Instances›AWS EC2›m6gd›m6gd.medium
Compute
vCPUs1
Memory4 GiB
Mem / vCPU4.00 GiB
ProcessorGraviton2 Processor
Clock speed2.5 GHz
Architecturearm64
Storage
Type1 × 59 GB NVMe SSD
Bandwidth4,750 Mbps
Throughput593.75 MB/s
IOPS20,000
Networking
PerformanceUp to 10 Gigabit
Max ENIs2
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
m6gd.medium1 vCPU · 4 GiB
m6gd.large2 vCPU · 8 GiB
m6gd.xlarge4 vCPU · 16 GiB
m6gd.2xlarge8 vCPU · 32 GiB
m6gd.4xlarge16 vCPU · 64 GiB
m6gd.8xlarge32 vCPU · 128 GiB
m6gd.12xlarge48 vCPU · 192 GiB
m6gd.16xlarge64 vCPU · 256 GiB
m6gd.metal64 vCPU · 256 GiB
m6gd.medium

The m6gd.medium is a general-purpose AWS EC2 instance: 1 vCPU and 4 GiB of memory, 4.00 GiB per vCPU. In the name, "m" is the general-purpose line, "6" is the generation, "gd" marks AWS Graviton (ARM) processors and local NVMe storage and "medium" is the size within the m6gd family. It runs on AWS Graviton2 Processor at 2.5 GHz, and AWS introduced it in July 2020. AWS has since shipped m7gd, m8gd and m9gd; m7gd.medium is the direct replacement at this size, scoring 24,319 CoreMark/s against this instance's 19,811 — roughly 23% more throughput for the same vCPU count. The nearest Spot node is gp.vs2.medium at 2 vCPU and 4 GiB — 1 more vCPU and the same memory, $0.045/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.002/hr on Rackspace Spot.

Match qualityx86 substitution

m6gd.medium is Graviton (arm64). Rackspace Spot does not have arm64 servers, so gp.vs2.medium is an x86_64 substitute with similar specs.

You will need x86 builds of your container images. Most software rebuilds without changes, but anything with compiled native code needs a real rebuild rather than a retag. Speed per core also differs between the two chips, so it is worth testing before deciding how many nodes to run.

No local diskm6gd.medium comes with 1 × 59 GB NVMe SSD attached to the machine. Spot nodes use network storage only, so that disk doesn't come with it. If you were using it as fast scratch space, you'd move to a persistent volume or object storage, which are slower to read.
Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$0.045$0.010$0.029$0.019$0.002
$0.043 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.016
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.006
Hong Kong$0.062$0.039$0.027$0.002
$0.060 savings
Sydney, Australia$0.057$0.013$0.036$0.024$0.006
$0.051 savings
London, UK$0.052$0.013$0.033$0.023$0.041
$0.011 savings
US West, San Jose$0.053$0.009$0.034$0.023$0.011
$0.042 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.021
US East, N. Virginia 2$0.045$0.010$0.029$0.019$0.011
$0.034 savings
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Small to mid-size relational databases
  • ●Backend services with no single dominant resource
  • ●Queue workers and scheduled jobs
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 4 GiB of RAM
  • ●Jobs that want 1 × 59 GB of local NVMe scratch space
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at Up to 10 Gigabit
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. m7gd.medium is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 4 GiB of RAM
  • ●You cannot rebuild x86-only binaries or vendor images for aarch64
  • ●More than 4.00 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●Sustained full-core CPU load. A compute-optimized family costs less per unit of work.
$33/mo on AWS on-demand against $1/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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