Track 4: Telegram Mini App — Cloud Cost Estimate (2x Safety Buffer)¶
Phase: Production (target 100K mini app users) Hosting: Vercel/Cloudflare (free tier for static hosting) Blockchain: TON (for rewards) Note: All estimates include 2x safety margin for budget planning.
Additional Monthly Costs¶
| Component | Monthly (1K users) | Monthly (100K users) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vercel/Cloudflare hosting | $0 | $0-40 | Free tier covers most; paid at high traffic |
| Redis (ElastiCache) | $30-50 | $50-100 | Leaderboard caching. cache.t3.micro → small |
| Additional ECS capacity | $0 | $20-40 | May need 3rd Fargate task at 100K users |
| Telegram Bot API | $0 | $0 | Free |
| TON RPC | $0 | $0-40 | Free tier generous; paid at high volume |
| TON rewards (challenge prizes) | $20-100 | $200-1,000 | Depends on reward structure |
| Additional Lambda | $2-6 | $10-30 | Challenge cron jobs, notifications |
| Additional S3 (share cards) | $0-2 | $2-10 | Generated challenge result images |
| Additional CloudWatch | $2-6 | $6-20 | Mini app monitoring |
| Infrastructure Total | $34-64/mo | $88-280/mo | |
| Rewards Budget | $20-100/mo | $200-1,000/mo | Adjustable |
| Grand Total | $54-164/mo | $288-1,280/mo | 2x safety buffer applied |
Cost Scaling Strategy¶
- Start with minimal rewards ($20-100/mo) to validate engagement
- Scale rewards only if viral coefficient > 1.0
- Redis is the main new infrastructure cost
- TON reward amounts are fully configurable — adjust based on budget
- Mini app static hosting stays free even at 100K users (Vercel/CF edge)
Break-Even Analysis¶
At 100K mini app users with 2% conversion to main app = 2,000 main app users. If 10% of main app users pay $5/mo premium = $1,000 MRR. Marketing cost: $288-1,280/mo → viable if conversion holds.