Instances›AWS EC2›c4›c4.8xlarge
Compute
vCPUs36
Memory60 GiB
Mem / vCPU1.67 GiB
ProcessorXeon E5-2666 v3
Clock speed2.9 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
TypeEBS only
Bandwidth4,000 Mbps
Throughput500 MB/s
IOPS32,000
Networking
Performance10 Gigabit
Max ENIs8
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
c4.large2 vCPU · 3.75 GiB
c4.xlarge4 vCPU · 7.5 GiB
c4.2xlarge8 vCPU · 15 GiB
c4.4xlarge16 vCPU · 30 GiB
c4.8xlarge36 vCPU · 60 GiB
c4.8xlarge

c4.8xlarge is AWS's compute-optimized EC2 size at 36 vCPU and 60 GiB. In the name, "c" stands for compute, "4" is the generation and "8xlarge" is the size within the c4 family. It runs on Intel Xeon E5-2666 v3 (Haswell) at 2.9 GHz, and AWS introduced it in January 2015. AWS has since shipped c5, c6i, c7i and c8i; c5a.8xlarge is the direct replacement at this size. The closest Spot shape is ch.vs1.2xlarge at 16 vCPU, so this instance maps to 3 of them — 48 vCPU and 96 GiB across the fleet, about 92% below the US East (N. Virginia) on-demand rate. Spot delivers compute as managed Kubernetes, so a node pool of that size is the native shape of the answer rather than a workaround — provided the workload scales horizontally.

Match qualityScale-out match

c4.8xlarge gives you 36 vCPU and 60 GiB in a single machine. The largest comparable Spot node, ch.vs1.2xlarge, is 16 vCPU and 32 GiB, so the equivalent here is 3 nodes rather than one.

Spot runs as managed Kubernetes, so a 3-node pool is the normal way to run things rather than a workaround. If your workload already sits behind a load balancer, a queue or a scheduler, it spreads across them without changes. If it needs all 36 cores and 60 GiB in one process, it does not.

Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$1.591$0.517$1.008$0.708$0.123
$1.468 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.033
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.333
Hong Kong$0.123
Sydney, Australia$2.085$0.680$1.344$1.002$0.123
$1.962 savings
London, UK$1.902$0.508$1.310$1.002$0.393
$1.509 savings
US West, San Jose$1.993$0.579$1.361$0.985$0.005
$1.988 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.305
US East, N. Virginia 2$1.591$0.517$1.008$0.708$0.405
$1.186 savings
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Batch processing and CI/CD runners
  • ●Video encoding and transcoding
  • ●High-traffic web and API serving
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 60 GiB of RAM
  • ●Parallel work that can occupy 36 vCPU
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at 10 Gigabit
  • ●Anything that shards cleanly across 3 nodes, which is how it maps onto Rackspace Spot
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. c5a.8xlarge is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 60 GiB of RAM
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●Memory-hungry applications. A memory-optimized family gives more RAM per dollar.
  • ●More than 1.67 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
  • ●The work is single-threaded. Most of these 36 vCPU would sit idle.
$1,161/mo on AWS on-demand against $90/mo on Rackspace Spot for the 3-node 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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