r5n.2xlarge

Analysis

The r5n.2xlarge is a memory optimized instance in the r5n series with 8 vCPUs and 64 GiB of memory on Intel Xeon Platinum 8259 (Cascade Lake) (up to 2.5 GHz), which makes it memory-heavy at 8 GiB of memory per vCPU.

Within the same generation and size, the r5a.2xlarge on AMD EPYC 7571 costs $0.4520/hour, 24% less ($105 a month). The other variants are the r5.2xlarge at $0.5040, the r5ad.2xlarge at $0.5240 and the r5d.2xlarge at $0.5760.

Running it in N. Virginia instead of São Paulo saves $254 a month per instance: $0.5960/hour against $0.9440/hour, a 58% spread.

On demand it costs $0.5960/hour in US East (N. Virginia), $435 a month if left running, which puts it mid-table for memory optimized types at the 40th percentile per vCPU ($0.0745 per vCPU-hour) and the 56th percentile per GiB ($0.00931 per GiB-hour).

Looking beyond its own line, 17 of 45 current types with 8 vCPUs and similar memory are cheaper. The cheapest of those is the r6g.2xlarge on AWS Graviton2 at $0.4032/hour.

Reserving it for a year with no upfront payment cuts the Linux rate to $0.3750/hour, which beats on demand once it runs more than 63% of the time; three years brings it to $0.2410/hour, 60% below on demand. Windows Server roughly adds 62% to the bill at $0.9640/hour, because the licence is charged per vCPU.