What are AWS EC2 Reserved Instances?
Reserved Instances provide discounted EC2 billing for a one-year or three-year commitment. Standard and Convertible options have different flexibility. Zonal reservations can also reserve capacity; regional reservations do not.
How do Compute and EC2 Instance Savings Plans differ?
Compute Savings Plans offer up to 66% savings with flexibility across instance families, regions, EC2, Fargate and Lambda. EC2 Instance Savings Plans offer up to 72% savings for a selected instance family and region. Actual discounts depend on the commitment and payment option.
What are AWS EC2 Spot Instances?
Spot Instances use spare EC2 capacity at discounts of up to 90% versus on-demand. They suit interruptible workloads. AWS typically provides a two-minute interruption notice; hibernation can begin immediately.
Which AWS region has the cheapest EC2 pricing?
There is no universal cheapest region. Compare the exact instance type, operating system and purchase model, then include latency, data-transfer costs and service availability in the decision.
Should I choose a one-year or three-year commitment?
Compare the effective hourly rate, upfront payment and expected utilization. A longer commitment can reduce the rate but increases the risk of paying for unused capacity. Choose a term that matches the predictable part of your workload.
How current are the prices and what is included?
Prices come from AWS pricing services and are cached for 24 hours, with previously verified quotes available during temporary refresh failures for up to seven days. Instance pages show the observation time. Monthly compute estimates use 730 hours and exclude EBS, data transfer, taxes and surplus CPU-credit charges.