Instances›AWS EC2›i3en›i3en.xlarge
Compute
vCPUs4
Memory32 GiB
Mem / vCPU8.00 GiB
ProcessorXeon Platinum 8175
Clock speed3.1 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
Type1 × 2,500 GB NVMe SSD
Bandwidth4,750 Mbps
Throughput593.75 MB/s
IOPS20,000
Networking
PerformanceUp to 25 Gigabit
Max ENIs4
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
i3en.large2 vCPU · 16 GiB
i3en.xlarge4 vCPU · 32 GiB
i3en.2xlarge8 vCPU · 64 GiB
i3en.3xlarge12 vCPU · 96 GiB
i3en.6xlarge24 vCPU · 192 GiB
i3en.12xlarge48 vCPU · 384 GiB
i3en.24xlarge96 vCPU · 768 GiB
i3en.metal96 vCPU · 768 GiB
i3en.xlarge

The i3en.xlarge is a storage-optimized AWS EC2 instance: 4 vCPU and 32 GiB of memory, 8.00 GiB per vCPU. In the name, "i" is I/O, meaning local storage, "3" is the generation, "en" marks extended capacity and enhanced networking and "xlarge" is the size within the i3en family. It runs on Intel Xeon Platinum 8175 at 3.1 GHz, and AWS introduced it in May 2019. AWS has since shipped i4i, i7i and i8g; i4i.xlarge is the direct replacement at this size, scoring 66,786 CoreMark/s against this instance's 54,860 — roughly 22% more throughput for the same vCPU count. Rackspace Spot's mh.vs1.large is a like-for-like substitute at 4 vCPU and 32 GiB, about 95% below the US East (N. Virginia) on-demand rate.

Match qualityNo local disk

i3en.xlarge comes with 1 × 2,500 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$0.452$0.115$0.308$0.197$0.021
$0.431 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.061
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.021
Hong Kong$0.597$0.408$0.260$0.006
$0.591 savings
Sydney, Australia$0.542$0.107$0.371$0.236$0.006
$0.536 savings
London, UK$0.526$0.130$0.360$0.229$0.006
$0.520 savings
US West, San Jose$0.500$0.102$0.341$0.217$0.061
$0.439 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.061
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 32 GiB of RAM
  • ●Jobs that want 1 × 2,500 GB of local NVMe scratch space
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at Up to 25 Gigabit
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. i4i.xlarge is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 32 GiB of RAM
  • ●Workloads that never touch local disk. The instance-store premium is wasted.
  • ●More than 8.00 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
i3en.xlarge runs $330/mo on AWS on-demand. The equivalent on Rackspace Spot: $15/mo.
  • 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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