r6in.8xlarge

Analysis

The r6in.8xlarge is a memory optimized instance in the r6in series with 32 vCPUs and 256 GiB of memory on Intel Xeon 8375C (Ice Lake) (up to 3.5 GHz), which makes it memory-heavy at 8 GiB of memory per vCPU.

Within the same generation and size, the r6g.8xlarge on AWS Graviton2 costs $1.61/hour, 42% less ($859 a month), though switching means rebuilding software for arm64. The other variants are the r6a.8xlarge at $1.81, the r6gd.8xlarge at $1.84 and the r6i.8xlarge at $2.02.

Running it in N. Virginia instead of Sydney saves $437 a month per instance: $2.79/hour against $3.39/hour, a 21% spread. It is not offered in São Paulo, London and Mumbai, so plan around that if you need a presence there.

On demand it costs $2.79/hour in US East (N. Virginia), $2,036 a month if left running, which puts it mid-table for memory optimized types at the 61st percentile per vCPU ($0.0872 per vCPU-hour) and the 76th percentile per GiB ($0.0109 per GiB-hour).

Looking beyond its own line, 29 of 41 current types with 32 vCPUs and similar memory are cheaper. The cheapest of those is the r7g.8xlarge on AWS Graviton3 at $1.71/hour.

It is size 5 of 9 in the r6in series. Stepping up to the r6in.12xlarge gives 48 vCPUs and 384 GiB for $1,018 more a month. Dropping to the r6in.4xlarge saves $1,018 a month.