Instances›AWS EC2›c5n›c5n.metal
Compute
vCPUs72
Memory192 GiB
Mem / vCPU2.67 GiB
ProcessorXeon Platinum 8124M
Clock speed3 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
TypeEBS only
Bandwidth19,000 Mbps
Throughput2375 MB/s
IOPS80,000
Networking
Performance100 Gigabit
Max ENIs15
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
c5n.large2 vCPU · 5.25 GiB
c5n.xlarge4 vCPU · 10.5 GiB
c5n.2xlarge8 vCPU · 21 GiB
c5n.4xlarge16 vCPU · 42 GiB
c5n.9xlarge36 vCPU · 96 GiB
c5n.18xlarge72 vCPU · 192 GiB
c5n.metal72 vCPU · 192 GiB
c5n.metal

c5n.metal is AWS's compute-optimized EC2 size at 72 vCPU and 192 GiB. In the name, "c" stands for compute, "5" is the generation, "n" marks enhanced networking and "metal" is the size within the c5n family. It runs on Intel Xeon Platinum 8124M at 3 GHz, and AWS introduced it in August 2019. AWS has since shipped c6i, c7i, c8i and c9g; c6i.metal is the direct replacement at this size. The closest Spot shape is ch.vs1.2xlarge at 16 vCPU, so this instance maps to 6 of them — 96 vCPU and 192 GiB across the fleet, about 94% 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 qualityVirtualised, not bare metal

c5n.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 (6 × ch.vs1.2xlarge, 96 vCPU, 192 GiB), but not the dedicated hardware. If you picked c5n.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 c5n, it is the same compute for a lot less.

Runs as a fleetNo single Spot node has 72 vCPU; the largest comparable one has 16. So this runs as 6 nodes. That works if your workload already spreads across machines, and doesn't if one process needs all the cores together.
Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$3.888$1.057$2.449$1.412$0.246
$3.642 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.066
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.666
Hong Kong$5.148$3.243$2.007$0.246
$4.902 savings
Sydney, Australia$5.076$1.025$3.198$1.968$0.246
$4.830 savings
London, UK$4.608$0.734$2.903$1.927$0.786
$3.822 savings
US West, San Jose$4.860$0.595$3.062$1.952$0.011
$4.849 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.671
US East, N. Virginia 2$3.888$1.057$2.449$1.412$0.891
$2.997 savings
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Ad serving and real-time bidding
  • ●Game servers and matchmaking
  • ●Batch processing and CI/CD runners
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 192 GiB of RAM
  • ●Parallel work that can occupy 72 vCPU
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at 100 Gigabit
  • ●Anything that shards cleanly across 6 nodes, which is how it maps onto Rackspace Spot
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. c6i.metal is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 192 GiB of RAM
  • ●You need dedicated hardware. Rackspace Spot sells virtualised compute only.
  • ●More than 2.67 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
  • ●The work is single-threaded. Most of these 72 vCPU would sit idle.
  • ●Local NVMe or instance-store disk is a hard requirement
c5n.metal runs $2,838/mo on AWS on-demand. The 6-node equivalent on Rackspace Spot: $180/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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