Recommendations for Atlas Cost-Saving Configurations

Underutilized Clusters

• Enable auto-scaling on your cluster tier to match your usage and prevent over-provisioning.

  Scaling down occurs once every six hours and must match specific conditions. To learn more, see Scaling Down a Cluster Tier.

  You can also manually move to a lower cluster tier by regularly monitoring the cluster's CPU, WireTiger cache, memory, and IOPs over a rolling 30 day period of normal use. Generally, if the usage is steadily below 30% of allocated resources, we recommend that you scale down.

• For dedicated clusters, consider scaling down to a lower tier or pausing the cluster if you won't use it for an extended period.

  We recommend that you use M10 or M30 clusters for development and test environments. To learn more, see Atlas Cluster Size Guide.

• For development and test environments, we recommend that you:

  • Enable a cron job to pause dev and test clusters during the night when no one actively develops against the cluster. You can pause clusters with the Atlas Administration API by setting the paused field to true when using either of the following methods:

    • Modify One Cluster endpoint.

    • Terraform cluster resource.

  • Set an alert in your third party metrics or alerting system that triggers if a dev or test cluster has not had any activity in over one week.

  • Consider terminating unused dev and test clusters after a set amount of time and sufficient email alerts to the cluster owner. You can terminate a cluster with the following methods:

    • Atlas Administration API by using the Remove One Cluster endpoint.

    • Terraform cluster resource by setting the termination_protection_enabled field to false.

High Backup Frequency

• Continuous backups are expensive, but they give you the most safety to recover data from any point in time within the backup window in case of disaster or code logic error. We recommend that you enable continuous backups only for production applications at the most critical data tier.

• Lower the frequency of backups for clusters that store less critical data. Consider terminating these clusters entirely for development environments.

Optimize Data Transfer Patterns

Whenever possible, opt for same-provider, same-region data transfer to minimize costs. Only use inter-region or internet transfers when necessary, such as for disaster recovery scenarios where you need to restore the application in a different region. Locating your cluster in the same region as most of your traffic — usually where you host your application — can greatly reduce data transfer costs.

To learn more, see How to Reduce Data Transfer Costs.

Optimize Queries

Queries that take a long time to execute can increase resource usage, requiring higher-tier clusters. Optimize these queries to reduce resource consumption and lower costs as a result.

Optimize Storage

Use features like online archive or TTL indexes to move older data from more expensive hot storage to less expensive cold storage, or delete data that is no longer needed. After you archive data, you can access the data through Atlas Data Federation.

Use Cost Explorer

Regularly use the Cost Explorer tool to monitor spending patterns at the organization, project, cluster, and service levels. Set a frequency that works for your needs.

Set Alerts

Configure billing alerts for key thresholds, such as when your monthly costs exceed a certain amount. For example, set an alert when costs exceed $100. This proactive approach helps you avoid surprises.

Review Invoices

Each month, review your invoice to assess the highest-cost services using the previous billing optimization suggestions. This is a recommended best practice to identify cost reduction opportunities.

If you see unexpected changes on your invoice, check your cloud computing costs, which are often the largest portion of your bill. You can review cloud computing costs in the Summary By Service card of any invoice within the Atlas Billing section. The Summary By Service view shows the costs of all clusters by provider, tier, and region.