Does SageMaker Unified Studio incur additional charges for using DataZone in the backend?

Question

I'm in the process of setting up SageMaker Unified Studio in our organization. During the setup, I’ve noticed that it requires access to AWS DataZone, even though we’re not explicitly using DataZone features ourselves.

Our internal infrastructure and cost management teams have asked for clarification on this dependency:
	•	Does Unified Studio rely on DataZone only in the backend, or does it provision specific DataZone resources?
	•	Are there any additional charges incurred due to this dependency, even if we are not directly using DataZone as a product?
	•	Is there a way to monitor or estimate the cost impact specifically related to DataZone usage in this setup?

We’d appreciate any official clarification or documentation references that can help us understand whether enabling Unified Studio implies any DataZone-related billing or resource provisioning that we should account for.

Thanks in advance!

re:Post Agent · Answer

SageMaker Unified Studio does use Amazon DataZone in the backend through SageMaker Catalog, which is built on Amazon DataZone. This integration is used for end-to-end governance and access control through entities such as domains, projects, and assets.

Regarding charges, you will be charged for your usage of SageMaker Catalog (the DataZone component). However, Amazon DataZone follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model with some free usage included:

- 20 MB of free metadata storage per month
- 4,000 free API requests per month
- 0.2 free compute units per month

Charges only apply if your usage exceeds these free limits. Additionally, certain core APIs (including CreateDomain, CreateProject, and Search) are provided free of charge and don't count toward the request limit.

It's also worth noting that there is no separate cost for using SageMaker Unified Studio itself - the UI is free to use. However, you will incur costs for other AWS services that you use through SageMaker Unified Studio, such as:

- Storage services (Amazon EBS, Amazon EFS)
- Compute resources launched from Studio applications
- JupyterLab applications, even if no resources are launched within them

To monitor costs, you should review the individual pricing for the various AWS services used within SageMaker Unified Studio, including the DataZone-based SageMaker Catalog component. Since DataZone charges are based on requests, metadata storage, and compute usage, monitoring these metrics would help estimate the cost impact specifically related to DataZone usage in your setup.  
**Sources**  
[The center for all your data, analytics, and AI - Amazon SageMaker pricing - AWS](https://aws.amazon.com/sagemaker/pricing/)  
[Governed Analytics – Amazon DataZone Pricing – AWS](https://aws.amazon.com/datazone/pricing/)  
[Amazon SageMaker Studio pricing - Amazon SageMaker AI](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sagemaker/latest/dg/studio-updated-cost.html)  
[A single data and AI development environment - Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio - AWS](https://aws.amazon.com/sagemaker/unified-studio/)

Does SageMaker Unified Studio incur additional charges for using DataZone in the backend?

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