AWS’s new hidden `ExtendedSupportYr1_Yr2` charge for older versions of RDS and Elasticache

AWS’s new hidden ExtendedSupportYr1_Yr2 charge for older versions of RDS and Elasticache

AWS just snuck in a new hidden charge that adds up quickly.

In the case I found recently, the costs were over a hundred dollars PER DAY (Not per month)

As of February 1st, 2026, you might see a line item that includes the text ExtendedSupportYr1_Yr2 something like USW1-ExtendedSupportYr1_Yr2-NodeUsage:cache.r6g.4xlarge snuck in there.

From what I observed, that new additional cost was over 50% of what the hourly cost for the instance was, effectively jacking up the price of the instance.

Now it sounds like I am hating, but I kind of understand why they did this.

Let's examine their other options:

Shut down your instance.

Obviously, this would disrupt your service, so not an ideal option.

Auto update your cluster:

This could cause some version issues that introduce breaking changes, so again not ideal.

Charge more until you fix it:

Not ideal, but if you're not checking your notifications and/or not taking action to fix it, what else are they to do?

Maintaining software that is out of date with the SLAs/uptimes AWS boats is not easy, and it sure is not cheap.

Recommended Action:

Double-check your AWS bill to make sure you're not paying this extra tax on older RDS/Elasticache versions.

If you need help doing this or migrating to the latest, feel free to set up a time to chat with me. It's what I do for a living.