With the AWS Mainframe Modernization service, various components have different prices. You only pay for what you use with no upfront commitment or minimum fee. Alternatively, you can select committed plans for additional savings. Some components do not have additional charges:
- For the AWS Mainframe Modernization Blu Age runtime, you can choose on-demand instances and pay for the runtime by the hour with no long-term commitments or upfront fees, or choose committed plans for additional savings.
- For the AWS Mainframe Modernization Blu Age analysis, developer, and build tools, there is no additional charge. You will incur charges for any AWS infrastructure that is consumed.
- For the AWS Mainframe Modernization Micro Focus runtime and developer tool, you can choose on-demand instances and pay for the runtime by the hour with no long-term commitments or upfront fees, or choose committed plans for additional savings.
- For the AWS Mainframe Modernization Micro Focus analyzer and build tools, there is no additional charge. You will incur charges for any AWS infrastructure that is consumed.
Note: It is recommended that AWS Mainframe Modernization service be delivered and managed through AWS professional service engagements and Mainframe Migration Competency Partners. Pricing details below are informational. If you are ready to explore mainframe migration and modernization, please contact an AWS mainframe specialist or an AWS Mainframe Migration Competency partner to assist with building an estimate which includes a complete set of services used in a typical AWS deployment.
AWS Mainframe Modernization managed runtime price covers for the multiple managed resources composing the managed runtime. The managed runtime includes managed compute, storage, caching, and internal database.
Pricing details
Committed plans
Committed plans are appropriate for steady-state workloads and offer significant savings over on-demand pricing. For example, committed plans are generally suitable for production environments with 24/7 consumption, while on-demand pricing can be suitable for intermittent usage, such as development and test environments. One-year and three-year commitments are available. Please contact your AWS representative for discount details.
On-demand pricing
| On-demand pricing for AWS Mainframe Modernization Blu Age Runtime | |
| Instance Type | Pricing |
| M2.m6i.large | $0.31 per hour |
| M2.m6i.xlarge | $0.62 per hour |
| M2.m6i.2xlarge | $1.24 per hour |
| M2.m6i.4xlarge | $2.48 per hour |
| M2.m6i.8xlarge | $4.96 per hour |
| M2.m6i.16xlarge | $9.92 per hour |
The same pricing applies to c6i, m6i, m5, c5, and r5 instance families.
Pricing for AWS Mainframe Modernization Blu Age Automated Refactor Transformation
AWS Mainframe Modernization Blu Age Transformation Center usage is priced as per the number of lines of code (LOC) converted. Billing starts only after the free tier of 120,000 LOC, at the rate of $0.103 per LOC with monthly installments (the number of installments is the duration of the project as estimated by AWS Blu Insights). There is no additional charge for re-converting the same lines of code multiple times within the same project. In case of a code refresh during the project, only the changes are charged.
For more details, please visit:
https://bluinsights.aws/docs/billing-and-usage/
https://bluinsights.aws/docs/faq-transformation-center/
| On-demand pricing for AWS Mainframe Modernization Micro Focus Runtime | |
| Instance Type | Pricing |
| M2.m6i.large | $5.55 per hour |
| M2.m6i.xlarge | $11.10 per hour |
| M2.m6i.2xlarge | $22.20 per hour |
| M2.m6i.4xlarge | $44.40 per hour |
| M2.m6i.8xlarge | $88.80 per hour |
The same pricing applies to c6i, m6i, m5, c5, and r5 instance families.
| On-demand pricing for AWS Mainframe Modernization Micro Focus Developer | |
| Instance Type | Pricing |
| large1 | $2.14 per hour |
| xlarge | $4.28 per hour |
| 2xlarge | $8.56 per hour |
| 4xlarge | $17.12 per hour |
| 8xlarge | $34.24 per hour |
(1) Micro Focus Developer relying on stream large instances such as stream.memory.large or stream.compute.large has a price of $2.14 per hour except when relying on stream.standard.large which has a price of $4.28 per hour.
Pricing for AWS Mainframe Modernization Application Testing
Customers modernizing or migrating their mainframe applications with the AWS Mainframe Modernization service can use its Application Testing feature with on-demand pricing based on the time elapsed during testing and the amount of data compared between the source mainframe and the target modernized application
| Dimension | Pricing |
| Test execution time | $0.06 per minute |
| Test data comparison | $0.99 per Gigabyte |
Limited-time promotion** – For a limited time, on a case-by-case basis, for projects modernizing applications to AWS Mainframe Modernization runtimes, including Blu Age or Micro Focus or UniKix runtimes, AWS Application Testing can be available at no additional charge. Please contact your AWS representative for more details.
Pricing for AWS Mainframe Modernization Data Replication with Precisely
AWS Mainframe Modernization Data Replication with Precisely is priced based on amount of data (GB) replicated from the source database.
On-demand pricing for AWS Mainframe Modernization Data Replication
Source type |
Pricing |
IBM z/OS mainframe |
$60 per GB |
IBM i |
$30 per GB |
Pricing for AWS Mainframe Modernization File Transfer with BMC
AWS Mainframe Modernization File Transfer with BMC is priced based on amount of data (GB) transferred from the source mainframe to Amazon S3 storage.
On-demand pricing for AWS Mainframe Modernization File Transfer
Source type |
Pricing |
IBM z/OS mainframe |
$1.30 per GB |
Pricing for AWS Mainframe Modernization Code Conversion with mLogica
AWS Mainframe Modernization Code Conversion with mLogica is priced as per the number of lines of code (LOC) in scope for the conversion. There is no additional charge for re-converting the same lines of code in the same environment multiple times.
On-demand pricing for AWS Mainframe Modernization Code Conversion
Conversion type |
Pricing |
Assembler to COBOL or Java |
$2.75 per line of code |
Additional charges
Some AWS Mainframe Modernization components rely on Amazon AppStream 2.0: Developer IDE for Blu Age; Micro Focus Analyzer; Micro Focus Developer. For these components, you will incur corresponding AppStream 2.0 charges. See Amazon AppStream 2.0 pricing for details.
Some AWS Mainframe Modernization components rely on AWS CodeBuild: Build Tools for Blu Age; Build Tools for Micro Focus. For these components, you will incur corresponding CodeBuild charges. See AWS CodeBuild pricing for details.
Some AWS Mainframe Modernization components, such as Application Testing, Data Replication, and File Transfer may incur additional AWS infrastructure costs as part of using the service features. These can include costs for Amazon EC2 instances, Amazon S3 storage, Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) databases, and other AWS services based on customer-specific usage of these features.
AWS Mainframe Modernization runtime components do not store persistent application business data. If you decide to store application data in file-systems such as Amazon FSx or Amazon Elastic File System (EFS), you will incur corresponding charges. If you decide to store application data in databases such as Amazon Aurora or Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), you will incur corresponding charges. See Amazon FSx pricing, Amazon EFS pricing, Amazon Aurora pricing, and Amazon RDS pricing for details.
Pricing example
Example 1: Some financial services company after migration
Let’s say you have completed the migration and modernization of a mortgage management application using AWS Mainframe Modernization Blu Age automated refactoring. For maintaining, enhancing and running this application, you use AWS Mainframe Modernization Developer for Blu Age and build tools. You also use every month 8 instances of M2.m6i.large for tests and production. The 4 test instances are only started during the business hours or 8 hours a day. The 4 production instances are used 24/7.
The bill at the end of the month using AWS Mainframe Modernization in US East (N. Virginia) would be calculated as follows:
| Usage type | Hours used | Number of instances | Price | Charge for the month |
| Developer for Blu Age | 40 hours | 3 | $0.00/hour | 0 |
| Blu Age build tools | 24 hours | 2 | $0.00/hour | 0 |
| Blu Age runtime for tests M2.m6i.large instances |
8 * 22 = 176 hours |
4 | $0.31/hour | 4 * 176 * 0.31 = $218.24 |
Blu Age runtime for production |
24 * 30 = 720 hours |
4 | $0.31/hour | 4 * 720 * 0.31 = $892.80 |
| Total Charges: $1,111.04 |
For the month, your AWS Mainframe Modernization service bill will be $1,111.04, a total which does not consider the AWS Free Tier.
Example 2: Some financial services company during migration
Let’s say you are migrating the previous mortgage management application from a mainframe to AWS over a 6 months duration with 5 professionals using the tools. This application has 3 Million Lines Of Code (MLOC). For this effort, you use AWS Mainframe Modernization Blu Age analysis tool, then transformation tool, and build tools. Every month, 0.5 MLOC are transformed. You also use every month 4 instances of M2.m6i.large for tests and pre-production. These instances are only started during the business hours or 8 hours a day for project delivery.
The bill at the end of the month (22 business days, assuming no weekend usage) using AWS Mainframe Modernization in US East (N. Virginia) would be calculated as follows:
| Usage type | Usage | Number of instances | Price | Charge for the month |
| Blu Age analysis tool | 40 hours | $0.00 | 0 | |
| Blu Age transformation tool | 0.5 MLOC |
$0.103/LOC |
0.103 * 500,000 = $51,500 | |
| Blu Age build tools | 24 hours | 2 | $0.00/hour | 0 |
Blu Age runtime |
8 * 22 = 176 hours |
4 | $2.50/hour | 4 * 176 * 0.31 = $218.24 |
| Total Charges: $51,718.24 |
For the month during the migration project, your AWS Mainframe Modernization service bill will be $75,394.24.
Example 3: Some automotive company
Let’s say you have migrated and modernized a parts inventory management application from a mainframe to AWS. For maintaining and enhancing the application, you use the AWS Mainframe Modernization service with 2 Micro Focus analyzer instances and 2 Micro Focus build tools. You also have 4 developers using Micro Focus developer large instances working business hours. You use 2 Micro Focus runtime M2.m6.large instances for tests during business hours. You use 2 Micro Focus runtime M2.m6.large instances for production 24/7.
The bill at the end of the month (22 business days; 30 days total) using AWS Mainframe Modernization in US East (N. Virginia) would be calculated as follows:
| Usage type | Hours used | Number of instances | Price | Charge for the month |
| Micro Focus analyzer tool | 40 hours | 2 | $0.00/hour | 0 |
| Micro Focus developer tools | 8 * 22 = 176 hours |
4 | $2.14/hour | 4 * 176 * 2.14 = $1506.56 |
| Micro Focus build tools | 44 hours | 2 | $0.00/hour | 0 |
| Micro Focus managed runtime test M2.m5.large instances |
8 * 22 = 176 hours |
2 | $5.55/hour | 2 * 176 * 5.55 = $1,953.60 |
Micro Focus managed runtime |
24 * 30 = 720 hours |
2 | $5.55/hour | 2 * 720 * 5.55 = $7,992.00 |
| Total Charges: $11,452.16 |
For the month, your AWS Mainframe Modernization service bill will be $11.452.16, a total which does not consider the AWS Free Tier.
Free tier
As part of the AWS Free Tier, you can get started with the AWS Mainframe Modernization service for free. The Free Tier lasts 30 days and includes large instance sizes.
Additional pricing resources
Simple monthly calculator to estimate total cost of ownership (TCO).
Additional resources for switching to AWS
Get started building with AWS Mainframe Modernization in the AWS Management Console.