m5zn.6xlarge

Analysis

The m5zn.6xlarge is a general purpose instance in the m5zn series with 24 vCPUs and 96 GiB of memory on Intel Xeon Platinum 8252 (up to 4.5 GHz), which makes it balanced at 4 GiB of memory per vCPU.

Running it in N. Virginia instead of São Paulo saves $859 a month per instance: $1.98/hour against $3.16/hour, a 59% spread. It is not offered in Canada Central, London and Mumbai, so plan around that if you need a presence there.

Nothing else with 24 vCPUs and similar memory is cheaper: among 3 current same-shape types it has the lowest on-demand price.

Per vCPU it is one of the dearer general purpose types: 83% of the 354 current types in the family cost less than its $0.0826 per vCPU-hour. The premium mostly pays for a newer processor or a specialised configuration. On demand it is $1.98/hour in US East (N. Virginia), or $1,447 for a 730-hour month.

It is size 5 of 6 in the m5zn series. Stepping up to the m5zn.12xlarge gives 48 vCPUs and 192 GiB for $1,447 more a month. Dropping to the m5zn.3xlarge saves $723 a month.

Reserving it for a year with no upfront payment cuts the Linux rate to $1.25/hour, which beats on demand once it runs more than 63% of the time; three years brings it to $0.8562/hour, 57% below on demand. Windows Server roughly adds 56% to the bill at $3.09/hour, because the licence is charged per vCPU.