Amazon Workspaces billing explanations

To address your questions about Amazon WorkSpaces billing:

1. The 2.627 months of usage you're seeing is likely due to the way AWS bills for WorkSpaces. Even when you delete and recreate WorkSpaces, you're still charged for the full month for each WorkSpace created. This is because the monthly fee for WorkSpaces is not prorated. So, if you created multiple WorkSpaces during your testing period, even if they were deleted shortly after, each one would incur a full month's charge. This explains why your total exceeds what you'd expect for just two WorkSpaces.

2. Regarding billing when deleting and recreating WorkSpaces:

   • Each time you create a new WorkSpace, even if it's for the same user and with the same configuration, it's treated as a new instance for billing purposes.
   • The monthly fee is charged in full for each WorkSpace created, regardless of how long it exists within that month.
   • You are correct that WorkSpaces treats users as different entities if they belong to different directories or ADs, even if the username is the same. This is due to the unique Security Identifier (SID) associated with each user in different directories.
   • While this information isn't explicitly stated in the main pricing page or FAQ, it is consistent with how AWS typically handles resource creation and billing.

To minimize costs in the future when testing, consider:

• Planning your testing to align with billing cycles
• Using the same directory and users when possible to avoid creating new billable instances
• Utilizing the hourly billing option for short-term testing scenarios

Remember, the AutoStop feature helps reduce hourly charges when WorkSpaces are not in use, but it doesn't affect the monthly infrastructure fee.
Sources
Amazon WorkSpaces FAQs | Persistent Desktop Virtualization
Amazon Workspaces | AWS re:Post
Cloud Native Persistent Desktop Virtualization – Amazon WorkSpaces Pricing – Amazon Web Services