act Addendum.

The EU Data Act sets strict rules on what cloud providers can charge and how long they can delay a move:

• Switching fees (Article 29): Until 12 January 2027, cloud providers may charge no more than their directly incurred cost for switching-related data egress. From 12 January 2027 onward, all switching charges (including data egress fees for moving to another provider) are completely banned.
• Timelines (Article 25): The maximum notice period a provider can require to initiate a switch is 2 months. Once the switch begins, the transitional period to complete the move is at most 30 calendar days (unless technically unfeasible), and your data must remain retrievable for at least 30 days after the transition ends.
• Parallel run exception (Article 34): Be aware of the distinction between a one-time switch and running two clouds permanently. If you run services in parallel across AWS and another provider with continuous data egress, the provider may still charge at cost for that ongoing transfer.

To use the legal route on AWS, submit a formal Switching Request to AWS Customer Support under the AWS EU Data Act Addendum. You can find a ready-to-use notice template in our cloud exit fees tool.

The real costs of leaving AWS

When CFOs and engineering leads review a cloud migration after it finishes, data egress is rarely what drove the cost. The actual budget goes into three areas: parallel infrastructure, contract commitments, and engineering hours.

1. Running two clouds in parallel

You cannot shut down your AWS production environment on Friday and turn on a new cloud on Monday without risking data loss or extended downtime. A safe migration requires building the target environment, syncing databases via logical replication, copying object storage, testing deployments, and keeping a rollback path open.

In practice, this means paying for both your AWS environment and your new European cloud environment at the same time for 2 to 6 weeks. If you keep reverse database replication running for 30 days after the DNS cutover as a safety net, you should budget for roughly one to two months of overlapping infrastructure bills.

2. Unused Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, and EDP commitments

The biggest financial hurdle to leaving AWS is usually contractual, not technical. If you bought 1-year or 3-year Compute Savings Plans, EC2 Reserved Instances, or RDS Reserved Nodes, or signed an Enterprise Discount Program (EDP) with a minimum annual spend, those commitments do not disappear when you move your workloads.

Even under the EU Data Act, early termination penalties for fixed-term discount contracts can still apply. Before planning your switch date, audit your AWS Billing console for:

• The exact expiration date of every active Savings Plan and Reserved Instance.
• Whether your reservations are "Convertible" or "Standard" (Standard EC2 Reserved Instances can sometimes be sold on the AWS Reserved Instance Marketplace, though liquidity varies).
• How much upfront vs. monthly commitment remains. Often, the monthly savings on an EU cloud are large enough that paying off the final two or three months of an AWS Savings Plan is still cheaper than renewing it.

3. Engineering time and unwinding proprietary services

If your infrastructure relies on standard building blocks—Linux virtual machines, Docker containers on Kubernetes, PostgreSQL or MySQL, Redis caches, and S3-compatible object storage—moving off AWS is straightforward. Every major European cloud offers direct equivalents for these services.

The engineering cost rises when your application code is tightly coupled to proprietary AWS services:

• Databases and analytics: Replacing Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Redshift, or Aurora Serverless requires schema changes, query rewrites, and data pipeline adjustments.
• Serverless and messaging: Moving hundreds of AWS Lambda functions wired into API Gateway, EventBridge, and SQS takes time to repackage into standard containers or adapt to open-source message brokers like RabbitMQ or NATS.
• Identity and permissions: Untangling complex IAM roles, KMS encryption keys, and proprietary load balancer annotations in Terraform or application code requires careful auditing.

How fast does an EU cloud pay back the move?

To understand whether the transition effort is worth it, compare your ongoing monthly run rate on AWS against European providers.

Below is an example production stack from our EU Cloud Price Index using list prices fetched on 28 October 2026 (EUR per month, excluding VAT, no discounts, 730 hours/month or UpCloud's 672-hour cap, USD converted at 1.1133).

*Note: Hetzner does not offer managed PostgreSQL or managed Kubernetes; in the Hetzner example stack (€336.85), PostgreSQL is self-hosted on a dedicated 2 vCPU, 8 GB server (€42.99/month for a CCX13 instance).

Because compute, databases, and network egress are significantly less expensive on European clouds, most companies recover the cost of running two environments in parallel within a few months of shutting down their AWS account. You can upload your own billing export to our free browser-based bill analyzer to see what your specific resources would cost across these four providers.

Checklist: Before you start your AWS exit

Use this checklist to prepare your finance and engineering teams before moving data:

• [ ] Audit active commitments: Check AWS Billing for Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, and EDP minimum spend dates.
• [ ] Measure your data footprint: Total the gigabytes stored in RDS/Aurora, S3 buckets, EBS volumes, and container registries.
• [ ] Map service dependencies: Identify which workloads use portable tech (VMs, K8s, PostgreSQL, S3 API) and which rely on AWS-only services (DynamoDB, Lambda, SQS).
• [ ] Submit your waiver request first: Open an AWS Support case requesting the data transfer out waiver—or submit a formal Switching Request under the AWS EU Data Act Addendum—before syncing data.
• [ ] Budget for 30–45 days of parallel run: Ensure your CFO expects one to two months where both AWS and the new cloud bill at the same time.
• [ ] Verify deletion before closing: Once your new environment is live and your rollback period is over, delete all snapshots, S3 versions, unattached Elastic IPs, and EBS volumes so residual charges do not continue.

Frequently asked questions

Does AWS really waive egress fees when you leave?

Yes, provided you follow their process. If you are moving all of your data off AWS or vacating a specific service completely, you must contact AWS Customer Support for approval before transferring the data. AWS provides billing credits for the approved data transfer once the move is complete and the source data is deleted. Check the AWS Data Transfer pricing page for current eligibility terms.

When does the EU Data Act ban cloud switching fees?

Under Article 29 of the EU Data Act (Regulation (EU) 2023/2854), cloud switching charges—including data egress fees incurred while moving to a new provider—are banned starting 12 January 2027. Until that date, providers may only charge up to the direct cost they incur to perform the switch.

What happens if I just copy my S3 buckets without telling AWS Support?

AWS will bill you standard Data Transfer Out rates automatically on your monthly invoice. At list prices as of 28 October 2026 in the Frankfurt region, transferring 1 TB from a server to the internet costs €72.72, and 10 TB costs €799.92. AWS generally does not grant retroactive waivers if you did not open a support request prior to the transfer.

Does moving to the AWS European Sovereign Cloud avoid lock-in and high costs?

No. While the AWS European Sovereign Cloud keeps data and operations inside the EU, it is still owned by Amazon, a US company, and runs on proprietary AWS APIs and pricing models. If your goal is to lower your monthly infrastructure bill or remove US jurisdiction risk, moving to an EU-owned provider using standard, portable infrastructure is the more direct solution.

Sources

1. Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 (EU Data Act) — EUR-Lex
2. Amazon EC2 On-Demand Pricing (Data Transfer) — AWS
3. AWS Service Terms (including EU Data Act provisions) — AWS
4. Free data transfer out to internet when moving out of AWS — AWS News Blog

Drafted with AI assistance and fact-checked by the MoveInfra team. The original, kept up to date, is at moveinfra.eu. Free tools for pricing a move to an EU cloud: moveinfra.eu/tools.