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Thesius Code

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Cloud Cost Calculator

#excel #productivity #automation #data

Cloud Cost Calculator

Estimate and compare cloud infrastructure costs across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform in a single spreadsheet. Input your resource requirements and get instant monthly/annual cost projections with side-by-side comparison views.

Key Features

  • Multi-Cloud Comparison — AWS, Azure, and GCP pricing side-by-side for identical workloads
  • Resource Calculators — compute (VMs), storage, databases, networking, serverless, containers
  • Pricing Tiers — on-demand, reserved (1yr/3yr), spot/preemptible pricing for each provider
  • Auto-Updating Totals — change any input and all summaries, charts, and comparisons update instantly
  • Scenario Modeling — compare up to 3 architecture scenarios with different resource mixes
  • Growth Projections — model cost changes at 10%, 25%, 50%, 100% traffic growth

What's Included

Sheet Tab Description
Dashboard Executive summary with provider comparison charts and total cost
Compute VM/instance calculator with 20+ instance types per provider
Storage Object, block, and file storage across tiers (hot/warm/cold)
Database RDS/Cloud SQL/Azure SQL, NoSQL, caching (Redis/Memcached)
Networking Data transfer, load balancers, CDN, DNS, VPN
Serverless Lambda/Functions/Cloud Functions pricing by invocations and duration
Containers EKS/AKS/GKE cluster and node pricing
Scenarios Side-by-side architecture comparison worksheet
Price Reference Lookup tables with current pricing (update quarterly)

Quick Start

  1. Open the spreadsheet and go to the Dashboard tab for an overview
  2. Start with the Compute tab — enter your VM requirements (vCPUs, RAM, hours/month)
  3. Fill in Storage, Database, and other tabs as needed
  4. Review the Dashboard for automatic cost comparisons and charts
  5. Use Scenarios tab to model alternative architectures

Formula Examples

Monthly Compute Cost Calculation 

=IF(B5="on-demand",
  VLOOKUP(A5, PriceReference!$A:$D, 4, FALSE) * C5,
  VLOOKUP(A5, PriceReference!$A:$E, 5, FALSE) * C5 * 0.6
)
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  • A5 = instance type, B5 = pricing tier, C5 = hours/month
  • Reserved pricing applies a 40% discount factor

Cross-Provider Cost Comparison 

=IFERROR(
  INDEX(Compute!$F:$F, MATCH($A10, Compute!$A:$A, 0))
  + INDEX(Storage!$F:$F, MATCH($A10, Storage!$A:$A, 0))
  + INDEX(Database!$F:$F, MATCH($A10, Database!$A:$A, 0)),
  0
)
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Annual Cost with Growth Projection 

=B15 * 12 * (1 + GrowthRate/100)^(A20-1)
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  • B15 = current monthly cost, GrowthRate = named range (e.g., 25), A20 = year number

Savings Percentage Between Providers 

=1 - MIN(AWSTotal, AzureTotal, GCPTotal) / MAX(AWSTotal, AzureTotal, GCPTotal)
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Data Transfer Cost Estimator 

=IF(D8>1024,
  (1*0) + (9*0.09) + (40*0.085) + ((D8-50)*0.07),
  IF(D8>10, (1*0) + (9*0.09) + ((D8-10)*0.085),
  IF(D8>1, (1*0) + ((D8-1)*0.09), 0))
)
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  • Tiered pricing: first 1 GB free, next 9 GB at $0.09, next 40 GB at $0.085, remainder at $0.07

Serverless Cost Estimator (Lambda/Functions) 

=ROUNDUP(C12/1000000, 0) * 0.20 + (C12 * D12/1000) * 0.0000166667
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  • C12 = monthly invocations, D12 = avg duration in ms
  • First term = request cost, second term = compute (GB-seconds)

Reserved vs. On-Demand Break-Even (Months) 

=ReservedUpfront / (OnDemandMonthly - ReservedMonthly)
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  • If result < 12, the 1-year reserved instance saves money

Total Cost of Ownership (3-Year) 

=OnDemandMonthly*36
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vs.

=Reserved3YrUpfront + Reserved3YrMonthly*36
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Usage Tips

  • Named Ranges: All key inputs use named ranges (e.g., AWSComputeTotal, GrowthRate) for easy formula reading
  • Conditional Formatting: Cells turn green/yellow/red based on cost thresholds you set in the Config tab
  • Dropdown Menus: Instance types and regions use data validation dropdowns — no manual typing needed
  • Price Updates: Update the Price Reference tab quarterly; all calculations refresh automatically
  • Currency: Change the currency symbol in cell B1 of the Dashboard; values are USD-based

Best Practices

  1. Start with one provider — fill in your current cloud bill to validate accuracy, then model alternatives
  2. Use reserved pricing for predictable workloads — the calculator shows exact break-even months
  3. Don't forget data transfer — it's often 15-30% of total cloud spend and frequently overlooked
  4. Model growth scenarios before committing to reserved instances
  5. Review quarterly — cloud pricing changes frequently; update the Price Reference tab

This is 1 of 11 resources in the Spreadsheet Tools Pro toolkit. Get the complete [Cloud Cost Calculator] with all files, templates, and documentation for $29.

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