for all three portals, in the simplest setup that meets PAHO's rules. About US$ 4.80 a day.
No new database serverOur data fits easily in the one PAHO already pays for.
One AI assistant serves both hubsThe single heaviest piece, shared to keep it cheap.
Model tokens are extraAbout US$ 5 per thousand questions to the assistant.
Build the bill
Start with the minimum, then switch on what you need
Each switch is a choice PAHO may want to make later. The total and the bar update as you go. The three ready-made plans are the ones in this estimate.
Lean: three portals for about the price of a coffee a day.
"Like today" follows real use on the demonstration server: a few dozen people, a few hundred visits a day. "Busy 24/7" is the ceiling, every part working all month. Totals are rounded up to the next US$ 5.
Where the money goes
Plan A, month by month: the shared basics cost more than any single portal
The database question
Our three databases would fill one square out of a hundred
The question was how much a machine for the database would cost. The answer is nothing extra: PAHO's EIH cloud already runs a database server (32 GB), paid since August. Our data uses about 1% of it.
The three plans
From a quiet month to a busy one
Over a year: Plan A about US$ 1,740, Plan B about US$ 2,880, Plan C about US$ 6,900.
The switch that matters most
Who can open the portals?
Staff reach the portals from PAHO's network with their usual PAHO login. This is how the Architecture Review Board approved our other projects.
CEPI, RWJF and the public can open them with a link. PAHO IT can route this through their central gateway, whose cost they have not shared yet, or ask for our own web firewall, which is the US$ 335.
The AI assistant's questions
Asking the assistant costs fractions of a cent
Before we move
What has to happen besides the budget
From PAHO IT
- A space in our Azure for the portals
- A production area for them to run in
- The PAHO login switched on for each portal
- Web addresses on paho.org
- A decision on public access
Architecture approval
- One architecture document per portal, in PAHO's template
- Two drafts already exist; the third needs an update
- Backup test, licences and data dictionary, as the board asked of our other projects
Our own homework
- Merge the two assistants into one
- Adapt the data catalogue to Azure's storage rules
- Replace today's shared password with the PAHO login
- Set a budget alert so nothing surprises us
The fine print
How these numbers were made
List prices. Microsoft's public price list on 7 October 2026 (East US 2 region). Any discount in PAHO's agreement lowers them.
Measured, not guessed. Sizes and traffic come from the demonstration server; base costs from what our Azure actually billed (US$ 302.59 from 1 August to 21 September).
One copy of each piece. No backup copies running in parallel, following the guideline to spend only on what is needed. A restart means a few seconds offline; the data keeps 7 days of backups.
No test copy in Azure. Testing stays on our machines. A test copy would roughly double the cost of running the portals.
PAHO IT's own costs are unknown. Their central network and security services may be recharged; they have not shared a figure yet.
Track record. Our earlier estimate for the ICTRP data pipeline came within 12% of what Azure actually charged.
See every item as a table
| Item (Plan A) | Like today | Busy 24/7 |
|---|---|---|
| Running the portals | ||
| Americas Hub · website | 6.60 | 19.71 |
| Americas Hub · data service | 13.21 | 39.42 |
| CEPI hub · website | 6.60 | 19.71 |
| CEPI hub · data service | 6.60 | 19.71 |
| AI assistant (both hubs) | 33.02 | 98.55 |
| Health Equity Data Hub · catalogue | 13.21 | 39.42 |
| Health Equity Data Hub · search | 13.21 | 39.42 |
| Health Equity Data Hub · task queue | 6.60 | 19.71 |
| Health Equity Data Hub · file imports | 1.00 | 19.71 |
| Shared basics | ||
| Database server (already paid) | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Production area for the portals | 11.00 | 11.00 |
| Private connections (3) | 21.90 | 21.90 |
| Activity logs | 5.00 | 5.00 |
| Security monitoring | 5.00 | 5.00 |
| File storage | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Plan A, US$ per month | ~145 | ~360 |