Instances›AWS EC2›m5a›m5a.xlarge
Compute
vCPUs4
Memory16 GiB
Mem / vCPU4.00 GiB
ProcessorEPYC 7571
Clock speed2.5 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
TypeEBS only
Bandwidth2,880 Mbps
Throughput360 MB/s
IOPS16,000
Networking
PerformanceUp to 10 Gigabit
Max ENIs4
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
m5a.large2 vCPU · 8 GiB
m5a.xlarge4 vCPU · 16 GiB
m5a.2xlarge8 vCPU · 32 GiB
m5a.4xlarge16 vCPU · 64 GiB
m5a.8xlarge32 vCPU · 128 GiB
m5a.12xlarge48 vCPU · 192 GiB
m5a.16xlarge64 vCPU · 256 GiB
m5a.24xlarge96 vCPU · 384 GiB
m5a.xlarge

The m5a.xlarge is a general-purpose AWS EC2 instance: 4 vCPU and 16 GiB of memory, 4.00 GiB per vCPU. In the name, "m" is the general-purpose line, "5" is the generation, "a" marks AMD processors and "xlarge" is the size within the m5a family. It runs on AMD EPYC 7571 at 2.5 GHz, and AWS introduced it in November 2018. AWS has since shipped m6a, m7a, m8a and m9g; m6a.xlarge is the direct replacement at this size, scoring 80,527 CoreMark/s against this instance's 52,824 — roughly 52% more throughput for the same vCPU count. Rackspace Spot's gp.vs1.large is a like-for-like substitute at 4 vCPU and 16 GiB, about 94% below the US East (N. Virginia) on-demand rate.

Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$0.172$0.074$0.108$0.074$0.011
$0.161 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.011
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.021
Hong Kong$0.011
Sydney, Australia$0.216$0.103$0.136$0.093$0.011
$0.205 savings
London, UK$0.200$0.086$0.126$0.086$0.026
$0.174 savings
US West, San Jose$0.202$0.091$0.127$0.087$0.041
$0.161 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.041
US East, N. Virginia 2$0.172$0.074$0.108$0.074$0.041
$0.131 savings
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Backend services with no single dominant resource
  • ●Queue workers and scheduled jobs
  • ●Web and application servers with mixed CPU and memory demand
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 16 GiB of RAM
  • ●Small, steady services that do not need more than 4 vCPU
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at Up to 10 Gigabit
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. m6a.xlarge is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 16 GiB of RAM
  • ●Local NVMe or instance-store disk is a hard requirement
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●Sustained full-core CPU load. A compute-optimized family costs less per unit of work.
  • ●More than 4.00 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
$126/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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Frequently asked questions