Migrate EBS gp2 volumes to gp3 and cut storage cost by about 20%
Short version: AWS gp3 EBS volumes cost about ~20% less per GB than gp2 ($0.08 vs $0.10 per GB-month in us-east-1) and includes 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s of baseline performance for free. You can convert a volume from gp2 to gp3 online, with no downtime and no snapshot with a single modify-volume call. For most volumes, it's a real savings. Here's how to find those volumes, migrate them, and the…
AWS gp3 Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes provide about 20% lower storage costs per gigabyte compared to gp2 volumes, while offering 3,000 included IOPS and 125 MB/s baseline throughput at no additional cost. Converting gp2 volumes to gp3 can be done online without downtime or the need for snapshots, using a single modify-volume command.
Most gp2 volumes will see cost savings, as gp3 removes the performance-to-size coupling present in gp2. For example, a 500 GB gp2 volume costing $50/month would only cost $40/month on gp3, saving $120 per year. To find gp2 volumes, use the aws ec2 describe-volumes command with the volume-type filter set to gp2, querying each region separately.
The conversion process involves running modify-volume for each identified gp2 volume, specifying gp3 as the new volume type. High-IOPS and high-throughput volumes may require additional provisioning on gp3, as the 3,000 included IOPS and 125 MB/s baseline may not be sufficient for workloads that demand more. However, even after accounting for additional IOPS and throughput, gp3 is typically still cheaper than gp2, especially for volumes under 1 TB with normal workloads.
Automating this process across multiple accounts and regions can be achieved using tools like Cloud Cost Analyzer, which runs read-only queries to identify gp2 volumes and estimate the potential cost savings for each region.
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