t2.small
General purpose · t2 series · Intel Xeon Family
- vCPU
- 1
- Memory
- 2 GiB
- Linux / hour
- $0.0230
- Per month
- $16.79
- Per vCPU-hour
- $0.0230
- Per GiB-hour
- $0.0115
Analysis
The t2.small is a general purpose instance in the t2 series with 1 vCPU and 2 GiB of memory on Intel Xeon Family (up to Up to 3.3 GHz), which makes it compute-heavy at 2 GiB of memory per vCPU.
Nothing else with 1 vCPU and similar memory is cheaper: among 15 current same-shape types it has the lowest on-demand price.
At $0.0230/hour on demand in US East (N. Virginia), about $16.79 a month, the t2.small is one of the cheaper ways to buy general purpose capacity: only 5% of the 354 current general purpose types cost less per vCPU-hour than its $0.0230.
Running it in N. Virginia instead of São Paulo saves $10.37 a month per instance: $0.0230/hour against $0.0372/hour, a 62% spread.
It is size 3 of 7 in the t2 series. Stepping up to the t2.medium gives 2 vCPUs and 4 GiB for $17.08 more a month. Dropping to the t2.micro saves $8.32 a month. Unit price is not flat across the series ($0.00580 to $0.0464 per vCPU-hour), so the size changes the rate you pay.
The newer t3.small on Intel Skylake E5 2686 v5 is 9.6% cheaper at $0.0208/hour, which makes the t2.small hard to justify for new deployments.
Price by region (USD per hour)
| Region | Linux | Windows | 1-yr RI | 3-yr RI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N. Virginia us-east-1 | $0.0230 | $0.0320 | $0.0144 | $0.0100 | |
| Ohio us-east-2 | $0.0230 | $0.0320 | $0.0144 | $0.0100 | |
| Oregon us-west-2 | $0.0230 | $0.0320 | $0.0144 | $0.0100 | |
| Canada Central ca-central-1 | $0.0256 | $0.0348 | $0.0159 | $0.0111 | |
| São Paulo sa-east-1 | $0.0372 | $0.0464 | $0.0211 | $0.0162 | |
| Ireland eu-west-1 | $0.0250 | $0.0340 | $0.0177 | $0.0127 | |
| London eu-west-2 | $0.0260 | $0.0352 | $0.0182 | $0.0134 | |
| Frankfurt eu-central-1 | $0.0268 | $0.0360 | $0.0191 | $0.0138 | |
| Mumbai ap-south-1 | $0.0248 | $0.0340 | $0.0155 | $0.0105 | |
| Singapore ap-southeast-1 | $0.0292 | $0.0384 | $0.0182 | $0.0124 | |
| Sydney ap-southeast-2 | $0.0292 | $0.0384 | $0.0196 | $0.0141 | |
| Tokyo ap-northeast-1 | $0.0304 | $0.0396 | $0.0205 | $0.0150 |
Shared tenancy, no pre-installed software. Reserved rates are standard, no upfront, per hour. Prices as of 2026-11-04.
Same shape, other types
| Type | vCPU | Memory | $/hour | vs t2.small |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| c6g.medium AWS Graviton2 Processor | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0340 | +48% |
| c7g.medium AWS Graviton3 Processor | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0363 | +58% |
| c6gd.medium AWS Graviton2 Processor | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0384 | +67% |
| c8g.medium AWS Graviton4 Processor | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0399 | +73% |
| c6gn.medium AWS Graviton2 Processor | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0432 | +88% |
| c9g.medium AWS Graviton5 Processor | 1 | 2 GiB | $0.0435 | +89% |