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Hi,
The available OpenSearch free tier is described at https://aws.amazon.com/opensearch-service/getting-started/
You can get started on Amazon OpenSearch Service with the AWS Free Tier, which provides free
usage of up to 750 hours per month of a t2.small.search instance and 10 GB per month of optional
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) storage (Magnetic or General Purpose). If you exceed the Free Tier
limits, you will be charged the Amazon OpenSearch Service rates for the additional resources that you use.
Best,
Didier
Yes, there is a free tier for Amazon OpenSearch Service, but it's important to note that the availability of specific instance types can change over time, and what you're experiencing may reflect recent updates to the service.
According to AWS, the Free Tier for OpenSearch Service provides up to 750 hours per month of a t2.small.search or t3.small.search instance, which are entry-level instances typically used for test workloads. This also includes 10 GB per month of optional Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) storage.
However, your experience suggests that these smaller instance types may no longer be available for new deployments as of November 2024. The r7g.medium.search instance you mentioned is indeed a more powerful and consequently more expensive option.
Regarding the tutorial you followed, it's possible that it has become outdated. AWS services and their offerings evolve rapidly, and what was available or recommended a year ago may no longer be the current best practice or offering.
The situation you've described - being billed $90 for a week of usage for what you expected to be a free or low-cost service - is certainly frustrating. It highlights the importance of carefully reviewing current pricing and available options when setting up AWS services, as they can change over time.
If you're looking to use OpenSearch for a pre-launch side project with minimal costs, you might want to consider these alternatives:
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Contact AWS Support to discuss your situation and explore if there are any lower-cost options available for your use case.
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Look into OpenSearch Serverless, which might offer more cost-effective options for smaller workloads.
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Consider using a local installation of OpenSearch for development and testing purposes until your project reaches a scale that justifies the cost of a managed service.
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Explore other AWS services that might meet your needs and have more accessible free tier options.
Remember to always check the current pricing and available instance types directly on the AWS website or console before deploying any services, as these can change over time.
Sources
Open-Source Search Engine - Amazon OpenSearch Service Pricing - AWS
Amazon OpenSearch Service | Cost Conscious | AWS
Quick rewrite proposal. Instead of: "It highlights the importance of carefully reviewing current pricing and available options when setting up AWS services, as they can change over time," maybe try: "It highlights the importance of being skeptical of alleged low-cost promotions in an irresponsibly managed information ecosystem, since baiting new users with misinformation actually generates revenue thereby disincentivizing maintenance or improvement."
I figured out what changed: the recently added "Instance Family" pulldown menu actually alters the list of available OpenSearch "Instance Types," and the "General Purpose" instance family needs to be selected for the "t3.small.search" instance type to even show up. This applies whether your account is "free tier" eligible or not.
The interaction between those two menus isn't immediately obvious. "Instance Family" just seems like a setting, not a filter that alters the content of the "Instance Types" menu.
For me it took loading this list of 160 OpenSearch instance types into a google sheet to first realize how "Instance Family" fits into the picture - https://aws.amazon.com/opensearch-service/pricing/
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I appreciate the response Didier, but I think you're sharing legacy information. The link you've shared above contains a button at the top labeled "Get started with Amazon OpenSearch Service" and linking to https://console.aws.amazon.com/esv3/home, which gets a "Service page is currently unavailable" error. A paragraph further down there's a link to "sign up for the AWS Free Tier to create and configure an Amazon OpenSearch Service domain in minutes" which, when clicked, simply loads my billing dashboard, where I've already been charged $88 for what was described in a tutorial as being "free tier" (there's no mention on my dashboard of "free tier" anything).
The combination of legacy information, broken links, and low-cost promises baiting users into exorbitantly priced set-up funnels is a bit jaw-dropping here. The "t2.small.search" instance type does not appear to be available (I've combed through "instance type" pulldown and pricing options multiple times now, "t2.small.search" just ain't there), but everything (and everyone) I'm encountering is still promoting this claim.
I understand AWS moving quickly and changing things, but their apparent tolerance for legacy misinformation being more widely available than current/accurate guidance is problematic at best.
Question: I've whittled in AWS using this same personal account before, tinkering and working my way through tutorials. I just found an email dated May 2022 stating "Expiration of Free Tier Subscription on your account." However, I'd never set up OpenSearch until last week, and nothing I'm seeing online would suggest OpenSearch "free tier" promises only apply to first-time AWS users. Are all promises of "free tier" pricing rendered moot by the fact that I've used the same AWS account for tutorials of unrelated services in the past?