x8g.12xlarge

Analysis

The x8g.12xlarge is a memory optimized instance in the x8g series with 48 vCPUs and 768 GiB of memory on AWS Graviton4 (up to 2.7 GHz), which makes it very memory-heavy at 16 GiB of memory per vCPU.

Running it in N. Virginia instead of Frankfurt saves $1,361 a month per instance: $4.69/hour against $6.55/hour, a 40% spread. It is not offered in Canada Central, São Paulo, London, Mumbai, Singapore and Tokyo, so plan around that if you need a presence there.

It is the cheapest of the 3 processor variants AWS sells at this size and generation. The x8aedz.12xlarge on AMD EPYC 9R05 costs 194% more, and the x8i.12xlarge also sit above it.

Per vCPU it is one of the dearer memory optimized types: 75% of the 385 current types in the family cost less than its $0.0977 per vCPU-hour. The premium mostly pays for the extra memory per vCPU. On demand it is $4.69/hour in US East (N. Virginia), or $3,423 for a 730-hour month.

Looking beyond its own line, 1 of 4 current types with 48 vCPUs and similar memory are cheaper. The cheapest of those is the x2gd.12xlarge on AWS Graviton2 at $4.01/hour.

Reserving it for a year with no upfront payment cuts the Linux rate to $2.89/hour, which beats on demand once it runs more than 62% of the time; three years brings it to $1.60/hour, 66% below on demand.