Instances›AWS EC2›i2›i2.xlarge
Compute
vCPUs4
Memory30.5 GiB
Mem / vCPU7.63 GiB
ProcessorXeon E5-2670 v2
Clock speed2.5 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
Type1 × 800 GB SSD
Bandwidth500 Mbps
Throughput62.5 MB/s
IOPS4,000
Networking
PerformanceModerate
Max ENIs4
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
i2.large2 vCPU · 15 GiB
i2.xlarge4 vCPU · 30.5 GiB
i2.2xlarge8 vCPU · 61 GiB
i2.4xlarge16 vCPU · 122 GiB
i2.8xlarge32 vCPU · 244 GiB
i2.xlarge

i2.xlarge is AWS's storage-optimized EC2 size at 4 vCPU and 30.5 GiB. In the name, "i" is I/O, meaning local storage, "2" is the generation and "xlarge" is the size within the i2 family. It runs on Intel Xeon E5-2670 v2 (Ivy Bridge) at 2.5 GHz, and AWS introduced it in December 2013. AWS has since shipped i3, i4i, i7i and i8g; i3.xlarge is the direct replacement at this size. On Rackspace Spot the same shape is mh.vs1.large — 4 vCPU, 32 GiB, matched on both dimensions, $0.853/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.021/hr on Rackspace Spot.

Match qualityNo local disk

i2.xlarge comes with 1 × 800 GB SSD attached to the machine. Rackspace Spot nodes use network storage only, so that disk does not come with it.

If you were using the local disk as fast scratch space — temporary files, a local cache, an index — you will need a persistent volume or object storage instead, and both are slower to read. If it was just extra space you never depended on, nothing changes.

Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$0.853$0.097$0.424$0.021
$0.832 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.061
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.021
Hong Kong$0.006
Sydney, Australia$1.018$0.146$0.610$0.006
$1.012 savings
London, UK$0.006
US West, San Jose$0.938$0.111$0.515$0.061
$0.877 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.061
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Streaming ingest that spools to local disk
  • ●Elasticsearch and OpenSearch data nodes
  • ●NoSQL stores such as Cassandra, ScyllaDB and MongoDB
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 30.5 GiB of RAM
  • ●Jobs that want 1 × 800 GB of local SSD scratch space
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. i3.xlarge is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 30.5 GiB of RAM
  • ●More than 7.63 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●Workloads that never touch local disk. The instance-store premium is wasted.
Stop overpaying AWS. This compute costs $623/mo on AWS vs $15/mo on Rackspace Spot.
  • 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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Frequently asked questions