TL;DR: This month, the total operating cost of the https://vernissage.photos platform was $394.57, of which $135.60 was contributed by patrons. I’m deeply thankful for this support - it plays an important role in keeping the platform running and helps make its current form possible.
Below is a detailed financial report for the operation of https://vernissage.photos during the month of December. The report is broken down by individual service providers whose services are essential to the functioning of the application.
Amazon (S3 + CloudFront)
Vernissage uses Amazon S3 to store all user files and relies on Amazon CloudFront - a content delivery network (CDN) - to distribute those files quickly and reliably across the internet.
- Total storage used: 609.1 GB
- Total number of files: 1,986,742
- Total cost: $20.37
The number of photos is enormous, and the process of reducing the retention period for photos stored in Amazon S3 is still ongoing (the goal is 3 months).
Fly.io
In December, the cost of services on fly.io increased significantly. This was, of course, caused by the migration to a managed Postgres setup and the much higher fees for resources (which are also larger).
On the positive side, I haven’t observed any performance issues since then, nor any problems with integration with other instances. However, the cost is substantial, and without external support it will be difficult for me to sustain this in the long term.
I hope to receive a grant from NLnet, as that would help me a great deal.
- Total cost: $373.76
Here’s a breakdown of the services currently in use:
| Name | Type | RAM | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| push | shared-cpu-1x | 512MB | 2 machines |
| web | shared-cpu-2x | 1024MB | 2 machines |
| api | shared-cpu-2x | 2048MB | 2 machines |
| jobs | shared-cpu-2x | 2048MB | 2 machines |
| proxy | shared-cpu-2x | 512MB | 2 machines |
| redis | shared-cpu-2x | 1024MB | 1 machine |
| database | performance-2x | 8192MB | 2 machines |
OpenAI
The use of OpenAI for generating photo descriptions and suggesting relevant tags has remained at a consistent level.
- Total tokens used: 151,357
- Total requests: 192
- Total cost: $0.44
Donations
Huge thanks to all the patrons who make it possible to keep the platform running - and a warm welcome to those who joined last month! Your support truly keeps this project alive, and I’m deeply grateful for it.
- Patreon contributions: $110.60
- Stripe contributions: $25.00
In December, service maintenance costs totaled $394.57, which is a noticeable increase compared to November due to expanded database resources. This makes the support of the community especially important. Aside from Patreon/Stripe contributions, I personally handle all ongoing expenses, without the backing of a company or corporate sponsor.
This independence ensures that photos shared by users remain fully respected and are used only for their intended purpose - being displayed on the platform, and nothing more.
Thanks again to everyone for your incredible support - it really means the world to me.
— Marcin Czachurski