Instances›AWS EC2›c5a›c5a.xlarge
Compute
vCPUs4
Memory8 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.xlarge

c5a.xlarge is AWS's compute-optimized EC2 size at 4 vCPU and 8 GiB. In the name, "c" stands for compute, "5" is the generation, "a" marks AMD processors and "xlarge" 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.xlarge is the direct replacement at this size, scoring 86,157 CoreMark/s against this instance's 68,556 — roughly 26% more throughput for the same vCPU count. On Rackspace Spot the same shape is ch.vs1.large — 4 vCPU, 8 GiB, matched on both dimensions, about 86% below the US East (N. Virginia) on-demand rate.

Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$0.154$0.064$0.097$0.067$0.021
$0.133 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.011
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.021
Hong Kong$0.194$0.122$0.084$0.036
$0.158 savings
Sydney, Australia$0.200$0.089$0.126$0.086$0.011
$0.189 savings
London, UK$0.182$0.086$0.115$0.079$0.026
$0.156 savings
US West, San Jose$0.190$0.071$0.120$0.082$0.031
$0.159 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.041
US East, N. Virginia 2$0.154$0.064$0.097$0.067$0.031
$0.123 savings
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Scientific modelling and simulation
  • ●Ad serving and real-time bidding
  • ●Game servers and matchmaking
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 8 GiB of RAM
  • ●Small, steady services that do not need more than 4 vCPU
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at Up to 10 Gigabit
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. c6a.xlarge is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 8 GiB of RAM
  • ●Memory-hungry applications. A memory-optimized family gives more RAM per dollar.
  • ●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
c5a.xlarge runs $112/mo on AWS on-demand. The equivalent on Rackspace Spot: $15/mo.
  • 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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