Amazon OpenSearch Service review
by Amazon Web ServicesSearch APIs
Managed OpenSearch in your AWS account, billed by instance hour and storage with searches unbilled, from $0.036 an hour, plus a Serverless option.
- Free trial
- Self-serve
- Usage-based
- Public prices
What you're paying for
- Compliance included (main value)
- Saves engineering time
Managed OpenSearch in your AWS account from $0.036 an hour, with searches unbilled and AWS SOC reports and a HIPAA BAA self-serve.
Amazon OpenSearch Service runs the open-source OpenSearch engine as managed domains billed by instance hour, storage and data transfer, or as Serverless collections billed in compute units. On a domain, searches and records are not billed and automated snapshots are free. Vector, neural and hybrid search are part of the engine, and AWS SOC reports, ISO 27001 certification and the HIPAA BAA come with any account through AWS Artifact.
- Compliance with any accountAWS SOC 2 reports and the HIPAA BAA are in AWS Artifact; AWS is certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022, and OpenSearch Service is in scope of SOC, PCI and HIPAA programs.Evidence: AWS SOC, HIPAA and ISO 27001 pages, compliance validation docs (2026-10-15)
- Searches are not billedA domain bills instance hours, storage and data transfer; at our scenario one t3.small.search with 10 GiB is $27.50 a month.Evidence: Pricing page and AWS price list for us-east-1 (2026-10-15)
- Vector and semantic search built ink-NN vector, neural and hybrid search, automatic semantic enrichment, Learning to Rank and ML connectors to Amazon Bedrock and SageMaker.Evidence: Developer guide (2026-10-15)
- Best for
- Teams on AWS with steady search traffic who can size a domain and want compliance documents without a contract.
- Good to know
- You choose the instance type, count and storage, and the lowest-priced T3 instances cannot be used with Multi-AZ with Standby.
How Amazon OpenSearch Service compares
Against 3 other products we reviewed in Search APIs: what you pay for with each, the five access facts, the plan limits we recorded and each review's bottom line. The note under the table says how each one was checked.
| Metric | Amazon OpenSearch Service | Elastic Cloud | Typesense Cloud | Meilisearch Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Compliance includedManaged OpenSearch in your AWS account from $0.036 an hour, with searches unbilled and AWS SOC reports and a HIPAA BAA self-serve. | Saves engineering timeManaged Elasticsearch with vector, semantic and hybrid search from $0.0282 an hour, with SOC 2, ISO 27001 and a HIPAA BAA on every tier. | Worth the priceA dedicated, managed cluster of open-source search from $21.60 a month, with no per-search or per-record charges. | Easy to adoptHosted open-source search with a choice of billing: pay per search and document, or a fixed instance price from about $20 a month. |
| Overall score | 7.7 | 8.0Best | 7.6 | 6.2 |
| Free option | Free trial | 14-day free trial | Free trial | 14-day free trial |
| Card to start | –Not measured | No card needed | –Not measured | No card needed |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $0.036/hour | $0.0282/hour | $21.60/mo | $20/mo |
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Usage-based | Usage-based | Usage-based |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing units | Instance hours, EBS storage and data transfer; or compute units and storage (Serverless) | RAM-hours, data transfer and snapshot storage (Hosted); compute units and storage (Serverless) | Cluster hours (RAM and vCPU) and outbound bandwidth | Instance hours, disk and bandwidth; or searches and documents |
| Free option | AWS Free Tier credits for new accounts, not specific to OpenSearch | 14-day trial, no card | 720 cluster hours and 10 GB once per account | 14-day trial, no card |
| 100,000 records, 500,000 searches/mo | $27.50 (t3.small.search, one node) | $20.59 (Hosted, 1 GB, one zone); $41.17 in two zones | $21.60 (0.5 GB, one node); $64.80 with high availability | $23 (XS, estimator); $210 usage-based |
| Vector or hybrid search | Every domain (k-NN, neural and hybrid search) | Every level; semantic models and reranking on Serverless and higher Hosted levels | Every cluster | Documented for the engine, no plan limit stated |
| SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 | Both (AWS reports in AWS Artifact) | Both | SOC 2 Type II (report with Business support) | SOC 2 Type II |
| HIPAA BAA | Self-serve in AWS Artifact | Every subscription tier | With the Business support plan ($400 per 28 days) | Not stated |
| EU hosting | Yes, AWS EU Regions incl. Frankfurt, Ireland and Paris | Yes, incl. Frankfurt and Ireland on AWS, Azure and GCP | Yes, 6 EU locations incl. Frankfurt and Paris, same price as the US | Yes, Frankfurt and Paris |
| SAML SSO | IAM Identity Center at no extra charge; SAML for OpenSearch Dashboards | Serverless, no extra cost; Hosted on Enterprise | Every account, no extra charge | Enterprise |
| Open-source engine | Yes, OpenSearch (Apache 2.0) | Yes, AGPLv3 option (also SSPL and Elastic License) | Yes, GPL-3.0 | Yes, MIT (Enterprise Edition parts under BUSL) |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Amazon OpenSearch Service includes compliance, SSO and an Apache 2.0 engine on self-serve terms, and searches are not billed on a domain. You size the domain yourself, and the bill has more lines than a cluster price. | From its public pages, Elastic Cloud offers the most AI search and compliance here on self-serve terms and the lowest Hosted price at our scenario. Pricing has more settings than the others, and SSO and some AI features depend on the Hosted level or on using Serverless. | From its public pages, Typesense Cloud is the cheapest here at our scenario and includes the most on a self-serve plan: vector search, SAML SSO and an open-source engine. You size the cluster, and compliance documents need a support plan. | From its public pages, Meilisearch Cloud gives the most billing flexibility here and a low resource-based price at our scenario. Check the instance size against the docs’ tier table, and plan on Enterprise for SSO. |
Evidence: Amazon OpenSearch Service: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Elastic Cloud: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Typesense Cloud: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Meilisearch Cloud: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
Score
- Pricing clarity
- 4.0 / 10, Fair
- billed by instance hours and EBS storage (GB-month) and data transfer (GB); you pick the size; the pricing page footer offers a 12-month AWS Free Tier, while the AWS Free Tier page describes credits on a 6-month Free plan
- Free tier
- 4.0 / 10, Fair
- AWS Free Tier credits for new accounts ($100, up to $200), on a Free plan of up to 6 months, no permanent free plan
- Price for 100,000 records and 500,000 searches
- 9.2 / 10, Excellent
- $27.50/mo: us-east-1 on-demand: one t3.small.search (2 vCPUs, 2 GiB) at $0.036 an hour × 730 hours = $26.28, plus 10 GiB of gp3 (the minimum) at $0.122 = $1.22 (listed rates); assumes one T3 node holds the index, with no replica or standby (T3 instances cannot be used with Multi-AZ with Standby); Serverless is not priced because its compute follows query load
- AI and vector search on self-serve plans
- 9.0 / 10, Excellent
- vector and hybrid search on every plan; embeddings created for you; AI relevance features on a self-serve plan
- Compliance and data residency
- 10.0 / 10, Excellent
- own SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA BAA on a self-serve plan, EU hosting region
- Team, control and portability
- 10.0 / 10, Excellent
- SAML SSO at no extra charge; open-source engine you can self-host; record export documented
Review
Review from public pages
Written from Amazon OpenSearch Service's public pages (pricing, security or privacy, and docs) as read on Oct 15, 2026. We did not sign up, and no hands-on run is published yet.
What the public pages show
We read the Amazon OpenSearch Service pricing page and FAQ, the AWS price list for us-east-1, and the developer guide pages on instance types, EBS quotas, snapshots, SAML, semantic and vector search, Learning to Rank, agentic search and compliance on Oct 15, 2026; we did not sign up for this review. There are two models. Managed domains bill instance hours, storage and data transfer for the instances you choose. Serverless bills OpenSearch Compute Units (OCUs) for indexing and search plus storage; the pricing page says NextGen collections have no minimum and scale to zero after 10 idle minutes.
For our scenario we priced a domain, because its cost follows from listed rates while Serverless compute follows query load. The smallest current instance, t3.small.search (2 vCPUs, 2 GiB), is $0.036 an hour in us-east-1, with at least 10 GiB of gp3 storage at $0.122 per GB-month. The docs say T3 instances work only on domains without standby. Automated hourly snapshots are kept 14 days at no charge.
Search features come from the open-source engine: k-NN vector, neural and hybrid search, automatic semantic enrichment (billed in OCUs during ingestion), Learning to Rank, and agentic search from OpenSearch 3.3. Compliance comes from AWS: SOC reports and the BAA are in AWS Artifact. One note from the compliance page: AWS's new sign-up experience is not designed for regulated workloads, and those accounts should use the advanced sign-up or activate advanced features.
Strengths
- Searches are not billed
A domain bills instance hours, storage and data transfer, so the instance price does not change with the number of searches.
Compared: Algolia charges $0.50 per 1,000 search requests on Grow.
- Compliance documents with any account
AWS SOC reports, ISO 27001 certification and the HIPAA BAA are available through AWS Artifact, with no support plan or contract.
vs Typesense Cloud: Typesense Cloud ties its SOC 2 report and BAA to Business support ($400 per 28 days).
- AI search on every domain
k-NN vector, neural and hybrid search, automatic semantic enrichment, Learning to Rank, and ML connectors to Amazon Bedrock and SageMaker.
- An Apache 2.0 engine
The FAQ describes OpenSearch as Apache 2.0-licensed and 100% open source, runnable on premises or in other clouds.
Compared: Algolia’s engine is not open source.
- Free automated snapshots
Hourly snapshots are kept 14 days in an AWS-managed bucket at no extra charge.
Things to know
- You size the domain
You choose instance type, count and storage; T3 instances cannot be used with Multi-AZ with Standby, and the pricing page’s production examples use three Availability Zones.
Workaround: The pricing page links the AWS Pricing Calculator.
- More billing lines than a cluster price
Instance hours, EBS storage and data transfer, plus UltraWarm, cold storage, Serverless OCUs and Extended Support fees for older engine versions if you use them.
- Free tier described two ways
The pricing page footer offers 12 months of AWS Free Tier; the AWS Free Tier page describes credits ($100, up to $200) on a Free plan that closes after 6 months.
- Regulated workloads need the advanced sign-up
The compliance page says the new AWS sign-up experience is not designed for regulated workloads.
Workaround: Sign up for AWS (advanced) or activate advanced features, per the same page.
Pricing reality
Domains bill instance hours, EBS storage and standard AWS data transfer; data between nodes in a domain and automated snapshots are free. In us-east-1: t3.small.search $0.036 an hour, m7g.medium.search $0.068, t3.medium.search $0.073; gp3 $0.122 per GB-month. Serverless bills $0.24 per indexing or search OCU-hour plus storage. Reserved Instances cut instance rates for one- or three-year terms.
For our scenario: one t3.small.search, $0.036 × 730 hours = $26.28, plus 10 GiB of gp3 at $0.122 = $1.22: $27.50 a month, our arithmetic. Three such nodes would be $82.50.
Exit path
Manual snapshots go to your own S3 bucket and can be restored into another domain or cluster. The FAQ describes OpenSearch as Apache 2.0-licensed and runnable on premises or in other clouds, and the service also runs Elasticsearch versions up to 7.10.
Compared with
- Pick Amazon OpenSearch Service when
- You want SOC 2, ISO 27001 and a HIPAA BAA without a support plan, and free automated snapshots.
- Pick Typesense Cloud when
- You want the lower listed price at our scenario ($21.60) and a bill made of cluster hours and bandwidth only.
- Pick Amazon OpenSearch Service when
- You already run on AWS and want search billed and secured with the rest of your AWS account.
- Pick Elastic Cloud when
- You want RAG tools such as AI Playground, a 14-day trial without a card, and a lower Hosted price at our scenario.
Choose it if
- You run on AWS and want search billed and secured with the rest of it.
- You need a HIPAA BAA and SOC reports without a contract.
- You want an Apache 2.0 engine you can run elsewhere.
Look elsewhere if
- You would rather not size instances and storage.
- You want a permanent free plan.
Bottom line
From its public pages, Amazon OpenSearch Service includes compliance, SSO and an Apache 2.0 engine on self-serve terms, and searches are not billed on a domain. You size the domain yourself, and the bill has more lines than a cluster price.
Plan limits at a glance
| Limit | As recorded |
|---|---|
| Billing units | Instance hours, EBS storage and data transfer; or compute units and storage (Serverless) |
| Free option | AWS Free Tier credits for new accounts, not specific to OpenSearch |
| 100,000 records, 500,000 searches/mo | $27.50 (t3.small.search, one node) |
| Vector or hybrid search | Every domain (k-NN, neural and hybrid search) |
| SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 | Both (AWS reports in AWS Artifact) |
| HIPAA BAA | Self-serve in AWS Artifact |
| EU hosting | Yes, AWS EU Regions incl. Frankfurt, Ireland and Paris |
| SAML SSO | IAM Identity Center at no extra charge; SAML for OpenSearch Dashboards |
| Open-source engine | Yes, OpenSearch (Apache 2.0) |
Read from the vendor's public pages on Oct 15, 2026. No hands-on run is published yet. How we check
We have not published a sign-up run for Amazon OpenSearch Service yet. The access facts above were read from its sign-up and pricing pages on Oct 15, 2026.
We have not published API calls for Amazon OpenSearch Service yet.
Amazon OpenSearch Service lists 4 plans. The cheapest paid plan, t3.small.search (us-east-1), costs $0.036/hour.
- Amazon OpenSearch ServiceLowest pricet3.small.search$26.28/mo$0.036/hr in us-east-1 (2 vCPUs, 2 GiB); plus gp3 storage from 10 GiB
- gp3 storage $0.122/GB-month
- Automated hourly snapshots kept 14 days, free
- Only on domains without standby
- Searches and records not billed
- Amazon OpenSearch Servicem7g.medium.search$49.64/mo$0.068/hr in us-east-1 (1 vCPU, 4 GiB)
- Amazon OpenSearch Servicet3.medium.search$53.29/mo$0.073/hr in us-east-1 (2 vCPUs, 4 GiB)
- Amazon OpenSearch ServiceServerless$0.24/OCU-hourIndexing and search OCUs, plus storage per GB-month
- NextGen collections: no minimum OCU, scale to zero after 10 idle minutes
- One OCU is about 6 GB of RAM
Prices as listed, USD, excluding tax; observed 2026-10-15.
Source: aws.amazon.com pricing page. Prices change; the observed date above is when our agent read them.