# Amazon Lightsail

> Amazon's fixed-price Linux VPS: 25 bundles from $5 a month, billed hourly up to that cap, with a public IPv4, 1-10 TB of transfer and no pause.

Website: https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/  
Guide page: https://botperch.com/providers/lightsail/  
Checked: 2026-10-30

**Short answer:** One always-on personal agent (2 vCPU / 4 GiB / 20 GiB) costs about $23.54 a month here, the 10th cheapest of the 22 providers that run it as described. The AI model adds about $1.88 a month on top (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (1017), 30 requests a day at 40k tokens each, median zero-retention price; from $0.46 at the cheapest host). Fits well: A small always-on service that needs a fixed public IPv4 and a flat bill: $5 for 2 vCPU / 0.5 GB, $12 for 2 vCPU / 2 GB, $24 for 2 vCPU / 4 GB.

Lightsail is AWS's simplified virtual private server. You pick a fixed bundle, an operating-system or application blueprint and a region, and get an ordinary Linux machine with its own kernel, root, SSH, a public IPv4 address and a built-in inbound firewall. There is no sandbox API, no pause and no agent runtime.
The catalogue is 25 Linux bundles with a public IPv4 address: 2 vCPU / 0.5 GB / 20 GB for $5 a month up to 64 vCPU / 256 GB / 1,280 GB for $1,764, plus memory-optimised bundles to 512 GB and compute-optimised bundles to 72 vCPU. IPv6-only bundles are $1.50 to $4 cheaper; Windows bundles cost more because they include a licence.
Everything else in the console is a separate product with its own meter: container services, managed MySQL and PostgreSQL, object storage buckets, CDN distributions, load balancers, and Lightsail for Research (which has the GPU machines and a cheap stopped rate). Those are not priced by the Lightsail instance card and are easy to confuse with it.

**Who it is for:** People who want one small Linux server that stays up, has a fixed public address and a predictable monthly bill, and who are happy to install and patch the agent themselves.

**Isolation:** A VPS (virtual private server), not a sandbox built for agents. A full Linux virtual machine per instance with its own kernel, root and SSH, on a burstable shared vCPU. RAM, SSD and the public IP are dedicated. Nested virtualisation is not documented, there is no GPU on ordinary instances, and the hypervisor is never named.

**Sizes and regions:** 25 Linux bundles with a public IPv4 address, from 2 vCPU / 0.5 GB / 20 GB / 1 TB transfer at $5 a month to 64 vCPU / 256 GB / 1,280 GB / 10 TB at $1,764. Memory-optimised reaches 512 GB, compute-optimised 72 vCPU. Fixed shapes only: no independent CPU, memory or disk sizing, and no in-place resize. 19 regions, six of them in the EU, four opt-in.

## How it charges

- model: On-demand per instance, at the bundle's hourly rate, capped at its monthly price. No account fee and no commitment.
- meter: Per instance-hour. AWS's price list sets the hourly rate at the monthly price divided by 744, so a 730-hour month bills $23.54 on the $24 bundle and the cap only binds in a 31-day month.
- stopped: A stopped instance keeps billing at the full hourly rate: AWS says instances 'accrue charges even when they are in the stopped state'. Stopping powers the machine down and keeps the disk, but memory and processes are gone. Only deleting the instance ends the charge.
- planFee: None. Container services, managed databases, load balancers ($18 a month), object storage and CDN distributions are separate products with their own prices.
- minimum: $5 a month for the smallest public-IPv4 Linux bundle, or $3.50 for the IPv6-only one. A payment method is required to open the AWS account; new accounts get up to $200 of credits for six months.

Fixed Linux bundles billed by the hour at the bundle's hourly rate, capped at its monthly price; a stopped instance keeps billing at the same rate until it is deleted.
- Lightsail's hourly price is the monthly price divided by 744 (31 days), taken from AWS's own price list. A 730-hour month therefore bills $23.54 on the $24 bundle, and the $24 cap is only reached in a 31-day month. The calculator's monthly cap reproduces this.
- A stopped instance is still billed: 'Lightsail instances and managed databases incur charges until they are deleted. These resources accrue charges even when they are in the stopped state.' Only deleting the instance ends the charge.
- AWS does not publish whether a partial instance-hour is rounded up. The card bills pro-rata hours, so A (166.67 hours) costs $5.38. If each of the 1,000 ten-minute runs were billed a whole hour, A would be $32.25. This is an open question, not a modelled rule.
- The bundle includes its SSD and its public IPv4 address; there is no separate disk or IP line. Extra block storage is $0.10 per allocated GB-month, attached to one instance, 8 GB to 16 TB per disk and 15 disks per instance.
- IPv6-only bundles are $1.50-$4 cheaper a month ($3.50 for 0.5 GB) but cannot take a static IPv4 address. This card prices the public-IPv4 bundles.
- Windows bundles cost more ($9.50-$4,204 a month) because they include a Windows Server licence. Not priced here.
- Snapshots cost $0.05 per GB-month, manual and automatic. Automatic snapshots keep the latest seven daily copies and are deleted with the instance. Not in the calculator.
- AWS labels memory and disk in GB; the card treats those numbers as GiB, the unit the site uses throughout. The difference is about 7% and never changes which bundle is the smallest fit at the sizes A/B/C use. All 25 Linux bundles with a public IPv4 address are listed.
- Lightsail containers, managed databases, object storage, CDN distributions, load balancers and Lightsail for Research are separate products on separate meters and are not priced by this card.

## Monthly cost for each preset workload

- A personal agent that stays on (Hermes, OpenClaw): $23.54
- A coding agent for one developer: $82.42
- A code interpreter inside your product: $10.75
- A browser agent for a small team: $161.25
- Self-hosted n8n for a small team: $23.54
- A Discord or Slack bot for one server: $11.77
- Claude Code for a team of five: $412.09
- A scraper that runs four times a day: $0.32
- Your own remote MCP server: $6.86
- A: 1,000 short tasks: $5.38
- B: one always-on box: $82.42
- C: three hours a day: $23.54

## Fits well

- A small always-on service that needs a fixed public IPv4 and a flat bill: $5 for 2 vCPU / 0.5 GB, $12 for 2 vCPU / 2 GB, $24 for 2 vCPU / 4 GB.
- A bot, MCP server or webhook receiver that must stay awake: there is no idle timeout and no session cap.
- Teams already on AWS that want the same IAM, CloudTrail, DPA, SOC reports and regional footprint for a small machine.
- Cheap regional presence: 19 regions including six in the EU, with 1-10 TB of transfer included.
- Disk-heavy but CPU-light work: 1,280 GB of SSD is included from $384 a month, and extra disks go to 16 TB.

## Fits badly

- Bursty, short-lived work: a ten-minute task pays for its hours, and there is no per-run sandbox API, so a code interpreter has no cheap path.
- Anything that needs to stop and resume mid-process: stopping powers the machine down and keeps billing.
- Four or more vCPU: the ladder jumps from $44 (2 vCPU) to $84 (4 vCPU), which is dear for a VPS.
- A reader who wants the provider to install the agent: there is no Hermes or OpenClaw template, no coding agent and no prompt API.
- A hard monthly ceiling: AWS Budgets can alert or block new resources, but nothing stops a running instance at a spend limit.
- Automatic HTTPS on a bare instance: certificates come with the $18/month load balancer, or you run Caddy or Certbot yourself.

## Features

- **Isolation** (yes): Full VM; root, Docker, SSH. A full VM with dedicated RAM, disk and a burstable shared vCPU. Nested virtualisation is not documented, GPUs exist only in the separate Lightsail for Research product, and the hypervisor is never named. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-instances-virtual-private-servers-in-amazon-lightsail.html) [docs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-instances-virtual-private-servers-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- **Sizes and regions** (yes): 64 vCPU / 256 GiB; 19 regions. 25 fixed Linux bundles from 2 vCPU / 0.5 GB / 20 GB at $5 to 64 vCPU / 256 GB / 1,280 GB at $1,764 a month, plus memory- and compute-optimised families up to 512 GB and 72 vCPU. No independent sizing and no in-place resize: a new instance from a snapshot is the only way to change plan. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-bundles.html) [docs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-bundles.html)
- **Lifecycle** (no): Stop keeps disk; still billed. Stop, start and reboot exist; there is no pause, no memory snapshot and no cheap stopped state. Stopping releases the public IPv4 address unless a static IP is attached, and the instance bills at the full hourly rate until it is deleted. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html) [docs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/lightsail-how-to-start-stop-or-restart-your-instance-virtual-private-server.html)
- **Snapshots and forks** (yes): $0.05/GB-mo; 7 daily. Manual snapshots last until deleted and cost $0.05 per GB-month; automatic snapshots keep seven daily copies and are deleted with the instance. Snapshots hold disk state only, cannot restore to a smaller plan, and a copy of a running machine starts from the snapshot moment rather than from live memory. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-snapshots-in-amazon-lightsail.html) [docs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-snapshots-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- **Storage** (yes): 20-1,280 GB SSD; 16 TB disks. Each bundle includes its SSD, from 20 GB to 1,280 GB. Extra disks are $0.10 per allocated GB-month, 8 GB to 16 TB each, 15 per instance and 20,000 GB per region, attached to one instance at a time. Object storage buckets are S3-compatible but not mountable as a folder. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/elastic-block-storage-and-ssd-disks-in-amazon-lightsail.html) [docs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/elastic-block-storage-and-ssd-disks-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- **Idle and waking** (yes): No idle stop. Nothing stops an idle instance and nothing wakes a stopped one on a request. There is no job or instance scheduler, so cron inside the machine is the only way to run something on a timetable. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html) [docs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html)
- **Reaching it** (yes): Public IPv4, SSH, browser. Every public-IPv4 bundle is internet-reachable, and the instance firewall opens the ports you choose, optionally restricted by source IP. There is no token-scoped private link. A static IP keeps the address across stops; the default public IP changes. [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/) [docs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-firewall-and-port-mappings-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- **Custom domains** (partly): DNS zones; TLS yourself. Six DNS zones are free, and domain registration is sold at cost. A plain instance has no managed certificate, so renewal is your job; the WordPress blueprint has a guided Let's Encrypt setup, and a Lightsail load balancer includes free certificate management and HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html) [docs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-dns-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- **Outbound network** (yes): 1-10 TB included; $0.09/GB. Both directions count against the allowance, but only outbound traffic over it is charged; allowances are halved in Mumbai, Sydney, Jakarta, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Sao Paulo. There is no outbound allowlist and no no-internet mode, and the instance's public IP (static if you attach one) is its egress address. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-faq-data-transfer-allowance.html) [docs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-faq-data-transfer-allowance.html)
- **Keys and secrets** (partly): IAM keys; no secret store. IAM gives scoped API keys, resource-level permissions and tag conditions, and CloudTrail records their use. There is no Lightsail secret store, no environment-variable injection and no proxy that hides a key from the agent. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/security_iam_service-with-iam.html) [docs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/security_iam_service-with-iam.html)
- **Ways to drive it** (yes): Console, CLI, API, SDKs. The console, AWS CLI, documented JSON API and generated SDKs cover instances, disks, static IPs, snapshots and DNS. AWS's official MCP server can call any AWS API, Lightsail included, but ships no Lightsail-specific tools. Terminal access is SSH, and files move by SFTP. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/getstarted-awscli.html) [docs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/getstarted-awscli.html)
- **Built-in agents** (no): None preinstalled. Blueprints are operating systems and web stacks (Ubuntu, Amazon Linux, WordPress, LAMP, Node.js). There is no prompt API, no preinstalled coding agent, no browser and no Linux desktop; only Windows bundles offer a desktop, over RDP. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/compare-options-choose-lightsail-instance-image.html) [docs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/compare-options-choose-lightsail-instance-image.html)
- **Teams and accounts** (partly): IAM roles; no spend cap. Access is AWS IAM rather than a Lightsail feature: policies, groups, roles, federation and CloudTrail audit, and Identity Center adds SSO. There is no hard spending cap: AWS Budgets can alert on spend and apply an IAM policy action, but nothing stops a running instance when a limit is crossed. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-managing-access-for-an-iam-user.html) [docs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-managing-access-for-an-iam-user.html)
- **Billing models** (partly): $0.03225/h, $24 cap. Hourly billing at the monthly price divided by 744, capped at the monthly price, so 730 hours on the $24 bundle is $23.54 rather than $24. A stopped instance keeps billing at the full rate until deleted, there is no per-second meter, and AWS does not publish whether a partial hour rounds up: if it did, 1,000 ten-minute runs would cost $32.25 rather than $5.38. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-bundles.html) [docs](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/pricing/)
- **Trials and free tiers** (partly): Up to $200 credits. Lightsail's own short-term trials have been retired and replaced by AWS Free Tier credits: $100 at sign-up plus up to $100 earned, on an account that closes after six months or when the credits run out. A payment method is required to open the account. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html) [docs](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html)
- **The company** (yes): AWS; 99.5% SLA; SOC 1/2/3. The SLA is a commercially reasonable efforts commitment with service credits, 99.5% per instance and 99.99% at region level. The contracting party depends on the account country, and the AWS Health Dashboard covers outages across all AWS services rather than Lightsail alone. [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/sla-lightsail-instances-and-block-storage/) [docs](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/sla-lightsail-instances-and-block-storage/)

## Capabilities

- Its own virtual machine: yes (Full VM, own kernel) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-instances-virtual-private-servers-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Root access: yes (Root over SSH) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Docker inside: yes (Install on Ubuntu) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/compare-options-choose-lightsail-instance-image.html)
- Nested virtualisation: not-published (Not documented) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-instances-virtual-private-servers-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Your own image: partly (Snapshots only). You can rebuild from a snapshot of your own configured instance, but you cannot import an image or build one from a Dockerfile made elsewhere. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-snapshots-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Any size you like: no (25 fixed bundles) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-bundles.html)
- Large machines: yes (64 vCPU / 256 GiB) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-bundles.html)
- Resize while running: no (New instance from snapshot) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-right-size-instance.html)
- GPUs: partly (Research product only). GPUs are sold only in Lightsail for Research, a separate product for researchers; an ordinary Lightsail instance is CPU-only. [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Choose the region: yes (19 regions) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-regions-and-availability-zones-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Runs in the EU: yes (6 EU regions) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-regions-and-availability-zones-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Pause keeps memory: no (Stop powers down) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Pre-started pools: no (No pre-started pool) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/lightsail-how-to-start-stop-or-restart-your-instance-virtual-private-server.html)
- Starts in under a second: no (Minutes) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Snapshots of files: yes ($0.05/GB-month) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-snapshots-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Snapshots with memory: no (Disk only) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Copy a running machine: no (Snapshot only) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Pick an older snapshot: yes (Manual, indefinitely) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-snapshots-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Reusable templates: yes (Snapshots as baselines) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Automatic backups: yes (7 daily automatic) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-snapshots-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Files survive a stop: yes (Disk kept) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Separate volumes: yes ($0.10/GB-month) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/elastic-block-storage-and-ssd-disks-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- One volume, several machines: no (One instance per disk) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/2016-11-28/api-reference/API_AttachDisk.html)
- Mount outside storage: no (S3 API, no mount) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/buckets-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Large disk: yes (16 TB per disk) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/elastic-block-storage-and-ssd-disks-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Can stay on indefinitely: yes (Until deleted) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html)
- Choose the idle timeout: no (Manual stop only) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/lightsail-how-to-start-stop-or-restart-your-instance-virtual-private-server.html)
- Wakes on a request: no (No) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/lightsail-how-to-start-stop-or-restart-your-instance-virtual-private-server.html)
- Scheduled runs: no (No scheduler) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html)
- Public link to a port: yes (Public IPv4 + firewall) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Private link: no (No) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-firewall-and-port-mappings-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Real SSH: yes (Standard SSH) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-ssh-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Terminal in the browser: yes (Browser SSH) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Tunnel to your computer: yes (SSH port forwarding) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-ssh-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Non-web ports: yes (Any TCP port) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-firewall-rules-reference.html)
- Your own domain: yes (6 DNS zones free) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-dns-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Automatic HTTPS: partly (Load balancer only). Automatic certificates come only with the $18/month load balancer or the WordPress blueprint's guided Let's Encrypt setup; a plain instance has none. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html)
- Outbound data included: yes (1-10 TB a month) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-faq-data-transfer-allowance.html)
- Allow only some sites: no (Outbound open) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-firewall-and-port-mappings-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Turn the internet off: no (No) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-firewall-and-port-mappings-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Fixed outgoing IP: yes ($0.005/h unattached) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html)
- Stored secrets: no (No) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-instances-virtual-private-servers-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Secrets the agent cannot read: no (No) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-firewall-and-port-mappings-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Limited API keys: yes (IAM policies) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/security_iam_service-with-iam.html)
- Create from the website: yes (Console, few clicks) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Command-line tool: yes (aws lightsail) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/getstarted-awscli.html)
- Python SDK: yes (boto3) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/boto3/latest/reference/services/lightsail.html)
- TypeScript SDK: yes (@aws-sdk/client-lightsail) [source](https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk-js-v3/blob/main/clients/client-lightsail/README.md)
- Documented HTTP API: yes (Lightsail API) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/2016-11-28/api-reference/Welcome.html)
- MCP server: partly (Generic AWS MCP). AWS's official MCP server is generic: it can call any AWS API, including Lightsail's, but has no Lightsail-specific tools or skills. [source](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/the-aws-mcp-server-is-now-generally-available/)
- Interactive terminal over the API: no (No) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/2016-11-28/api-reference/Welcome.html)
- Files over the API: no (No) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-connecting-to-linux-unix-instance-using-sftp.html)
- Coding agents preinstalled: no (No) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Send it a prompt: no (No) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-instances-virtual-private-servers-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- One-click Hermes: no (No) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- One-click OpenClaw: no (No) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Browser built in: no (No) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Desktop for computer use: partly (Windows RDP only). Only Windows bundles have a desktop, reached by RDP; Linux instances have no graphical desktop and there is no browser-streamed desktop or computer-use API. [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Runs other platforms' agents: no (No) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/what-is-amazon-lightsail.html)
- Team workspace: yes (AWS account + IAM) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-managing-access-for-an-iam-user.html)
- Roles and permissions: yes (IAM policies) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-managing-access-for-an-iam-user.html)
- Single sign-on: yes (IAM Identity Center) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/iam/identity-center/)
- Hard spending cap: no (Alerts, no cap) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cost-management/latest/userguide/budgets-managing-costs.html)
- Usage alerts: yes (AWS Budgets) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cost-management/latest/userguide/budgets-managing-costs.html)
- Audit log: yes (CloudTrail) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/logging-lightsail-api-calls-using-aws-cloudtrail.html)
- Billed per second: no (Hourly) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-bundles.html)
- CPU billed only while working: no (Full rate while on) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Paused costs only storage: no (Stopped still billed) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html)
- No monthly fee: yes (No plan fee) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/faq/)
- Flat monthly price: yes ($5-$1,764 a month) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/pricing/)
- Ongoing free tier: no (Credits only) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html)
- Free starting credit: yes (Up to $200) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html)
- Try without a card: no (Card required) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws-cloud-financial-management/a-quick-overview-of-aws-payment-methods/)
- Public status page: yes (AWS Health Dashboard) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/health/latest/ug/what-is-aws-health.html)
- Uptime promise (SLA): yes (99.5% per instance) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/sla-lightsail-instances-and-block-storage/)
- SOC 2 report: yes (SOC 1/2/3 reports) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/soc-faqs/)
- Data processing agreement: yes (AWS DPA) [source](https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/)
- Open source or self-hostable: no (Proprietary) [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/what-is-amazon-lightsail.html)

## Usability

- Dashboard: Yes. The Lightsail console creates an instance in a few clicks, shows CPU, network and status graphs, opens a browser SSH or RDP session, and manages static IPs, firewalls, disks, snapshots and DNS zones.
- Without code: Partly. Creating the machine and opening its terminal needs no local software, but installing any agent, TLS or Docker is terminal work, and there is no one-click agent template.
- Signup: An AWS account, which requires a payment method. New accounts get $100 of credits at sign-up and can earn up to $100 more, on a Free plan that closes after six months or when the credits run out.
- Docs: A large documentation set with Markdown versions, an API reference for every action, a CLI tutorial and blueprint guides. Support is AWS Support, which is paid beyond the basic plan.
- Trips people up: Stopping an instance does not stop the bill; only deleting it does.
- Trips people up: Stopping releases the public IPv4 address unless a static IP is attached.
- Trips people up: The monthly price is a cap, not a minimum: 730 hours on the $24 bundle is $23.54 because the hourly rate is the monthly price divided by 744.
- Trips people up: There is no in-place resize; changing plan means snapshot, rebuild, repoint DNS and delete.
- Trips people up: Snapshots restore only to the same or a larger plan, and automatic snapshots die with the instance.
- Trips people up: Four vCPU costs $84 a month, so a coding-agent machine is far dearer than the $24 two-vCPU bundle.
- Trips people up: The data-transfer allowance is halved in Mumbai, Sydney, Jakarta, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Sao Paulo.
- Trips people up: Lightsail for Research has GPU machines and a $0.00685/hour stopped rate; ordinary Lightsail instances have neither.
- Trips people up: Bundles created on or before 29 June 2023 have 1 vCPU where the current $5-$12 bundles list 2.

## Company

- Legal entity: Amazon Web Services, Inc., an Amazon company. The Customer Agreement names the contracting party by account country, and AWS, Inc. is the default when the country cannot be determined. [source](https://aws.amazon.com/agreement/)
- Uptime promise: 99.5% monthly uptime per instance, and 99.99% at region level, with service credits below those figures. The SLA is a commercially reasonable efforts commitment. [source](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/sla-lightsail-instances-and-block-storage/)
- Certification: SOC 1, SOC 2 and SOC 3 reports cover the AWS infrastructure. The SOC 2 report is available to customers through AWS Artifact. [source](https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/soc-faqs/)
- Data processing: The AWS Service Terms incorporate the AWS Data Processing Addendum for customer data, plus the Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers. [source](https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/)
- Status page: The AWS Health Dashboard shows service health for all AWS services; Lightsail has no dedicated status page. [source](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/health/latest/ug/what-is-aws-health.html)

## Caveats

- **A stopped instance bills in full** (open): AWS says Lightsail instances 'accrue charges even when they are in the stopped state'. Workload C therefore costs $23.54 whether it runs for 90 hours or 730, and the only way to stop paying is to delete the machine and keep a snapshot.
- **Partial instance-hours have no published rounding rule** (open): The pricing page and FAQ say billing is hourly, and the price list bills in hours, but neither says whether a ten-minute run is charged ten minutes or a whole hour. This profile assumes pro-rata hours, which makes A $5.38; a whole-hour rule would make it $32.25.
- **The billing FAQ's own example uses a stale rate** (contradiction): The billing FAQ says the cheapest plan is '$0.0067 USD/hour ($5 USD/month)' and then illustrates with '46 cents (100*0.0046)'. The $0.0046 figure matches neither the current $5 bundle ($0.00672) nor the $3.50 IPv6-only bundle ($0.00470) in AWS's price list. This profile uses the price list.
- **Lightsail for Research is a different product with different stopped billing** (open): Research virtual computers bill $0.00685 an hour while stopped and are the only Lightsail machines with GPUs. Ordinary Lightsail instances bill their full hourly rate while stopped and have no GPU, so a reader comparing the two will draw the wrong conclusion about pausing.
- **The cheap bundles changed shape without a launch date** (open): The pricing page footnotes that virtual servers created on or before 29 June 2023 have 1 vCPU where the $5, $7 and $12 bundles now list 2. This profile prices a new instance; an older account's machine may be half the CPU for the same price.
- **Nested virtualisation is undocumented** (open): No Lightsail page says whether an instance can run KVM or another hypervisor inside it. Treat it as unknown rather than supported; Docker does not need it, Android emulators and Firecracker do.

## Sources

- [Lightsail pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/pricing/)
- [Lightsail instance bundles](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-bundles.html)
- [Billing and account management FAQ](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html)
- [AWS Price List API, AmazonLightsail, us-east-1](https://pricing.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/offers/v1.0/aws/AmazonLightsail/current/us-east-1/index.json)
- [Regions and Availability Zones](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-regions-and-availability-zones-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- [Start, stop, or reboot an instance](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/lightsail-how-to-start-stop-or-restart-your-instance-virtual-private-server.html)
- [Snapshots](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-snapshots-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- [Block storage](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/elastic-block-storage-and-ssd-disks-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- [Instance firewalls](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-firewall-and-port-mappings-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- [Data transfer allowances](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-faq-data-transfer-allowance.html)
- [Static IP addresses](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/understanding-static-ip-addresses-in-amazon-lightsail.html)
- [Choose the right plan (no in-place resize)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-right-size-instance.html)
- [Blueprints](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/compare-options-choose-lightsail-instance-image.html)
- [CloudTrail logging](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/logging-lightsail-api-calls-using-aws-cloudtrail.html)
- [IAM policies for Lightsail](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/security_iam_service-with-iam.html)
- [Lightsail SLA](https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/sla-lightsail-instances-and-block-storage/)
- [AWS Free Tier](https://aws.amazon.com/free/)