AWS EBS gp2 vs gp3 Savings Calculator
Calculate instant monthly and annual cost reductions by modernizing legacy AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS) gp2 volumes to gp3 with zero downtime.
EBS Volume Fleet Parameters Live Calculator
First 3,000 IOPS are 100% free
First 125 MB/s is 100% free
Estimated Cloud Cost Savings 20% Base Reduction
# 1. Modify single volume online (zero downtime)
aws ec2 modify-volume \
--volume-id vol-0123456789abcdef0 \
--volume-type gp3
# 2. Automated bulk migration for all gp2 volumes in current region
for vol in $(aws ec2 describe-volumes --filters Name=volume-type,Values=gp2 --query "Volumes[*].VolumeId" --output text); do
echo "Migrating $vol to gp3..."
aws ec2 modify-volume --volume-id "$vol" --volume-type gp3
done
Step-by-Step Production Guide: Live Migrating AWS EBS gp2 to gp3
AWS Elastic Volumes technology enables completely live, zero-downtime volume type modifications. Follow this 5-step engineering runbook to modernize your cloud fleet safely.
1 Inventory Active gp2 Volumes Across Your AWS Accounts
Run the AWS CLI command to list all volumes running legacy gp2 storage in your active region:
aws ec2 describe-volumes --filters Name=volume-type,Values=gp2 --query "Volumes[*].[VolumeId,Size,State,Attachments[0].InstanceId]" --output table 2 Evaluate Baseline IOPS & Throughput Needs
Every gp3 volume automatically includes 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s throughput at no extra charge. If your legacy gp2 volume was smaller than 1,000 GB, gp3 will actually provide faster baseline IOPS than you had before. If your volume was 2,000 GB on gp2 (which had 6,000 IOPS), provision additional IOPS to match using --iops 6000.
3 Trigger the Online Volume Modification
Execute the modification command via the AWS CLI or AWS Management Console. The volume immediately transitions to the modifying state while remaining fully online for reads and writes:
aws ec2 modify-volume --volume-id vol-0123456789abcdef0 --volume-type gp3 4 Monitor Optimization Progress
AWS transparently migrates the underlying block storage data blocks in the background while your EC2 instance continues handling production traffic:
aws ec2 describe-volumes-modifications --volume-ids vol-0123456789abcdef0 --query "VolumesModifications[0].[ModificationState,Progress]" --output text 5 Update Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform / CloudFormation)
Avoid configuration drift by updating your Terraform configuration (volume_type = "gp3") or CloudFormation templates to ensure future automated deployments do not re-provision legacy gp2 volumes.
AWS EBS Volume Types Architectural Comparison
Understanding the price-to-performance characteristics across Amazon EBS general-purpose and provisioned IOPS tiers:
| Volume Type | Storage Price (us-east-1) | Baseline IOPS | Baseline Throughput | Best Used For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gp3 (Modern) | $0.08 / GB-mo | 3,000 free (up to 16k) | 125 MB/s free (up to 1k) | Primary boot disks, databases, general production |
| gp2 (Legacy) | $0.10 / GB-mo | 3 IOPS / GB | 128–250 MB/s burst | Legacy environments (recommend migrating to gp3) |
| io2 Block Express | $0.125 / GB-mo | Up to 256,000 IOPS | Up to 4,000 MB/s | Mission-critical SAP HANA, Oracle, massive SQL Server |
| st1 (Throughput HDD) | $0.045 / GB-mo | 500 IOPS max | Up to 500 MB/s | Big data, data warehousing, streaming log storage |
Why AWS gp3 Outperforms gp2 (Even on Smaller Volumes)
In gp2, baseline IOPS performance was strictly chained to storage capacity (3 IOPS per gigabyte). To achieve 3,000 IOPS on gp2, you were forced to provision at least 1,000 GB of storage, even if your application only needed 50 GB.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is there any limit to how often I can modify an EBS volume? ▼
Yes. AWS imposes a 6-hour cooldown window after a volume modification enters the optimizing state before another modification can be initiated on the exact same volume. Ensure you select the desired target size and IOPS accurately before triggering the modification.
Does my filesystem need to be resized after changing type from gp2 to gp3? ▼
No. When changing only the volume type from gp2 to gp3 without modifying the disk size, the Linux filesystem (ext4 or XFS) does not require any partition resizing or mount adjustments. If you also expanded volume size, follow our EBS Disk Space Expansion Guide using growpart.
Are older EC2 instance types compatible with gp3? ▼
Yes. gp3 volumes can be attached to any EC2 instance type that supports EBS. However, to achieve maximum provisioned throughput (up to 1,000 MB/s), the instance must be an EBS-optimized modern generation instance (such as C5, M5, R5, T3, or modern Graviton instances).
How does AWS bill for provisioned IOPS above 3,000? ▼
In US East (N. Virginia), AWS bills $0.005 per provisioned IOPS-month above the free 3,000 baseline. For example, provisioning 5,000 IOPS means you pay for 2,000 additional IOPS, which equals $10.00 per month.
Looking to Reduce Your AWS Cloud Bill by 20% to 40%?
Our certified AWS architects conduct full cloud audits, migrate legacy EBS volumes, eliminate idle compute, and configure FinOps savings plans.