The m8a.medium pairs 1 vCPU with 4 GiB of RAM, the 4.00 GiB-per-vCPU ratio that marks a general-purpose instance. In the name, "m" is the general-purpose line, "8" is the generation, "a" marks AMD processors and "medium" is the size within the m8a family. It runs on AMD EPYC 9R45 Processor at Up to 4.5 GHz, and AWS introduced it in October 2025. AWS has since shipped m9g; m9g.medium is the direct replacement at this size. gp.vs2.medium is the closest Spot shape: 2 vCPU and 4 GiB, so 1 more vCPU and the same memory, $0.061/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.002/hr on Rackspace Spot.
| Region | AWS on-demand | AWS Spot | 1-yr Reserved | 3-yr Reserved | Rackspace Spot | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US East, N. Virginia | $0.061 | $0.016 | $0.002 | $0.059 savings | ||
| US Central, Chicago | no AWS region | $0.016 | ||||
| US Central, Dallas | no AWS region | $0.006 | ||||
| Hong Kong | $0.002 | |||||
| Sydney, Australia | $0.006 | |||||
| London, UK | $0.041 | |||||
| US West, San Jose | $0.011 | |||||
| US Central, Dallas 2 | no AWS region | $0.021 | ||||
| US East, N. Virginia 2 | $0.061 | $0.016 | $0.011 | $0.050 savings |