Instances›AWS EC2›c6a›c6a.metal
Compute
vCPUs192
Memory384 GiB
Mem / vCPU2.00 GiB
ProcessorEPYC 7R13 Processor
Clock speed3.6 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
TypeEBS only
Bandwidth40,000 Mbps
Throughput5000 MB/s
IOPS240,000
Networking
Performance50 Gigabit
Max ENIs15
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
c6a.large2 vCPU · 4 GiB
c6a.xlarge4 vCPU · 8 GiB
c6a.2xlarge8 vCPU · 16 GiB
c6a.4xlarge16 vCPU · 32 GiB
c6a.8xlarge32 vCPU · 64 GiB
c6a.12xlarge48 vCPU · 96 GiB
c6a.16xlarge64 vCPU · 128 GiB
c6a.24xlarge96 vCPU · 192 GiB
c6a.32xlarge128 vCPU · 256 GiB
c6a.48xlarge192 vCPU · 384 GiB
c6a.metal192 vCPU · 384 GiB
c6a.metal

c6a.metal is AWS's compute-optimized EC2 size at 192 vCPU and 384 GiB. In the name, "c" stands for compute, "6" is the generation, "a" marks AMD processors and "metal" is the size within the c6a family. It runs on AMD EPYC 7R13 Processor at 3.6 GHz, and AWS introduced it in April 2022. AWS has since shipped c7a, c8a and c9g; c7g.metal is the direct replacement at this size. The closest Spot shape is ch.vs1.2xlarge at 16 vCPU, so this instance maps to 12 of them — 192 vCPU and 384 GiB across the fleet, about 93% 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

c6a.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 (12 × ch.vs1.2xlarge, 192 vCPU, 384 GiB), but not the dedicated hardware. If you picked c6a.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 c6a, it is the same compute for a lot less.

Runs as a fleetNo single Spot node has 192 vCPU; the largest comparable one has 16. So this runs as 12 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$7.344$2.163$4.858$3.233$0.492
$6.852 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.132
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$1.332
Hong Kong$9.331$6.173$4.233$0.492
$8.839 savings
Sydney, Australia$9.590$3.861$6.332$4.358$0.492
$9.098 savings
London, UK$8.726$1.035$5.761$3.966$1.572
$7.154 savings
US West, San Jose$9.158$0.916$6.048$4.165$0.024
$9.134 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$1.464
US East, N. Virginia 2$7.344$2.163$4.858$3.233$1.944
$5.400 savings
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Game servers and matchmaking
  • ●Batch processing and CI/CD runners
  • ●Video encoding and transcoding
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 384 GiB of RAM
  • ●Parallel work that can occupy 192 vCPU
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at 50 Gigabit
  • ●Anything that shards cleanly across 12 nodes, which is how it maps onto Rackspace Spot
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. c7g.metal is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 384 GiB of RAM
  • ●You need dedicated hardware. Rackspace Spot sells virtualised compute only.
  • ●The work is single-threaded. Most of these 192 vCPU would sit idle.
  • ●Local NVMe or instance-store disk is a hard requirement
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
$5,361/mo on AWS on-demand against $359/mo on Rackspace Spot for the 12-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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