Instances›AWS EC2›a1›a1.metal
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.metal

The a1.metal pairs 16 vCPU with 32 GiB of RAM, the 2.00 GiB-per-vCPU ratio that marks a general-purpose instance. In the name, "1" is the generation and "metal" is the size within the a1 family. It runs on AWS Graviton Processor at 2.3 GHz, and AWS introduced it in October 2019. a1 is the current generation of the a family, so there is no newer AWS size to migrate to. gp.vs1.2xlarge on Rackspace Spot lines up one-for-one: 16 vCPU and 64 GiB, about 90% below the US East (N. Virginia) on-demand rate.

Match qualityVirtualised, not bare metal

a1.metal is a full physical server — no virtualisation layer in the way, direct access to the hardware, and a socket count that licensing can verify.

Rackspace Spot no longer sells bare metal; everything in the catalog is a virtual machine. You get the same cores and memory (gp.vs1.2xlarge, 16 vCPU, 64 GiB), but not the dedicated hardware. If you picked a1.metal because you needed the real machine — nested virtualisation, per-socket licensing, low-level profiling — this is not a replacement at any price. If you picked it because it is the biggest a1, it is the same compute for a lot less.

x86_64 onlya1.metal is Graviton (arm64) and Rackspace Spot has no arm64 nodes, so you'd be moving to x86. You'll need x86 builds of your images, and per-core speed differs between the chips — worth testing before you decide 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
  • ●Small to mid-size relational databases
  • ●Backend services with no single dominant resource
  • ●Queue workers and scheduled jobs
  • ●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
  • ●You need dedicated hardware. Rackspace Spot sells virtualised compute only.
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●Sustained full-core CPU load. A compute-optimized family costs less per unit of work.
  • ●More than 2.00 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
$298/mo on AWS on-demand against $30/mo on Rackspace Spot for the equivalent — market-priced, not list-priced.
  • 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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