The r8gn.16xlarge pairs 64 vCPU with 512 GiB of RAM, the 8.00 GiB-per-vCPU ratio that marks a memory-optimized instance. In the name, "r" stands for RAM, "8" is the generation, "gn" marks AWS Graviton (ARM) processors and enhanced networking and "16xlarge" is the size within the r8gn family. It runs on AWS Graviton4 Processor at 2.8 GHz, and AWS introduced it in September 2025. AWS has since shipped r9g; r9g.16xlarge is the direct replacement at this size. Spot's node ladder tops out below this size, so r8gn.16xlarge becomes 4 × mh.vs1.2xlarge (64 vCPU, 512 GiB combined), $5.83/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.084/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.
| Region | AWS on-demand | AWS Spot | 1-yr Reserved | 3-yr Reserved | Rackspace Spot | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US East, N. Virginia | $5.830 | $1.453 | $0.084 | $5.746 savings | ||
| US Central, Chicago | no AWS region | $0.084 | ||||
| US Central, Dallas | no AWS region | $0.524 | ||||
| Hong Kong | $0.084 | |||||
| Sydney, Australia | $0.084 | |||||
| London, UK | $0.524 | |||||
| US West, San Jose | $0.008 | |||||
| US Central, Dallas 2 | no AWS region | $0.968 |