# Why are 3 zones less expensive than 2 zones?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-are-3-zones-less-expensive-than-2-zones/323453>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [January 18, 2023, 7:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-are-3-zones-less-expensive-than-2-zones/323453 "2023-01-18T19:54:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![michielswaanen](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/michielswaanen/32/116042_2.png) [@michielswaanen](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/michielswaanen)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2023, 7:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-are-3-zones-less-expensive-than-2-zones/323453/1 "2023-01-18T19:54:09Z")

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Why is tiebreaker only needed in a 2 zone setup?

Pricing for 2 zones:

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/5/5/55bdf40c4a51b7207c7755dff4d87c74b89f4215.png)

Pricing for 3 zones:

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/8/c/8c262637e2b6bff0c45a9b0595595cbc20fff8d7.png)

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**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2023, 9:59pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-are-3-zones-less-expensive-than-2-zones/323453/2 "2023-01-18T21:59:06Z")

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> [@michielswaanen](#):
>
> Why is tiebreaker only needed in a 2 zone setup?

Because if the nodes lose contact with each other they could form their own cluster - aka split brain.

But 3 nodes means as long as 2 are connected you have a majority.

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**Author:** ![Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/christian_dahlqvist/32/4617_2.png) [@Christian\_Dahlqvist](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Christian_Dahlqvist)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2023, 6:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-are-3-zones-less-expensive-than-2-zones/323453/3 "2023-01-19T06:46:09Z")

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> [@warkolm](#):
>
> Because if the nodes lose contact with each other they could form their own cluster - aka split brain.

In recent versions this is not the case. The reason a tiebreaker is needed is that you need to have 3 master eligible nodes in order to be able to allow the cluster to operate even if one node goes down. If you only have 2 nodes both need to be available for the cluster to operate (majority of 3 is 2, majority of 2 is also 2).

The reason 3 zones are cheaper seems to be that the tiebreaker is more expensive than one of your data nodes even though it is smaller. I wonder if this is because deploying across 3 availability zones is better and they are encouraging this best practice through pricing as it leads to less support issues.

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**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2023, 6:53am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-are-3-zones-less-expensive-than-2-zones/323453/4 "2023-01-19T06:53:11Z")

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Yep, good point.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2023, 6:53am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-are-3-zones-less-expensive-than-2-zones/323453/5 "2023-02-16T06:53:13Z")

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