Why Previous Generation Instances?
AWS offers Previous Generation Instances for users who have optimized their applications around these instances and have yet to upgrade. Previous Generation Instances are still fully supported and retain the same features and functionality. Previous Generation Instances are available through the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, and EC2 API tools.
Upgrade paths
We encourage you to use the latest generation of instances to get the best performance, but we will continue to support Previous Generation Instances after new instances launch If you are currently using a Previous Generation Instance and would like to see which one would be a suitable upgrade, see the table below and learn how the latest generation of instances could benefit you.
| Instances | Family | Upgrade Paths |
-
T1 General Purpose T3 T4g T3a No Newer generation processors Yes Yes Yes No Built using the AWS Nitro System Yes Yes Yes Very Low Network performance 5 Gbps 5 Gbps 5 Gbps No Availability of larger sizes Yes Yes Yes -
M1 General Purpose M7i M7g M7a No Latest Processor
Yes Yes Yes No Build using the AWS Nitro System
Yes Yes Yes High Network Performance 50 Gbps 30 Gbps 50 Gbps No Enhanced Networking Yes Yes Yes -
M3 General Purpose M7i M7g M7a No Latest Processor
Yes Yes Yes No Build using the AWS Nitro System
Yes Yes Yes High Network Performance 50 Gbps 30 Gbps 50 Gbps No Enhanced Networking Yes Yes Yes Yes SSD Storage No No No -
I2 to I3
Compared to I2 instances, I3 instances have over 4x higher I/O performance, over 2x higher disk throughput and 18% more SSD per CPU. I3 instances offer Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) based SSDs offering lower disk latencies than I2. I3 offers the lowest price per read IOPS of all EC2 instances.
I2 I3 No Newer Intel Xeon Processors Yes Good Storage per instance Better No High Performance NVMe Instance Storage Yes No ENA Support Yes No Larger size (16.xlarge) with up to 15.2 TB of Storage Yes Good Price per GB of Instance Storage Better Good Price per IOPS Best -
M2/CR1/R3 to R4
The R4 family of instances provide a newer Intel Xeon processor, up to 488 GiB of RAM, are EBS optimized by default and support for Enhanced Networking with up to 25 Gbps offering lower latency, and low jitter. Plus, R4 provides a lower price point per GiB of RAM compared to the previous generation instances.
M2/CR1 R3 R4 No No Newer Intel Xeon Processors Yes No Yes Enhanced Networking Yes CR1 only Yes SSD-backed instance storage No (EBS optimized by default) Good Better Sustained memory bandwidth Best Good Better I/O performance Best Good Better Memory per instance Best Good Better Price point per GiB of RAM Best -
HS1 to D2
Powered by Xeon E5-2676 v3 (Haswell) processors, D2 instances offer more compute power and higher clock frequency, more than twice the memory, EC2 Enhanced Networking, and more storage options than compared to HS1 instances. The largest D2 instance, d2.8xlarge, offers up to 48 TB of instance storage and can deliver up to 3.5 GBps read and 3.1 GBps write disk throughput with a 2 MiB block size. D2 offers the lowest price per disk throughput of all Amazon EC2 instances.
HS1 D2 No Latest Intel Xeon Processors Yes Good Memory per Instance Better No Enhanced Networking Yes Good Disk Read/Write Performance Better Good Price per Disk Performance
Best Good Better Memory per instance Good Better Price point per GiB of RAM -
G2 to G3
G3 provides features not available on G2 such as multi-monitor support, H.265 (HEVC) encoding, enhanced graphics rendering effect, NVIDIA GRID Virtual Workstation features, and Enhanced Networking.
Compared to G2 instances, G3 instances provide more powerful GPUs, faster processors, larger host memory, faster network, better EBS performance, and one additional instance size.
G2 G3 Good GPU
Better No Multimonitor Support
Yes No H.265 (HEVC) encoding support Yes No NVIDIA GRID Virtual Workstation features Yes No Latest Intel Xeon Processors Yes No Enhanced Networking Yes -
A1 to C7g
Amazon EC2 C7g instances are powered by the latest generation Graviton processors. They are ideal for running compute-intensive workloads.
A1 C7g No Amazon Linux 2023 Support
Yes Yes 1:2 vCPU to memory ratio Yes Up to 10 Gbps Network Performance Up to 30 Gbps Up to 3,500 Mbps EBS Performance Up to 20,000 Mbps No Up to 16xlarge Yes Good Price Performance Best -
A1 General Purpose C7g M7g C6g A1 C7g No Amazon Linux 2023 Support
Yes Yes 1:2 vCPU to memory ratio Yes Up to 10 Gbps Network Performance Up to 30 Gbps Up to 3,500 Mbps EBS Performance Up to 20,000 Mbps No Up to 16xlarge Yes Good Price Performance Best A1 C7g No Amazon Linux 2023 Support
Yes Yes 1:2 vCPU to memory ratio Yes Up to 10 Gbps Network Performance Up to 30 Gbps Up to 3,500 Mbps EBS Performance Up to 20,000 Mbps No Up to 16xlarge Yes Good Price Performance Best
For EBS backed instances, you can change your instance type right from the console. Follow this guide to stop and restart your instance. When the instance is stopped and you have taken a snapshot of your data, use the "Action" button in the console, and select "Change Instance Type".
Previous generation instance details and pricing
Previous generation On-Demand instances | Previous generation Reserved Instances | EBS-optimized instances | Previous generation Spot Instances | On-demand capacity reservations
Just like our current instances, Previous Generation Instances let you pay for compute capacity by the hour with no long-term commitments. This frees you from the costs and complexities of planning, purchasing, and maintaining hardware and transforms what are commonly large fixed costs into much smaller variable costs.
The pricing below includes the cost to run private and public AMIs on the specified operating system (“Windows Usage” prices apply to Windows Server® 2003 R2, 2008, 2008 R2 and 2012). Amazon also provides you with additional instances for Amazon EC2 running Microsoft Windows with SQL Server, Amazon EC2 running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Amazon EC2 running Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Amazon EC2 running IBM that are priced differently.
Previous generation instance details
| Instance Family | Instance Type | Processor Arch | vCPU | Memory (GiB) | Instance Storage (GB) | EBS-optimized Available | Network Performance |
| General purpose | m1.medium | 32-bit or 64-bit |
1 | 3.75 | 1 x 410 | - | Moderate |
| General purpose | m1.large | 64-bit | 2 | 7.5 | 2 x 420 | Yes | Moderate |
| General purpose | m1.xlarge | 64-bit | 4 | 15 | 4 x 420 | Yes | High |
| General purpose | m3.medium | 64-bit | 1 | 3.75 | 1 x 4 | - | Moderate |
| General purpose | m3.large | 64-bit | 2 | 7.5 | 1 x 32 | - | Moderate |
| General purpose | m3.xlarge | 64-bit | 4 | 15 | 2 x 40 | Yes | High |
| General purpose | m3.2xlarge | 64-bit | 8 | 30 | 2 x 80 | Yes | High |
| General purpose | m4.large | 64-bit | 2 | 8 | EBS Only | Yes | Moderate |
| General purpose | m4.xlarge | 64-bit | 4 | 16 | EBS Only | Yes | High |
| General purpose | m4.2xlarge | 64-bit | 8 | 32 | EBS Only | Yes | High |
| General purpose | m4.4xlarge | 64-bit | 16 | 64 | EBS Only | Yes | High |
| General purpose | m4.10xlarge | 64-bit | 40 | 160 | EBS Only | Yes | 10 Gigabit |
| General purpose | m4.16xlarge | 64-bit | 64 | 256 | EBS Only | Yes | 25 Gigabit |
| Compute optimized | c1.medium | 32-bit or 64-bit |
2 | 1.7 | 1 x 350 | - | Moderate |
| Compute optimized | c1.xlarge | 64-bit | 8 | 7 | 4 x 420 | Yes | High |
| Compute optimized | c2.8xlarge | 64-bit | 32 | 60.5 | 4 x 840 | - | 10 Gigabit |
| Compute optimized | c3.large | 32-bit or 64-bit | 2 | 3.75 | 2 x 16 | - | Moderate |
| Compute optimized | c3.xlarge | 64-bit | 4 | 7.5 | 2 x 40 | Yes | Moderate |
| Compute optimized | c3.2xlarge | 64-bit | 8 | 15 | 2 x 80 | Yes | High |
| Compute optimized | c3.4xlarge | 64-bit | 16 | 30 | 2 x 160 | Yes | High |
| Compute optimized | c3.8xlarge | 64-bit | 32 | 60 | 2 x 320 | - | 10 Gigabit |
| Compute optimized | c4.large | 64-bit | 2 | 3.75 | EBS-Only | Yes | Moderate |
| Compute optimized | c4.xlarge | 64-bit | 4 | 7.5 | EBS-Only | Yes | High |
| Compute optimized | c4.2xlarge | 64-bit | 8 | 15 | EBS-Only | Yes | High |
| Compute optimized | c4.4xlarge | 64-bit | 16 | 30 | EBS-Only | Yes | High |
| Compute optimized | c4.8xlarge | 64-bit | 36 | 60 | EBS-Only | Yes | 10 Gigabit |
| Memory optimized | m2.xlarge | 64-bit | 2 | 17.1 | 1 x 420 | - | Moderate |
| Memory optimized | m2.2xlarge | 64-bit | 4 | 34.2 | 1 x 850 | Yes | Moderate |
| Memory optimized | m2.4xlarge | 64-bit | 8 | 68.4 | 2 x 840 | Yes | High |
| Memory optimized | r3.large | 64-bit | 2 | 15.25 | 1 x 32 | - | Moderate |
| Memory optimized | r3.xlarge | 64-bit | 4 | 30.5 | 1 x 80 | Yes | Moderate |
| Memory optimized | r3.2xlarge | 64-bit | 8 | 61 | 2 x 160 | Yes | High |
| Memory optimized | r3.4xlarge | 64-bit | 16 | 122 | 1 x 320 | Yes | High |
| Memory optimized | r3.8xlarge | 64-bit | 32 | 244 | 2 x 320 | - | 10 Gigabit |
| Memory optimized | r4.large | 64-bit | 2 | 15.25 | EBS-Only | Yes | Up to 10 |
| Memory optimized | r4.xlarge | 64-bit | 4 | 30.5 | EBS-Only | Yes | Up to 10 |
| Memory optimized | r4.2xlarge | 64-bit | 8 | 61 | EBS-Only | Yes | Up to 10 |
| Memory optimized | r4.4xlarge | 64-bit | 16 | 122 | EBS-Only | Yes | Up to 10 |
| Memory optimized | r4.8xlarge | 64-bit | 32 | 244 | EBS-Only | Yes | 10 |
| Memory optimized | r4.16xlarge | 64-bit | 64 | 488 | EBS-Only | Yes | 25 |
Storage optimized |
i2.xlarge |
64-bit |
4 |
30.5 |
1 x 800 |
Yes |
Moderate |
Storage optimized |
i2.2xlarge |
64-bit |
8 |
61 |
2 x 800 |
Yes |
Moderate |
Storage optimized |
i2.4xlarge |
64-bit |
16 |
122 |
4 x 800 |
Yes |
High |
Storage optimized |
i2.8xlarge |
64-bit |
32 |
244 |
8 x 800 |
- |
10 Gigabit |
| Micro | t1.micro | 32-bit or 64-bit |
1 | 0.613 | EBS Only |
- | Very Low |
Previous generation On-Demand instance prices
Except as otherwise noted, our prices are exclusive of applicable taxes and duties, including VAT and applicable sales tax. For customers with a Japanese billing address, use of AWS is subject to Japanese Consumption Tax. Learn more.
EC2 usage are billed on one second increments, with a minimum of 60 seconds. Similarly, provisioned storage for EBS volumes will be billed per-second increments, with a 60 second minimum. Per-second billing is available for instances launched in:
- On-Demand, Reserved and Spot forms
- All regions and Availability Zones
- Amazon Linux and Ubuntu
Previous generation Reserved Instance prices
Reserved Instances provide a capacity reservation so that you can have confidence in your ability to launch the number of instances you have reserved when you need them. There are three Reserved Instance payment options (No Upfront, Partial Upfront, All Upfront) that enable you to balance the amount you pay upfront with your effective hourly price.
The following tables display the Reserved Instance prices available directly from AWS. In addition to Reserved Instances for Linux and Windows operating systems specified below, we also offer Reserved Instances for Amazon EC2 running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Amazon EC2 running Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Amazon EC2 running Microsoft SQL Server. Dedicated Reserved Instances are also available.
*This is the average monthly payment over the course of the Reserved Instance term. For each month, the actual monthly payment will equal the actual number of hours in that month multiplied by the hourly usage rate or number of seconds in that month multiplied by the hourly usage rate divided by 3600, depending on the EC2 instance type you run. The hourly usage rate is equivalent to the total average monthly payments over the term of the Reserved Instance divided by the total number of hours (based on a 365 day year) over the term of the Reserved Instance.
** Effective hourly pricing helps you calculate the amount of money a Reserved Instance will save you over On-Demand pricing. When you purchase a Reserved Instance, you are billed for every hour during the entire Reserved Instance term you select, regardless of whether the instance is running. The effective hourly price shows the amortized hourly instance cost. This takes the total cost of the Reserved Instance over the entire term, including any upfront payment, and spreads it out over each hour of the Reserved Instance term.
Previous Generation Reserved Instances can be purchased directly from AWS for one year or three-year terms.
Using the Reserved Instance Marketplace, you have the flexibility to purchase Reserved Instances from AWS Reserved Instance Marketplace sellers for terms ranging between 1 month to 36 months (depending on available selection).
In either case, the one-time fee per instance is non-refundable. If your needs change, you can also request to move your Reserved Instance to another Availability Zone within the same region, change its Network Platform, or, for Linux/UNIX Reserved Instancess, modify the instance size of your reservation to another size in the same instance type at no additional cost.
Previous Generation Reserved Instances are billed for instance usage during the entire Reserved Instance term.
For Windows instances, Reserved Instance billing benefits only apply to one instance-hour per clock-hour. An instance-hour begins when an instance is started and continues for 60 minutes or until the instance is stopped or terminated—whichever happens first. A clock-hour is defined as the standard 24-hour clock that runs from midnight to midnight, and is divided into 24 hours (for example, 1:00:00 to 1:59:59 is one clock-hour).
For Linux instances, Reserved Instance billing benefits can apply to a maximum of 3600 seconds (one hour) of instance usage per clock-hour. You can run multiple instances concurrently, but can only receive the benefit of the Reserved Instance discount for a total of 3600 seconds per clock-hour; instance usage that exceeds 3600 seconds in a clock-hour is billed at the On-Demand rate. A clock-hour is defined as the standard 24-hour clock that runs from midnight to midnight, and is divided into 24 hours (for example, 1:00:00 to 1:59:59 is one clock-hour).
If Microsoft or Red Hat chooses to increase the license fees that it charges for Windows or Red Hat Enterprise Linux, we may correspondingly increase the per-hour usage rate for previously purchased Reserved Instances with Windows or Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The initial one-time payment for a Reserved Instance will be unaffected in this situation.
Any such changes for Windows would be made between Dec 1 – Jan 31, and with at least 30 days’ notice. Any such changes for Red Hat Enterprise Linux would be made at least 30 days’ notice.
If the per-hour usage rate does increase, you may continue to use your Reserved Instance with Windows or Red Hat Enterprise Linux with the new per-hour usage rate, convert your Reserved Instance with Windows or Red Hat Enterprise Linux to a Reserved Instance with Linux/UNIX, or request a pro rata refund of the upfront fee you paid for the Reserved Instance with Windows or Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Previous Generation Reserved Instances are available for Linux/UNIX, Windows, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and SUSE Linux Enterprise operating systems. You can also optionally reserve instances in Amazon VPC at the same prices as shown above.
From February 2nd 2015, Light and Medium Utilization Reserved Instances are no longer available for purchase from AWS. To view more information on these offerings, visit this page.
EBS-optimized instances
EBS-optimized instances enable EC2 instances to fully use the IOPS provisioned on an EBS volume. EBS-optimized instances deliver dedicated throughput between Amazon EC2 and Amazon EBS, with options between 500 and 4,000 Megabits per second (Mbps) depending on the instance type used. The dedicated throughput minimizes contention between Amazon EBS I/O and other traffic from your EC2 instance, providing the best performance for your EBS volumes. EBS-optimized instances are designed for use with both Standard and Provisioned IOPS Amazon EBS volumes. When attached to EBS-optimized instances, Provisioned IOPS volumes can achieve single digit millisecond latencies and are designed to deliver within 10% of the provisioned IOPS performance 99.9% of the time. Pricing for supported instance types is listed below. For C4 and C5 instance types, EBS-optimization is enabled by default at no additional cost.
The hourly price for EBS-optimized instances is in addition to the hourly usage fee for supported instance types.
Previous generation Spot Instances
Amazon EC2 Spot Instances let you take advantage of unused EC2 capacity in the AWS cloud. Spot Instances are available at up to a 90% discount compared to On-Demand prices. The hourly price for a Spot Instance is called a Spot price. The Spot price of each instance type in each Availability Zone is set by Amazon EC2, and is adjusted gradually based on the long-term supply of and demand for Spot Instances. Your Spot Instance runs whenever capacity is available and the maximum price per hour for your request exceeds the Spot price. To launch a Spot Instance, either you create a Spot Instance request, or Amazon EC2 creates a Spot Instance request on your behalf. The Spot Instance launches when the Spot Instance request is fulfilled. Your Spot Instance runs until you stop or terminate it, or until Amazon EC2 interrupts it (known as a Spot Instance interruption).
Click here to learn more about Spot instances. For information on how to get started, click here.
The following table displays the Lowest Spot Price per Region and instance type (updated every 5 minutes). In addition to Linux/Unix and Windows, we also offer Spot instances for Amazon EC2 running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
If you would like to go straight to a view of the latest Spot instance pricing:
- Log in to the AWS Management Console.
- Select the “Amazon EC2” tab.
- In the left navigation pane choose “Spot Requests”.
- Select “Pricing History” to open a view of pricing which can be filtered by instance type.