r5n.large

Analysis

The r5n.large is a memory optimized instance in the r5n series with 2 vCPUs and 16 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.large on AMD EPYC 7571 costs $0.1130/hour, 24% less ($26.28 a month). The other variants are the r5.large at $0.1260, the r5ad.large at $0.1310 and the r5d.large at $0.1440.

Running it in N. Virginia instead of São Paulo saves $63.51 a month per instance: $0.1490/hour against $0.2360/hour, a 58% spread.

On demand it costs $0.1490/hour in US East (N. Virginia), $109 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 44 current types with 2 vCPUs and similar memory are cheaper. The cheapest of those is the r6g.large on AWS Graviton2 at $0.1008/hour.

It is the smallest of the 8 r5n sizes. Stepping up to the r5n.xlarge gives 4 vCPUs and 32 GiB for $109 more a month.

Reserving it for a year with no upfront payment cuts the Linux rate to $0.0940/hour, which beats on demand once it runs more than 63% of the time; three years brings it to $0.0600/hour, 60% below on demand. Windows Server roughly adds 62% to the bill at $0.2410/hour, because the licence is charged per vCPU.