AWS offers multiple pricing models for EC2 depending on your workload type, commitment level, and cost tolerance.
| Option | Cost Savings | Commitment | Termination Risk | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| On-Demand | None (baseline) | None | None | Unpredictable workloads |
| Reserved Instances | 30-70% | 1 or 3 years | None | Steady, predictable workloads |
| Savings Plans | 30-70% | 1 or 3 years | None | Flexible long-term workloads |
| Spot Instances | Up to 90% | None | High (can be reclaimed anytime) | Fault-tolerant, batch jobs |
| Dedicated Hosts | None | Variable | None | BYOL licenses, compliance |
| Dedicated Instances | None | None | None | Hardware isolation |
| Capacity Reservations | None | None | None | Guaranteed capacity in a specific AZ |
Pay for compute capacity by the hour or second with no long-term commitment.
Characteristics:
When to Use:
Example:
Running a test server for 2 days
Cost: Pay for exactly 48 hours of usage
No commitment, stop anytime
Reserve capacity for 1 or 3 years and get up to 72% discount compared to On-Demand pricing.
Key characteristics: