Instances›AWS EC2›c5n›c5n.xlarge
Compute
vCPUs4
Memory10.5 GiB
Mem / vCPU2.63 GiB
ProcessorXeon Platinum 8124M
Clock speed3 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
TypeEBS only
Bandwidth4,750 Mbps
Throughput593.75 MB/s
IOPS20,000
Networking
PerformanceUp to 25 Gigabit
Max ENIs4
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.xlarge

The c5n.xlarge pairs 4 vCPU with 10.5 GiB of RAM, the 2.63 GiB-per-vCPU ratio that marks a compute-optimized instance. In the name, "c" stands for compute, "5" is the generation, "n" marks enhanced networking and "xlarge" is the size within the c5n family. It runs on Intel Xeon Platinum 8124M at 3 GHz, and AWS introduced it in November 2018. AWS has since shipped c6i, c7i, c8i and c9g; c6i.xlarge is the direct replacement at this size, scoring 70,311 CoreMark/s against this instance's 65,833 — roughly 7% more throughput for the same vCPU count. ch.vs1.xlarge is the closest Spot shape: 8 vCPU and 16 GiB, so 4 more vCPU and 5.5 GiB more memory, $0.216/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$0.216$0.087$0.136$0.078$0.006
$0.210 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.061
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.041
Hong Kong$0.286$0.180$0.111$0.061
$0.225 savings
Sydney, Australia$0.282$0.101$0.178$0.109$0.016
$0.266 savings
London, UK$0.256$0.085$0.161$0.107$0.021
$0.235 savings
US West, San Jose$0.270$0.075$0.170$0.108$0.001
$0.269 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.061
US East, N. Virginia 2$0.216$0.087$0.136$0.078$0.081
$0.135 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 10.5 GiB of RAM
  • ●Small, steady services that do not need more than 4 vCPU
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at Up to 25 Gigabit
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. c6i.xlarge is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 10.5 GiB of RAM
  • ●More than 2.63 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.
$158/mo on AWS on-demand against $4/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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