Instances›AWS EC2›i3›i3.large
Compute
vCPUs2
Memory15.25 GiB
Mem / vCPU7.63 GiB
ProcessorXeon E5-2686 v4
Clock speed2.3 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
Type1 × 475 GB NVMe SSD
Bandwidth425 Mbps
Throughput53.125 MB/s
IOPS3,000
Networking
PerformanceUp to 10 Gigabit
Max ENIs3
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
i3.large2 vCPU · 15.25 GiB
i3.xlarge4 vCPU · 30.5 GiB
i3.2xlarge8 vCPU · 61 GiB
i3.4xlarge16 vCPU · 122 GiB
i3.8xlarge32 vCPU · 244 GiB
i3.16xlarge64 vCPU · 488 GiB
i3.metal64 vCPU · 488 GiB
i3.large

The i3.large is a storage-optimized AWS EC2 instance: 2 vCPU and 15.25 GiB of memory, 7.63 GiB per vCPU. In the name, "i" is I/O, meaning local storage, "3" is the generation and "large" is the size within the i3 family. It runs on Intel Xeon E5-2686 v4 (Broadwell) at 2.3 GHz, and AWS introduced it in November 2016. AWS has since shipped i4i, i7i and i8g; i4i.large is the direct replacement at this size, scoring 34,048 CoreMark/s against this instance's 30,351 — roughly 12% more throughput for the same vCPU count. Rackspace Spot's mh.vs1.medium is a like-for-like substitute at 2 vCPU and 16 GiB, about 93% below the US East (N. Virginia) on-demand rate.

Match qualityNo local disk

i3.large comes with 1 × 475 GB NVMe 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$0.156$0.037$0.107$0.076$0.011
$0.145 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.021
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.041
Hong Kong$0.206$0.141$0.100$0.002
$0.204 savings
Sydney, Australia$0.187$0.043$0.128$0.091$0.011
$0.176 savings
London, UK$0.181$0.046$0.124$0.089$0.011
$0.170 savings
US West, San Jose$0.172$0.041$0.118$0.084$0.031
$0.141 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.031
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Data warehousing and log processing
  • ●Distributed file systems and search indexes
  • ●Transactional databases with heavy random I/O
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 15.25 GiB of RAM
  • ●Jobs that want 1 × 475 GB of local NVMe scratch space
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at Up to 10 Gigabit
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. i4i.large is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 15.25 GiB of RAM
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●Workloads that never touch local disk. The instance-store premium is wasted.
  • ●More than 7.63 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
$114/mo on AWS on-demand against $8/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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