Track 1: MVP — Cloud Cost Estimate (2x Safety Buffer)¶
Phase: Development (10 users) Hosting: Local Mac + ngrok Pro ($40/mo) during dev, AWS for production Region: ap-southeast-1 (Singapore) Note: All estimates include 2x safety margin for budget planning.
Development Phase (Mac + ngrok)¶
During development, backend runs on Ken's Mac with ngrok Pro tunnel.
| Component | Monthly | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ngrok Pro | $40 | Custom domain, no rate limits, IP restrictions |
| PostgreSQL (local Docker) | $0 | docker-compose.local.yml |
| Gemini Pro API | $60-160 | Prompt engineering + testing = heavy usage |
| Firebase FCM | $0 | Free |
| Agora RTC (testing) | $0-20 | Free 10K min/mo |
| ElevenLabs TTS | $10-44 | Starter or Creator plan |
| Dev Total | $110-264/mo | 2x safety buffer applied |
Production Phase (AWS, 10 users)¶
| Component | Monthly | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ECS Fargate (1 task, 0.25 vCPU, 512MB) | $18.80-21.62 | x86; ARM = $17.28 |
| RDS PostgreSQL (db.t3.micro) | $30-35.04 | 20GB storage included |
| Lambda (all functions) | $4-10 | SES, uploads, FCM, AI |
| API Gateway (HTTP v2) | $4-8 | |
| S3 (uploads) | $2-4 | |
| CloudWatch Logs | $10-20 | |
| Secrets Manager | $3 | 3-4 secrets |
| ECR (container images) | $2-6 | |
| SES (emails) | $1 | OTP + alerts |
| Amplify (web) | $0 | Free tier |
| Gemini Pro | $10-30 | Production usage (10 users) |
| Agora RTC | $0-20 | |
| ElevenLabs TTS | $10-44 | |
| Firebase FCM | $0 | |
| Prod Total | $96-244/mo | 2x safety buffer applied |
Cost Optimization Notes¶
- Use ARM-based Fargate ($17.28 vs $21.62) for 20% savings
- Use db.t4g.micro ($30.66 vs $35.04) for ARM-based RDS
- ngrok Pro during dev saves $50-100/mo vs running AWS 24/7
- Gemini Flash instead of Pro for non-critical AI = 10x cheaper