Documentation / Operate
Choose your resilience
A cell is an isolated execution unit. Add cells and Regions for recovery and operational isolation.
Common starting points
| Execution topology | Purpose |
|---|---|
| 1 cell · 1 Region | A single execution cell. |
| 2 cells · 1 Region | Cell-level redundancy. |
| 2 cells · 2 Regions | Regional recovery starting point; plan surviving-cell headroom. |
| 4 cells · 2 Regions | Regional recovery with more execution headroom. |
| 6 cells · 3 Regions | More regional survival headroom. |
Size for the workload
- Monthly transitions and peak transitions/second.
- Workflow duration, outstanding waits and concurrency.
- Regional quotas, failure survival and recovery headroom.
- Size the surviving cells for peak demand after a cell or Region fails.
Topology is a resilience choice, not a throughput guarantee. Runtime groups size individual handlers. A witness-only Region is not an execution Region.
How the cloud calculator estimates cost
The monthly total combines the plan’s software charge and estimated AWS orchestration cost. The model uses US East (N. Virginia) rates checked on November 3, 2026, an average of 7.415 transitions per workflow and a $90 Valkey allowance per cell. Handler and model execution, data transfer, tax and full analytics and logging costs are excluded.
The comparison uses transition charges for Step Functions and an illustrative eight Actions per workflow for Temporal at $50 per million Actions on Developer, Starter, Growth and Scale, or $25 per million Actions when the resolved plan is Enterprise. Worker, storage and support costs vary. A dash means the scenario needs a plan or quote. See the versioned cost model, Step Functions pricing and Temporal pricing.
Verified sources
Checked 2026-11-05.
- Capacity evidence and sizing inputs 3a3be99 · main
- Execution cell profiles 1448452 · main
- Cell topology 04cb082 · main
- Recovery and fencing 04cb082 · main