Instances›AWS EC2›a1›a1.4xlarge
Compute
vCPUs16
Memory32 GiB
Mem / vCPU2.00 GiB
ProcessorGraviton Processor
Clock speed2.3 GHz
Architecturearm64
Storage
TypeEBS only
Bandwidth3,500 Mbps
Throughput437.5 MB/s
IOPS20,000
Networking
PerformanceUp to 10 Gigabit
Max ENIs8
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
a1.medium1 vCPU · 2 GiB
a1.large2 vCPU · 4 GiB
a1.xlarge4 vCPU · 8 GiB
a1.2xlarge8 vCPU · 16 GiB
a1.4xlarge16 vCPU · 32 GiB
a1.metal16 vCPU · 32 GiB
a1.4xlarge

a1.4xlarge is AWS's general-purpose EC2 size at 16 vCPU and 32 GiB. In the name, "1" is the generation and "4xlarge" is the size within the a1 family. It runs on AWS Graviton Processor at 2.3 GHz, and AWS introduced it in November 2018. a1 is the current generation of the a family, so there is no newer AWS size to migrate to. On Rackspace Spot the same shape is gp.vs1.2xlarge — 16 vCPU, 64 GiB, matched on both dimensions, about 90% below the US East (N. Virginia) on-demand rate.

Match qualityx86 substitution

a1.4xlarge is Graviton (arm64). Rackspace Spot does not have arm64 servers, so gp.vs1.2xlarge is an x86_64 substitute with similar specs.

You will need x86 builds of your container images. Most software rebuilds without changes, but anything with compiled native code needs a real rebuild rather than a retag. Speed per core also differs between the two chips, so it is worth testing before deciding how many nodes to run.

Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$0.408$0.402$0.257$0.176$0.041
$0.367 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.041
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.051
Hong Kong$0.011
Sydney, Australia$0.533$0.533$0.336$0.230$0.161
$0.372 savings
London, UK$0.221
US West, San Jose$0.151
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.001
US East, N. Virginia 2$0.408$0.402$0.257$0.176$0.151
$0.257 savings
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Microservices and container fleets
  • ●Development, staging and CI environments
  • ●Small to mid-size relational databases
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 32 GiB of RAM
  • ●Parallel work that can occupy 16 vCPU
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at Up to 10 Gigabit
Avoid if
  • ●The working set needs more than 32 GiB of RAM
  • ●You cannot rebuild x86-only binaries or vendor images for aarch64
  • ●More than 2.00 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
  • ●The work is single-threaded. Most of these 16 vCPU would sit idle.
  • ●Local NVMe or instance-store disk is a hard requirement
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
Stop overpaying AWS. This compute costs $298/mo on AWS vs $30/mo on Rackspace Spot.
  • Spot sells spare capacity at market prices. It is the cheapest compute on the internet.
  • Prices are set by supply and demand. You pay what the market decides.
  • Compute is delivered as fully managed Kubernetes. All infrastructure is taken care of.
  • Egress costs $0.01/GB after the free allowance. AWS charges $0.09/GB.
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Frequently asked questions