t2.xlarge
General purpose · t2 series · Intel Xeon Family
- vCPU
- 4
- Memory
- 16 GiB
- Linux / hour
- $0.1856
- Per month
- $135
- Per vCPU-hour
- $0.0464
- Per GiB-hour
- $0.0116
Analysis
The t2.xlarge is a general purpose instance in the t2 series with 4 vCPUs and 16 GiB of memory on Intel Xeon Family (up to Up to 3.3 GHz), which makes it balanced at 4 GiB of memory per vCPU.
Running it in N. Virginia instead of São Paulo saves $81.76 a month per instance: $0.1856/hour against $0.2976/hour, a 60% spread.
It is size 6 of 7 in the t2 series. Stepping up to the t2.2xlarge gives 8 vCPUs and 32 GiB for $135 more a month. Dropping to the t2.large saves $67.74 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.
At $0.1856/hour on demand in US East (N. Virginia), about $135 a month, the t2.xlarge is one of the cheaper ways to buy general purpose capacity: only 24% of the 354 current general purpose types cost less per vCPU-hour than its $0.0464.
The newer t3.xlarge on Intel Skylake E5 2686 v5 is 10% cheaper at $0.1664/hour, which makes the t2.xlarge hard to justify for new deployments.
Looking beyond its own line, 9 of 42 current types with 4 vCPUs and similar memory are cheaper. The cheapest of those is the t4g.xlarge on AWS Graviton2 at $0.1344/hour. It is burstable, so it only suits workloads that do not run the CPU flat out.
Price by region (USD per hour)
| Region | Linux | Windows | 1-yr RI | 3-yr RI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N. Virginia us-east-1 | $0.1856 | $0.2266 | $0.1150 | $0.0802 | |
| Ohio us-east-2 | $0.1856 | $0.2266 | $0.1150 | $0.0802 | |
| Oregon us-west-2 | $0.1856 | $0.2266 | $0.1150 | $0.0802 | |
| Canada Central ca-central-1 | $0.2048 | $0.2458 | $0.1276 | $0.0888 | |
| São Paulo sa-east-1 | $0.2976 | $0.3386 | $0.1690 | $0.1294 | |
| Ireland eu-west-1 | $0.2016 | $0.2426 | $0.1418 | $0.1013 | |
| London eu-west-2 | $0.2112 | $0.2522 | $0.1454 | $0.1072 | |
| Frankfurt eu-central-1 | $0.2144 | $0.2554 | $0.1528 | $0.1106 | |
| Mumbai ap-south-1 | $0.1984 | $0.2394 | $0.1236 | $0.0836 | |
| Singapore ap-southeast-1 | $0.2336 | $0.2746 | $0.1452 | $0.0989 | |
| Sydney ap-southeast-2 | $0.2336 | $0.2746 | $0.1570 | $0.1130 | |
| Tokyo ap-northeast-1 | $0.2432 | $0.2842 | $0.1643 | $0.1201 |
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.xlarge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| t4g.xlarge AWS Graviton2 Processor | 4 | 16 GiB | $0.1344 | -28% |
| t3a.xlarge AMD EPYC 7571 | 4 | 16 GiB | $0.1504 | -19% |
| m6g.xlarge AWS Graviton2 Processor | 4 | 16 GiB | $0.1540 | -17% |
| m7g.xlarge AWS Graviton3 Processor | 4 | 16 GiB | $0.1632 | -12% |
| t3.xlarge Intel Skylake E5 2686 v5 | 4 | 16 GiB | $0.1664 | -10% |
| m5a.xlarge AMD EPYC 7571 | 4 | 16 GiB | $0.1720 | -7% |