How much does AWS WAF cost?

AWS WAF charges $5/month per Web ACL, $1/month per rule or rule group, and $0.60 per million requests. A typical small deployment costs $15–40/month. High-traffic sites (1B+ requests/month) pay $600+ in request fees alone.

Is Cloudflare WAF cheaper than AWS WAF?

For high-traffic sites, often yes. Cloudflare Pro ($20/mo) includes WAF with unlimited requests, while AWS WAF charges per request. For a site with 200M requests/month, AWS WAF costs ~$135/mo (1 ACL, 10 rules, 200M requests) vs Cloudflare's flat $20/mo.

What are managed rule groups?

Managed rule groups are pre-built sets of WAF rules maintained by AWS or third-party vendors. The AWS Core Rule Set covers OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities. Each managed rule group counts as one rule for billing ($1/mo) even though it may contain dozens of individual rules.

If you handle user data, payment information, or have any authentication system, yes. A WAF blocks common attacks that even secure code cannot prevent (zero-day exploits, bot scraping, credential stuffing). It is also often required for PCI DSS, HIPAA, and SOC 2 compliance.

How do WAF rules affect latency?

Modern cloud WAFs add 1–5ms of latency per request for rule evaluation. This is negligible for most applications. Complex regex-based custom rules may add slightly more. Managed rule groups are optimized for minimal latency impact.

Can a WAF stop DDoS attacks?

A WAF can mitigate application-layer (Layer 7) DDoS attacks through rate limiting and bot detection. However, it does not protect against volumetric (Layer 3/4) attacks. For comprehensive DDoS protection, combine WAF with AWS Shield, Cloudflare, or a dedicated DDoS mitigation service.

WAF Cost Calculator

Estimate Web Application Firewall costs for AWS WAF, Cloudflare, or Azure WAF. Calculate ACL, rule, and request-based pricing for your web traffic.

Provider Presets

Web ACLs

ACL Monthly Fee

$/mo

Total Rules

Rule Monthly Fee

$/rule

Monthly Requests

Per-Million Rate

Protection Tier

Annual Traffic Growth

Monthly WAF Cost

$85.00

Tier multiplier: 1x applied

Annual Cost

$1,020.00

Projected 12-month WAF spend

ACL Cost

$10.00

0.12% of monthly total

Rule Cost

$15.00

0.18% — 15 rules active

Request Processing

$60.00

0.71% — 100M requests

Cost per Million Req

$0.85

Effective blended rate per million

Cost per Rule

$5.67

Monthly amortized per rule

Year 3 Monthly

$116.25

At 15% annual traffic growth

Cost Breakdown

ACL 0.12%

Rules 0.18%

Reqs 0.71%

3-Year Growth Forecast

Year	Requests (M/mo)	Monthly Cost	Annual Cost
Year 1	115.0	$94.00	$1,128.00
Year 2	132.2	$104.35	$1,252.20
Year 3	152.1	$116.25	$1,395.00

Effective Cost by Block Rate

Block Rate	Blocked (M)	Legitimate (M)	Cost / Legit M
0.01%	1.0	99.0	$0.86
0.05%	5.0	95.0	$0.89
0.10%	10.0	90.0	$0.94
0.20%	20.0	80.0	$1.06

Planning notes, formulas, and examples

About the WAF Cost Calculator

A Web Application Firewall (WAF) protects your applications from common web exploits like SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and bot attacks. Cloud WAFs have replaced traditional hardware appliances, but pricing varies significantly between providers.

AWS WAF charges per Web ACL ($5/month), per rule ($1/month), and per million requests ($0.60). A typical setup with one ACL, 10 managed rules, and 50 million requests costs roughly $45/month. Cloudflare includes WAF in Pro ($20/mo) and Business ($200/mo) plans. Azure WAF charges per gateway hour plus per-rule charges.

This calculator helps you estimate the monthly cost of a cloud WAF deployment based on the number of ACLs, rules, and request volume. Use it to compare providers and understand how request volume impacts your security budget.

When This Page Helps

WAF costs scale with request volume, which can make budgeting unpredictable for high-traffic applications. Understanding the three-part pricing model (ACL + rules + requests) helps you optimize by consolidating ACLs, using managed rule groups efficiently, and pre-filtering bot traffic before it reaches the WAF.

How to Use the Inputs

Enter the number of Web ACLs (typically one per application or ALB).
Set the monthly ACL fee (e.g., $5 for AWS WAF).
Enter the total number of rules across all ACLs.
Set the per-rule monthly fee (e.g., $1 for AWS WAF).
Enter the monthly request volume in millions.
Set the per-million-request rate (e.g., $0.60 for AWS WAF).
Review the total monthly WAF cost.

Formula used

ACL Cost = ACL_count × acl_fee
Rule Cost = rules × rule_fee
Request Cost = requests_millions × per_million_rate
Total Monthly = ACL Cost + Rule Cost + Request Cost

Example Calculation

Result: $85.00/month

Two Web ACLs at $5/month: $10. 15 rules at $1/month: $15. 100 million requests at $0.60/million: $60. Total: $85/month. This covers a production and staging environment with AWS Managed Rules and custom rate-limiting rules.

Tips & Best Practices

Use AWS Managed Rule Groups (e.g., Core Rule Set, SQL Injection) instead of writing custom rules; they count as one rule.
Consolidate multiple apps behind a single Web ACL when they share the same protection rules.
Pre-filter bot traffic with rate limiting at the CDN layer to reduce WAF request volume.
Cloudflare Pro ($20/mo) includes WAF with unlimited requests; cheaper for small sites with high traffic.
Use WAF logging selectively (sample 1–10% of requests) to reduce CloudWatch/S3 log costs.
Test WAF rules in count mode before switching to block to avoid false positives.

AWS WAF vs Cloudflare vs Azure WAF

AWS WAF: pay-per-use ($5/ACL + $1/rule + $0.60/M requests). Best for AWS-native apps. Cloudflare: flat-rate ($20 Pro, $200 Business). Best for cost-predictable, high-traffic sites. Azure WAF (Application Gateway): per-gateway-hour (~$0.246/hr) + per-rule charges. Best for Azure-deployed apps. Each has trade-offs in flexibility, rule customization, and integration.

Optimizing WAF Costs

The biggest cost driver is request volume. Reduce it by: implementing bot detection at the CDN edge (before WAF), using Cloudflare Bot Management or AWS Bot Control, caching static assets to avoid WAF evaluation, and setting up geo-blocking for regions you don't serve.

WAF Rule Strategy

Start with AWS Managed Rules Core Rule Set and Known Bad Inputs. Add SQL Injection and XSS rules for database-backed apps. Use rate-based rules ($1/mo) to throttle abusive IPs. Custom rules for business logic protection (e.g., blocking specific user agents or request patterns) should be added incrementally based on observed attack patterns.

Sources & Methodology

Last updated: February 8, 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

AWS WAF charges $5/month per Web ACL, $1/month per rule or rule group, and $0.60 per million requests. A typical small deployment costs $15–40/month. High-traffic sites (1B+ requests/month) pay $600+ in request fees alone.