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.
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Create a Free AccountAWS Free Tier includes 750 hours of Linux and Windows t2.micro instances each month for one year. To stay within the Free Tier, use only EC2 Micro instances.
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.
For EBS backed instances, you can change your instance type right from the console. Follow this guide to stopping and restarted 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".
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.
| Instance Family | Instance Type | Processor Arch | vCPU | Memory (GiB) | Instance Storage (GB) | EBS-optimized Available | Network Performance |
| General purpose | m1.small | 32-bit or 64-bit |
1 | 1.7 | 1 x 160 |
- | Low |
| 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 |
| 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 | cc2.8xlarge | 64-bit | 32 | 60.5 | 4 x 840 | - | 10 Gigabit |
| GPU instances | cg1.4xlarge | 64-bit | 16 | 22.5 | 2 x 840 | - | 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 | cr1.8xlarge | 64-bit | 32 | 244 | 2 x 120 SSD | - | 10 Gigabit |
| Storage optimized | hi1.4xlarge | 64-bit | 16 | 60.5 | 2 x 1,024 SSD | - | 10 Gigabit |
| Storage optimized | hs1.8xlarge | 64-bit | 16 | 117 | 24 x 2,000 | - | 10 Gigabit |
| Micro | t1.micro | 32-bit or 64-bit |
1 | 0.613 | EBS Only |
- | Very Low |
Pricing is per instance-hour consumed for each instance, from the time an instance is launched until it is terminated or stopped. Each partial instance-hour consumed will be billed as a full hour.
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.
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 every hour during the entire Reserved Instance term (which means you’re charged the hourly fee regardless of whether any usage has occurred during an 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.
Spot instances enable you to bid for unused Amazon EC2 capacity. Instances are charged the Spot Price, which is set by Amazon EC2 and fluctuates periodically depending on the supply of and demand for Spot Instance capacity. To use Spot instances, you place a Spot instance request, specifying the instance type, the Availability Zone desired, the number of Spot instances you want to run, and the maximum price you are willing to pay per instance hour. To determine how that maximum price compares to past Spot Prices, the Spot Price history is available via the Amazon EC2 API and the AWS Management Console. If your maximum price bid exceeds the current Spot Price, your request is fulfilled and your instances will run until either you choose to terminate them or the Spot Price increases above your maximum price (whichever is sooner).
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.
