Estimate a Terraform bill

By the end, you've priced a Terraform folder in the console and on the command line, and read what a plan would change. About 10 minutes. You need pogi installed: see Install pogi. You don't need Terraform for steps 1 and 2.

pogi reads your .tf files itself and prices them from a price list built into the program. It never runs Terraform and sends nothing anywhere.

1. Try the sample in the consoleCopy Anchor Link

1. Start pogi and open the console:

   Copy Text

   pogi start

   Open http://localhost:7644/_pogi/terraform in your browser, or choose Terraform in the console's sidebar.

2. Choose Try a sample. pogi prices a small AWS web stack built into the program: a load balancer, two app servers, a database, a bucket and a network module.

3. Read the total above the diagram. For the sample it is $297.23 a month.

4. Open the table: choose Cost in the sidebar, then the Terraform tab. It shows the same stack. Find aws_instance.app[0]. The What drives it column says Instance hours (m7g.large, Linux) · 730 h × $0.0816, and the status says assumed. Click the row to see why: pogi assumed Linux, because the files don't say.

5. Find aws_s3_bucket.assets. Its status is usage: a bucket is billed by use, and pogi doesn't know how much you'll store. It shows the unit price, $0.023 per GB-month, and counts $0 until you give it numbers. See Estimate Terraform cost.

6. Choose Open diagram above the table, or go back to the Terraform page. Each box is a resource, with its monthly cost. Arrows run from a resource to the ones that use it. Click a box to see what depends on it.

Nothing left your computer. The browser sent the sample's files to your pogi, which read them in memory and kept nothing.

2. Price a folder on the command lineCopy Anchor Link

pogi's repository has sample folders in examples/cost/. If you installed pogi without the repository, use any folder of your own .tf files instead.

pogi cost examples/cost/aws-web-stack

Source: folder examples/cost/aws-web-stack
AWS prices of 2026-10-20, from AWS Price List bulk files (pricing.us-east-1.amazonaws.com), on-demand rows
On-demand list prices, 730 h/month, USD; no free tier or discounts.

RESOURCE                                 SERVICE                 MONTHLY  WHAT DRIVES IT
aws_instance.web_a                       EC2                      $72.48  assumed  730 h × $0.096 Instance hours (m5.large, Linux)
aws_instance.web_b                       EC2                      $72.48  assumed  730 h × $0.096 Instance hours (m5.large, Linux)
aws_lb.app                               Elastic Load Balancing   $16.43  730 h × $0.0225 Load balancer hours (application)
aws_db_instance.db                       RDS                     $128.85  730 h × $0.145 Instance hours (db.t3.medium, postgres, multi-az)
…
Total        $376.38 a month

pogi cost works without a running pogi when you give it a path. The header names the date and source of the prices.

Now try a what-if. What if web_a were an m7g.large?

pogi cost examples/cost/aws-web-stack --size aws_instance.web_a=m7g.large

aws_instance.web_a drops from $72.48 to $61.97. Your .tf file doesn't change. To see every size and its price, run pogi cost sizes aws_instance.

3. Read what a plan changesCopy Anchor Link

A folder tells pogi what you wrote. A plan tells it what Terraform will do. Make one from your own folder:

terraform plan -out plan.out && terraform show -json plan.out > plan.json

This works against pogi too: run pogi tf > pogi_override.tf first (see Connect your tools), so nothing touches a real cloud. Then price the plan:

pogi cost plan.json

Here is a plan that deletes an autoscaling group and keeps a service and a load balancer:

Source: plan plan.json (Terraform 1.15.8)
…
ACTION    RESOURCE                       SERVICE                 BEFORE   AFTER  WHAT DRIVES IT
− delete  aws_autoscaling_group.workers  EC2 Auto Scaling         $8.23   $0.00  assumed  730 h × $0.0104 Instance hours (1 × t3.micro, Linux)
          aws_ecs_service.web            ECS                     $18.02  $18.02  365 vCPU-hour × $0.04048 vCPU hours (2 tasks × 0.25 vCPU, 0.5 GB)
          aws_lb.web                     Elastic Load Balancing  $16.43  $16.43  730 h × $0.0225 Load balancer hours (application)

Total        $34.45 a month
This plan saves $8.23 a month (from $42.68 to $34.45)

Not priced: aws_ecr_repository.app
These have no price in pogi yet, so the real bill could be higher.

Read it from the bottom up:

• The sentence under the total is the answer: what the plan adds or saves a month, and the cost before and after.
• ACTION says what Terraform will do: create, update, replace or delete.
• Not priced lists resources pogi has no price for. They add nothing to the total, so the real bill could be higher.

In the console, drop plan.json on the Terraform page. The diagram then colors each box by its change, and marks the resources that depend on a changed one as "affected". See See what a plan changes.

What's nextCopy Anchor Link

• Estimate Terraform cost: variable files, usage, pull requests and scripts.
• How Terraform cost works: why a folder and a plan differ, and what the labels mean.
• Terraform cost reference: which resource types are priced.