AWS Interconnect Last Mile With Equinix: Free 1 Gbps Preview, Pricing, vs Direct Connect
AWS Interconnect last mile preview with Equinix: free 1 Gbps to us-east-1/us-west-1, 99.99% SLA, MACsec. How it works, pricing, vs Direct Connect, FAQ.
AWS Interconnect – last mile is now in preview with Equinix. You can connect equipment in Equinix data centres to AWS in a few clicks, without ordering cross-connects or configuring routers yourself. AWS announced it on November 4, 2026. During the preview, 1 Gbps connections are free, but only to two Regions: US East (N. Virginia) through the Northern Virginia metro, and US West (N. California) through the San Jose metro.
When it reaches general availability (GA), AWS says you'll be able to scale from 1 Gbps to 100 Gbps from the console. Every connection comes with a 99.99% availability SLA and MACsec encryption on by default. Here's what it is, how it compares with classic Direct Connect, and whether it's worth testing now.
What is AWS Interconnect – last mile?
AWS Interconnect is a family of managed private-connectivity services. It comes in two flavours:
- Interconnect – multicloud links your AWS VPCs to other clouds. It became generally available on April 14, 2026 with Google Cloud. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure followed on July 29, 2026 (us-east-1), and AWS says Microsoft Azure is planned for later in 2026.
- Interconnect – last mile links your own sites (data centres, colocation cages, branch offices) to AWS through a network partner. AWS first announced it as a gated preview on November 30, 2025 with Lumen as the launch partner for U.S. customers. Equinix is now the second partner, with its own preview.
The idea behind "last mile" is that AWS and the partner pre-build the connectivity. You pick a Region and a bandwidth, and the BGP sessions, VLANs and ASNs are set up for you.
How does the Equinix version work?
According to AWS's announcement, setup takes two short steps:
- In the AWS Management Console, choose an AWS Region, a bandwidth, a Direct Connect gateway, and your Equinix Fabric One project ID.
- AWS generates an activation key. Enter it in the Equinix Fabric One portal to finish.
You can also start from the Equinix side instead. Connections can be created through the console, the AWS CLI or the API, and partners can integrate using an open API package AWS publishes on GitHub.
Behind the scenes, AWS says it and Equinix pre-provision quad-redundant capacity: two physical locations and four separate links, with BGP peering, VLANs and ASNs configured for you. Traffic between AWS and Equinix edge devices is MACsec-encrypted by default.
How much does AWS Interconnect – last mile cost?
| Phase | Bandwidth | Price | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preview (now) | 1 Gbps | No charge | us-east-1 via Northern Virginia metro; us-west-1 via San Jose metro |
| General availability | 1–100 Gbps (scalable in console) | Not announced | Not announced |
AWS hasn't published GA pricing for last mile. For comparison, AWS priced Interconnect – multicloud as one fee based on the bandwidth you choose and the geographic scope, with one free local 500 Mbps interconnect per Region from May 2026. Don't assume last mile will use the same model until AWS confirms it.
AWS Interconnect – last mile vs Direct Connect: what's the difference?
Last mile runs on top of the Direct Connect ecosystem. You attach it to a Direct Connect gateway. What changes is who does the work. The table below compares the do-it-yourself path that AWS says last mile replaces with what the Equinix preview offers.
| Do-it-yourself Direct Connect path | Interconnect – last mile (Equinix preview) | |
|---|---|---|
| Physical cross-connects | You order them | Not needed. Capacity is pre-built |
| Router / BGP / VLAN / ASN setup | You configure it | Configured for you |
| Redundancy | You design it | Quad-redundant: 2 locations, 4 links |
| Encryption | Your choice and setup | MACsec on by default (AWS ↔ Equinix edge) |
| SLA | Depends on your design | 99.99% availability |
| Ordering | Several teams and portals | AWS console + activation key in Equinix Fabric One |
| Bandwidth now | Varies | 1 Gbps (preview); 1–100 Gbps planned at GA |
| Cost now | Port + data transfer + partner fees | Free during preview |
The left column summarises the manual steps AWS's announcement says you no longer need. It isn't a full list of Direct Connect options. Hosted connections from Direct Connect partners, for example, already take some of this work off your plate.
Who should test AWS Interconnect – last mile? (Checklist)
This is our quick checklist to see whether the preview is worth your team's time:
- You already have gear in an Equinix data centre in the Northern Virginia or San Jose metro, or can get it there.
- Your workloads run in us-east-1 or us-west-1.
- 1 Gbps is enough to validate the design. It's the only preview size.
- You already use, or are willing to create, a Direct Connect gateway.
- You have an Equinix Fabric One project.
- You want to test failover behaviour before GA, not just throughput.
If you tick most of these, it costs little to try during the preview. If you need more than 1 Gbps, other Regions, or production pricing certainty today, stick with your current Direct Connect design for now and revisit at GA.
What's still unknown?
- GA date and pricing. AWS hasn't said when the preview ends.
- Which other Equinix metros come next. Equinix has 282 data centres worldwide, per AWS, but the preview covers only two metros.
- Data-transfer charges. The announcement says preview connections are "no charge" but doesn't discuss data transfer separately.
- Where Lumen's preview stands. AWS's November 2025 post described the Lumen preview as gated and U.S.-only. We haven't seen a GA announcement.
What are engineers saying?
Early reaction is thin, which is normal for a networking preview. On a DEV Community write-up by Patrick Araujo, which argues the main benefit is "operational simplification", one commenter (Alex Shev) said a private connection is only as trustworthy as its handoffs between cloud edge, colocation fabric and enterprise network. He urged teams to document route ownership, BGP failure behaviour and how to test a degraded circuit before calling it production-ready (DEV Community).
We didn't find Reddit or forum threads about the Equinix preview at the time of writing. The questions network teams are asking most are:
- Will GA pricing undercut a dedicated Direct Connect port plus cross-connect?
- Can existing Equinix Fabric virtual connections migrate to it?
- Is the 99.99% SLA end to end, or only between AWS and the Equinix edge?
Editor's take
The interesting part isn't the free 1 Gbps. It's the pre-built, four-link redundancy with a 99.99% SLA and MACsec on by default. Plenty of teams spend weeks designing exactly that by hand. AWS is turning hybrid connectivity into a console dropdown, just as it did for multicloud earlier this year. Adding Equinix after Lumen tells us AWS wants last mile to become the default way to connect on-premises sites. The open question is GA pricing. Until AWS publishes it, treat this as a design validation opportunity, not a migration plan. Expect more detail at re:Invent. Our re:Invent 2026 guide has the dates. For data-location planning, see Bedrock in-country inference by Region. Watching costs? Our RDS per-snapshot billing explainer is another recent AWS billing change worth knowing.
FAQ
What is AWS Interconnect last mile?
It's a managed AWS service that connects your on-premises or colocation sites to AWS through a network partner (Lumen or Equinix). The partner pre-builds the capacity and BGP, VLAN and ASN setup is handled for you.
How much does AWS Interconnect last mile cost?
During the Equinix preview, 1 Gbps connections are free to us-east-1 (Northern Virginia metro) and us-west-1 (San Jose metro). AWS hasn't announced GA pricing.
Is AWS Interconnect generally available?
Interconnect – multicloud is GA (Google Cloud since April 2026, OCI since July 2026). Interconnect – last mile is still in preview: a gated preview with Lumen and a preview with Equinix.
What is the difference between AWS Interconnect and Direct Connect?
Interconnect – last mile attaches to a Direct Connect gateway but removes the manual steps: no cross-connect orders, no router setup, and pre-built quad-redundant links with a 99.99% SLA.
Does AWS Interconnect support Azure?
For multicloud, AWS says Azure is planned for later in 2026. AWS's product page labels Azure as "Preview." Azure isn't part of last mile.
What bandwidth does AWS Interconnect last mile support?
1 Gbps during the Equinix preview. AWS says you'll be able to scale from 1 Gbps to 100 Gbps at GA.
Is AWS Interconnect last mile encrypted?
Yes. AWS says traffic between AWS and Equinix edge devices is encrypted with MACsec by default.
Sources
- AWS What's New: AWS announces AWS Interconnect – last mile preview with Equinix (Nov 4, 2026)
- AWS What's New: AWS announces gated preview of AWS Interconnect – last mile (Nov 30, 2025)
- AWS What's New: General availability of AWS Interconnect – multicloud (Apr 14, 2026)
- AWS What's New: AWS Interconnect – multicloud with OCI in GA (Jul 29, 2026)
- AWS: AWS Interconnect product page
- AWS Docs: AWS Interconnect documentation
- DEV Community: AWS Interconnect – Last Mile Preview with Equinix
9to5Amazon is not affiliated with Amazon Web Services or Equinix.
Featured image: Equinix San Jose campus, the metro used for the US West (N. California) preview connections. It shows the building exterior, not AWS equipment. Photo: Cristiano Tomás, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source
