Networking

Uncover costs from unattached networking assets and idle connectivity resources.

Elastic IP Addresses (EIP)

AWS Doctor identifies EIPs that are not currently associated with an instance or network interface.

The Cost of Idle IPs

AWS charges for all public IPv4 addresses, including Elastic IPs. While an associated IP provides connectivity, an unassociated (idle) EIP is pure waste—you are paying the hourly rate for a resource that isn’t providing any value to your infrastructure.

• Action: Release any EIP that isn’t actively mapped to a service.

Public IPv4 Charges (in use)

Since February 2024, AWS charges the hourly public IPv4 rate (~$0.005/hour, ~$3.65/month) for every public IPv4 address, not only idle Elastic IPs. AWS Doctor lists the public IPv4 addresses currently attached to network interfaces and summarizes them in a Public IPv4 Charges (in use) table with one row per resource type (EC2 Instance, NAT Gateway, Load Balancer, RDS Database, Other), the number of addresses, and the estimated monthly cost.

• Informational only: Most of these addresses are legitimately needed, so they are not counted as waste, are not part of the Total Estimated Monthly Waste, and do not change the has_waste value in JSON output. In JSON the summary is the in_use_public_ipv4_charges array.
• Action: Use the figure to decide where IPv6, VPC endpoints, or fewer public addresses could reduce your bill.
• Estimate: The figure is address count x hourly rate x 730 hours. Bring-your-own-IP (BYOIP) addresses are not billed by AWS but are still counted, and the 750-hour monthly free tier for new accounts is not subtracted.
• Scope: Elastic IPs that are not associated with anything do not appear here; they are reported in the Elastic IP Waste table above.

Elastic Load Balancers (ELB)

AWS Doctor identifies Application (ALB) and Network (NLB) Load Balancers that are either unassociated or idle.

Unused Load Balancers

Flags ELBs that are not associated with any target group.

• Reason: An ELB without target groups is an entry point to nowhere, yet it continues to bill at the full hourly rate.
• Action: Delete any Load Balancer that has no target group association.

Idle Load Balancers

Flags ELBs that have processed zero requests or connections over the last 7 days.

• Reason: Load Balancers carry a fixed hourly cost regardless of traffic volume (~$16-20/month base cost).
• Action: Delete or consolidate services into shared LBs.

NAT Gateways

AWS Doctor identifies NAT Gateways that have processed zero bytes of data over the last 7 days.

Why it’s waste

NAT Gateways have a high hourly cost (~$32.85/month in most regions) even when they are not processing any traffic. If a NAT Gateway is idle, it is often a leftover from a previous architecture or an improperly decommissioned environment.

• Action: Delete any NAT Gateway that shows no activity and is no longer required for outbound connectivity.