Container microservices architecture
Several services behind one load balancer, sharing a database, a cache and an internal queue.
Every resource, and what it costs.
Projections from August 2026 list prices for always-on resources. Connect an account and these become the figures your provider actually bills.
| Node | Type | What it is | Projected |
|---|---|---|---|
| Load balancer (ALB) | Network | 1 ALB + light LCU usage | $23/mo |
| Web service ×2 | Compute | 2 × 0.25 vCPU · 0.5 GB | $18/mo |
| Orders service ×2 | Compute | 2 × 0.25 vCPU · 0.5 GB | $18/mo |
| Billing service | Compute | 0.25 vCPU · 0.5 GB | $9.01/mo |
| Internal queue | Messaging | 5M requests | $2.00/mo |
| RDS Postgres (multi-AZ) | Database | db.t4g.large · multi-AZ · 100 GB | $215/mo |
| ElastiCache Redis | Database | cache.t4g.small | $25/mo |
Agent steps are priced from provider-reported token usage once the agent runs, not estimated. Guardrails cost nothing and are the reason a runaway agent cannot.
Similar templates.
Container behind a load balancer
The smallest thing that serves real traffic: a public load balancer in two availability zones and one Fargate container. About four minutes to create and roughly 4¢ an hour, so it is the cheapest way to find out whether a deploy works end to end.
Three-tier web application
The default shape: load balancer, containerised app tier, managed Postgres, cache and asset storage.
Serverless API
HTTP API with function compute and a key-value store. Scales to zero; the floor is the gateway.
Open Container microservices on the canvas.
It loads as an editable graph. Connect an account or instrument an agent and the projected figures above become measured ones.