1. Introduction

In this tutorial, we will delve into understanding the pricing model for AWS Lambda, a serverless computing service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS Lambda lets you run your code without the need for managing servers, which means you only pay for the compute time you consume.

By the end of this tutorial, you should have a clear understanding of how AWS Lambda pricing works, how to manage costs, and how to efficiently use the service.

Prerequisites: Basic understanding of cloud services, specifically AWS.

2. Step-by-Step Guide

AWS Lambda Pricing Basics

AWS Lambda pricing is based on two factors: the number of requests and the duration of code execution.

• Number of Requests: You are charged for the number of requests you make. AWS counts a request each time it starts executing in response to an event notification or direct invocation.

• Duration: This is calculated from the time your code begins executing until it returns or otherwise terminates. This is rounded up to the nearest 1ms.

Free Tier

As a new AWS customer, you can get started with AWS Lambda for free. The AWS Free Tier includes 1M free requests per month and 400,000 GB-seconds of compute time per month.

Understanding the Pricing Model

Let's assume the price per 1M requests is $0.20 and for GB-Second, it's $0.00001667.

If you execute a function 3M times in a month, where the execution time is 200ms and memory allocation is 512MB, the cost would be calculated as follows:

• Request charges: 3M requests * ($0.20/1M requests) = $0.60
• Duration charges: Time is rounded up to the nearest 1ms, so 200ms becomes 0.2s. Memory is converted from MB to GB, so 512MB becomes 0.5GB. Total duration would be number of invocations * GB * seconds = 3M * 0.5GB * 0.2s = 300,000 GB-s. The cost would be 300,000 GB-s * ($0.00001667/GB-s) = $5.
• Total cost = Request cost + Duration cost = $0.60 + $5 = $5.60.

3. Code Examples

There isn't a specific code example for AWS Lambda pricing as it's a theoretical concept. However, you can use AWS Cost Explorer or AWS Budgets to monitor and control your AWS costs.

4. Summary

In this tutorial, we've learned that AWS Lambda pricing depends on the number of requests made and the duration of these requests. We also learned how to calculate the cost using these parameters. As a next step, you can learn more about AWS Lambda's performance tuning to optimize costs.

Additional resources include the AWS Lambda Developer Guide and AWS Lambda Pricing Page.

5. Practice Exercises

1. Exercise 1: If you execute a function 5M times where the execution time is 300ms and memory allocation is 256MB, calculate the total cost.

Solution: First, calculate the request charges and duration charges similar to the example provided in the tutorial. After calculating, add both to get the total cost.

1. Exercise 2: Given the price per 1M requests and GB-Second, write a function that calculates the total cost.

Solution: The function should take in the number of requests, execution time, and memory allocation as parameters. It should calculate the request charges and duration charges, and return their sum.

1. Exercise 3: Compare the costs of executing a function 2M times with a memory allocation of 1GB and an execution time of 500ms vs. 2M times with a memory allocation of 512MB and an execution time of 700ms.

Solution: Calculate the total cost for both scenarios using the method explained in the tutorial, and compare the results.

Keep practicing these exercises with different parameters to get a better understanding of AWS Lambda pricing.