Instances›AWS EC2›r8a›r8a.48xlarge
Compute
vCPUs192
Memory1536 GiB
Mem / vCPU8.00 GiB
ProcessorEPYC 9R45 Processor
Clock speedUp to 4.5 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
TypeEBS only
Bandwidth60,000 Mbps
Throughput7500 MB/s
IOPS240,000
Networking
Performance75 Gigabit
Max ENIs24
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
r8a.medium1 vCPU · 8 GiB
r8a.large2 vCPU · 16 GiB
r8a.xlarge4 vCPU · 32 GiB
r8a.2xlarge8 vCPU · 64 GiB
r8a.4xlarge16 vCPU · 128 GiB
r8a.8xlarge32 vCPU · 256 GiB
r8a.12xlarge48 vCPU · 384 GiB
r8a.16xlarge64 vCPU · 512 GiB
r8a.24xlarge96 vCPU · 768 GiB
r8a.metal-24xl96 vCPU · 768 GiB
r8a.48xlarge192 vCPU · 1536 GiB
r8a.metal-48xl192 vCPU · 1536 GiB
r8a.48xlarge

The r8a.48xlarge is a memory-optimized AWS EC2 instance: 192 vCPU and 1536 GiB of memory, 8.00 GiB per vCPU. In the name, "r" stands for RAM, "8" is the generation, "a" marks AMD processors and "48xlarge" is the size within the r8a family. It runs on AMD EPYC 9R45 Processor at Up to 4.5 GHz, and AWS introduced it in November 2025. AWS has since shipped r9g; r9g.48xlarge is the direct replacement at this size. No single Spot node covers 192 vCPU and 1536 GiB, so the equivalent is a fleet: 12 × mh.vs1.2xlarge, 192 vCPU and 1536 GiB in total, $15.34/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.252/hr on Rackspace Spot. Spot delivers compute as managed Kubernetes, so a node pool of that size is the native shape of the answer rather than a workaround — provided the workload scales horizontally.

Match qualityScale-out match

r8a.48xlarge gives you 192 vCPU and 1,536 GiB in a single machine. The largest comparable Spot node, mh.vs1.2xlarge, is 16 vCPU and 128 GiB, so the equivalent here is 12 nodes rather than one.

Spot runs as managed Kubernetes, so a 12-node pool is the normal way to run things rather than a workaround. If your workload already sits behind a load balancer, a queue or a scheduler, it spreads across them without changes. If it needs all 192 cores and 1,536 GiB in one process, it does not.

Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$15.337$4.104$0.252
$15.085 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.252
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$1.572
Hong Kong$0.252
Sydney, Australia$0.252
London, UK$1.572
US West, San Jose$0.024
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$2.904
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Large JVM heaps and application servers that hold state
  • ●OLAP and business intelligence query engines
  • ●Real-time analytics over hot datasets
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 1536 GiB of RAM
  • ●Parallel work that can occupy 192 vCPU
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at 75 Gigabit
  • ●Anything that shards cleanly across 12 nodes, which is how it maps onto Rackspace Spot
Avoid if
  • ●The working set needs more than 1536 GiB of RAM
  • ●CPU-bound work. You are paying for memory this workload will not use.
  • ●More than 8.00 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
  • ●The work is single-threaded. Most of these 192 vCPU would sit idle.
  • ●Local NVMe or instance-store disk is a hard requirement
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
$11,196/mo on AWS on-demand against $184/mo on Rackspace Spot for the 12-node 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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