I’m reviewing the network bill for a small AWS workload running across two Availability Zones. Each zone has a NAT Gateway, which seems sensible for resilience, but the hourly charges and data processing fees are becoming noticeable.

For teams running a modest production environment, how do you decide whether the extra NAT Gateway is worth keeping in every zone? I’d be interested in real-world trade-offs, especially around availability, cross-AZ traffic, and monthly cost.