Instances›AWS EC2›r8a›r8a.8xlarge
Compute
vCPUs32
Memory256 GiB
Mem / vCPU8.00 GiB
ProcessorEPYC 9R45 Processor
Clock speedUp to 4.5 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
TypeEBS only
Bandwidth10,000 Mbps
Throughput1250 MB/s
IOPS40,000
Networking
Performance15 Gigabit
Max ENIs10
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.8xlarge

r8a.8xlarge is AWS's memory-optimized EC2 size at 32 vCPU and 256 GiB. In the name, "r" stands for RAM, "8" is the generation, "a" marks AMD processors and "8xlarge" 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.8xlarge is the direct replacement at this size. The closest Spot shape is mh.vs1.2xlarge at 16 vCPU, so this instance maps to 2 of them — 32 vCPU and 256 GiB across the fleet, $2.56/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.042/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.8xlarge gives you 32 vCPU and 256 GiB in a single machine. The largest comparable Spot node, mh.vs1.2xlarge, is 16 vCPU and 128 GiB, so the equivalent here is 2 nodes rather than one.

Spot runs as managed Kubernetes, so a 2-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 32 cores and 256 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$2.556$0.758$0.042
$2.514 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.042
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.262
Hong Kong$0.042
Sydney, Australia$0.042
London, UK$0.262
US West, San Jose$0.004
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.484
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 256 GiB of RAM
  • ●Parallel work that can occupy 32 vCPU
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at 15 Gigabit
  • ●Anything that shards cleanly across 2 nodes, which is how it maps onto Rackspace Spot
Avoid if
  • ●The working set needs more than 256 GiB of RAM
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●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 32 vCPU would sit idle.
  • ●Local NVMe or instance-store disk is a hard requirement
r8a.8xlarge runs $1,866/mo on AWS on-demand. The 2-node equivalent on Rackspace Spot: $31/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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