Instances›AWS EC2›c8i›c8i.metal-96xl
Compute
vCPUs384
Memory768 GiB
Mem / vCPU2.00 GiB
ProcessorXeon Scalable
Clock speed3.9 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
TypeEBS only
Bandwidth80,000 Mbps
Throughput10000 MB/s
IOPS480,000
Networking
Performance100 Gigabit
Max ENIs24
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
c8i.large2 vCPU · 4 GiB
c8i.xlarge4 vCPU · 8 GiB
c8i.2xlarge8 vCPU · 16 GiB
c8i.4xlarge16 vCPU · 32 GiB
c8i.8xlarge32 vCPU · 64 GiB
c8i.12xlarge48 vCPU · 96 GiB
c8i.16xlarge64 vCPU · 128 GiB
c8i.24xlarge96 vCPU · 192 GiB
c8i.32xlarge128 vCPU · 256 GiB
c8i.48xlarge192 vCPU · 384 GiB
c8i.metal-48xl192 vCPU · 384 GiB
c8i.96xlarge384 vCPU · 768 GiB
c8i.metal-96xl384 vCPU · 768 GiB
c8i.metal-96xl

The c8i.metal-96xl pairs 384 vCPU with 768 GiB of RAM, the 2.00 GiB-per-vCPU ratio that marks a compute-optimized instance. In the name, "c" stands for compute, "8" is the generation, "i" marks Intel processors and "metal-96xl" is the size within the c8i family. It runs on Intel Xeon Scalable (Granite Rapids) at 3.9 GHz, and AWS introduced it in October 2025. AWS has since shipped c9g. Spot's largest VM is 16 vCPU and 128 GiB, so matching this instance would take 24 × ch.vs1.2xlarge — arithmetically true and operationally absurd. The Spot column below prices that whole fleet, so read it as a scale reference rather than a drop-in replacement: at this size the useful question is what a shard of the workload costs, which is $0.041/hr per node.

Match qualityVirtualised, not bare metal

c8i.metal-96xl 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 (24 × ch.vs1.2xlarge, 384 vCPU, 768 GiB), but not the dedicated hardware. If you picked c8i.metal-96xl 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 c8i, it is the same compute for a lot less.

Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$17.992$2.442$0.984
$17.008 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.264
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$2.664
Hong Kong$0.984
Sydney, Australia$23.497$8.022$0.984
$22.513 savings
London, UK$21.379$2.138$3.144
$18.235 savings
US West, San Jose$22.437$2.244$0.048
$22.389 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$2.928
US East, N. Virginia 2$17.992$2.442$3.888
$14.104 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 768 GiB of RAM
  • ●Parallel work that can occupy 384 vCPU
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at 100 Gigabit
Avoid if
  • ●The working set needs more than 768 GiB of RAM
  • ●You need dedicated hardware. Rackspace Spot sells virtualised compute only.
  • ●You want a single-machine Spot equivalent. At this size there is not one.
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●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
c8i.metal-96xl is $13,134/mo on AWS on-demand. A ch.vs1.2xlarge node on Rackspace Spot is $30/mo — at this size the per-node price is the honest comparison.
  • 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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