EC2 Launch Types
On Demand
Pay for what you use
Billing per second after first minute
Highest cost
No long term commitment
Recommended for short-term and uninterrupted workloads where you can't predict how the application will behave
Reserved Instances
Up to 75% discount compared to On-Demand
Pay upfront for what you use.
Long term commitment
Reserve Specific Instance type
1 or 3 years
Recommended for steady stage usage application like databases
Convertible Reserved Instances
Can change the EC2 Instance Type
Up to 54% discount compared to On-Demand
Scheduled Reserved Instances
Launched within time window you reserve
Recommended when you require a fraction of day / week / month
Spot Instances
Up to 90% discount compared to On-Demand
You can loose the instance at any point of time if your "max price" is less than the current spot price.
Useful for workloads that are resilient to failures
Batch jobs
Data analysis
Image processing
Dedicated Hosts
Physical Dedicated EC2 Server for your use
You are given the physical cores of the hardware
You have to pay for 3 years in advance
Full control of the EC2 Instance placement
More expensive
Useful for software that have complicated licensing model
Useful for companies with strong regulatory or compliance needs
Dedicated Instances
Run on hardware that is dedicated to you
May share hardware with other instances in the same account
No control over instance placement