Instances›AWS EC2›c5a›c5a.2xlarge
Compute
vCPUs8
Memory16 GiB
Mem / vCPU2.00 GiB
ProcessorEPYC 7R32
Clock speed3.3 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
TypeEBS only
Bandwidth3,170 Mbps
Throughput396.25 MB/s
IOPS13,300
Networking
PerformanceUp to 10 Gigabit
Max ENIs4
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
c5a.large2 vCPU · 4 GiB
c5a.xlarge4 vCPU · 8 GiB
c5a.2xlarge8 vCPU · 16 GiB
c5a.4xlarge16 vCPU · 32 GiB
c5a.8xlarge32 vCPU · 64 GiB
c5a.12xlarge48 vCPU · 96 GiB
c5a.16xlarge64 vCPU · 128 GiB
c5a.24xlarge96 vCPU · 192 GiB
c5a.2xlarge

The c5a.2xlarge pairs 8 vCPU with 16 GiB of RAM, the 2.00 GiB-per-vCPU ratio that marks a compute-optimized instance. In the name, "c" stands for compute, "5" is the generation, "a" marks AMD processors and "2xlarge" is the size within the c5a family. It runs on AMD EPYC 7R32 at 3.3 GHz, and AWS introduced it in June 2020. AWS has since shipped c6a, c7a, c8a and c9g; c6a.2xlarge is the direct replacement at this size, scoring 181,777 CoreMark/s against this instance's 145,349 — roughly 25% more throughput for the same vCPU count. ch.vs1.xlarge on Rackspace Spot lines up one-for-one: 8 vCPU and 16 GiB, $0.308/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.006/hr on Rackspace Spot.

Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$0.308$0.122$0.194$0.133$0.006
$0.302 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.061
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.041
Hong Kong$0.388$0.244$0.168$0.061
$0.327 savings
Sydney, Australia$0.400$0.201$0.252$0.173$0.016
$0.384 savings
London, UK$0.364$0.144$0.229$0.157$0.021
$0.343 savings
US West, San Jose$0.380$0.134$0.239$0.164$0.001
$0.379 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.061
US East, N. Virginia 2$0.308$0.122$0.194$0.133$0.081
$0.227 savings
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Video encoding and transcoding
  • ●High-traffic web and API serving
  • ●Scientific modelling and simulation
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 16 GiB of RAM
  • ●Parallel work that can occupy 8 vCPU
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at Up to 10 Gigabit
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. c6a.2xlarge is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 16 GiB of RAM
  • ●More than 2.00 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
  • ●Local NVMe or instance-store disk is a hard requirement
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●Memory-hungry applications. A memory-optimized family gives more RAM per dollar.
Stop overpaying AWS. This compute costs $225/mo on AWS vs $4/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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