Instances›AWS EC2›m8gd›m8gd.xlarge
Compute
vCPUs4
Memory16 GiB
Mem / vCPU4.00 GiB
ProcessorGraviton4 Processor
Clock speed2.7 GHz
Architecturearm64
Storage
Type1 × 237 GB NVMe SSD
Bandwidth10,000 Mbps
Throughput1250 MB/s
IOPS40,000
Networking
PerformanceUp to 12.5 Gigabit
Max ENIs4
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
m8gd.medium1 vCPU · 4 GiB
m8gd.large2 vCPU · 8 GiB
m8gd.xlarge4 vCPU · 16 GiB
m8gd.2xlarge8 vCPU · 32 GiB
m8gd.4xlarge16 vCPU · 64 GiB
m8gd.8xlarge32 vCPU · 128 GiB
m8gd.12xlarge48 vCPU · 192 GiB
m8gd.16xlarge64 vCPU · 256 GiB
m8gd.24xlarge96 vCPU · 384 GiB
m8gd.metal-24xl96 vCPU · 384 GiB
m8gd.48xlarge192 vCPU · 768 GiB
m8gd.metal-48xl192 vCPU · 768 GiB
m8gd.xlarge

The m8gd.xlarge pairs 4 vCPU with 16 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, "gd" marks AWS Graviton (ARM) processors and local NVMe storage and "xlarge" is the size within the m8gd family. It runs on AWS Graviton4 Processor at 2.7 GHz, and AWS introduced it in April 2025. AWS has since shipped m9gd; m9gd.xlarge is the direct replacement at this size. gp.vs2.large on Rackspace Spot lines up one-for-one: 4 vCPU and 16 GiB, about 95% below the US East (N. Virginia) on-demand rate.

Match qualityx86 substitution

m8gd.xlarge is Graviton (arm64). Rackspace Spot does not have arm64 servers, so gp.vs2.large 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 diskm8gd.xlarge comes with 1 × 237 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$0.231$0.087$0.011
$0.220 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.011
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.021
Hong Kong$0.011
Sydney, Australia$0.290$0.110$0.011
$0.279 savings
London, UK$0.267$0.032$0.026
$0.241 savings
US West, San Jose$0.272$0.076$0.041
$0.231 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.041
US East, N. Virginia 2$0.231$0.087$0.041
$0.190 savings
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Microservices and container fleets
  • ●Development, staging and CI environments
  • ●Small to mid-size relational databases
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 16 GiB of RAM
  • ●Jobs that want 1 × 237 GB of local NVMe scratch space
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at Up to 12.5 Gigabit
Avoid if
  • ●The working set needs more than 16 GiB of RAM
  • ●You cannot rebuild x86-only binaries or vendor images for aarch64
  • ●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
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
m8gd.xlarge runs $168/mo on AWS on-demand. The equivalent on Rackspace Spot: $8/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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