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User Guide for Linux Instances

AWS Documentation » Amazon EC2 » User Guide for Linux Instances » Amazon EC2 Instances » Instance Purchasing Options » Spot Instances

Spot Instances

Spot Instances enable you to request unused EC2 instances, which can lower your Amazon EC2 costs significantly. The hourly price for a Spot Instance (of each instance type in each Availability Zone) is set by Amazon EC2, and adjusted gradually based on the long-term supply of and demand for Spot Instances. Your Spot Instance runs whenever capacity is available and the maximum price per hour for your request exceeds the Spot price.

Spot Instances are a cost-effective choice if you can be flexible about when your applications run and if your applications can be interrupted. For example, Spot Instances are well-suited for data analysis, batch jobs, background processing, and optional tasks. For more information, see Amazon EC2 Spot Instances.

The key differences between Spot Instances and On-Demand Instances are that Spot Instances can only be launched immediately if there is available capacity, the hourly price for Spot Instances varies based on demand, and Amazon EC2 can interrupt an individual Spot Instance as the price for, or availability of, Spot Instances changes. One strategy is to launch a core group of On-Demand Instances to maintain a minimum level of guaranteed compute resources for your applications, and supplement them with Spot Instances when the opportunity arises.

Compare On-Demand and Spot Instances

Another strategy is to launch Spot Instances with a required duration (also known as Spot blocks), which are not interrupted due to changes in the Spot price. For more information, see Specifying a Duration for Your Spot Instances.

Concepts

Before you get started with Spot Instances, you should be familiar with the following concepts:

  • Spot Instance pool – A set of unused EC2 instances with the same instance type, operating system, Availability Zone, and network platform (EC2-Classic or EC2-VPC).

  • Spot price – The current price of a Spot Instance per hour.

  • Spot Instance request – Provides the maximum price per hour that you are willing to pay for a Spot Instance. If you don't specify a maximum price, the default maximum price is the On-Demand price. When the maximum price per hour for your request exceeds the Spot price, Amazon EC2 fulfills your request if capacity is available. A Spot Instance request is either one-time or persistent. Amazon EC2 automatically resubmits a persistent Spot request after the Spot Instance associated with the request is terminated. Your Spot Instance request can optionally specify a duration for the Spot Instances.

  • Spot Fleet – A set of Spot Instances that is launched based on criteria that you specify. The Spot Fleet selects the Spot Instance pools that meet your needs and launches Spot Instances to meet the target capacity for the fleet. By default, Spot Fleets are set to maintain target capacity by launching replacement instances after Spot Instances in the fleet are terminated. You can submit a Spot Fleet as a one-time request, which does not persist after the instances have been terminated.

  • Spot Instance interruption – Amazon EC2 terminates, stops, or hibernates your Spot Instance when the Spot price exceeds the maximum price for your request or capacity is no longer available. Amazon EC2 provides a Spot Instance interruption notice, which gives the instance a two-minute warning before it is interrupted.

How to Get Started

The first thing you need to do is get set up to use Amazon EC2. It can also be helpful to have experience launching On-Demand Instances before launching Spot Instances.

Get up and running

Spot basics

Working with Spot Instances

Working with Spot Fleets

You can provision Spot Instances directly using Amazon EC2. You can also provision Spot Instances using other services in AWS. For more information, see the following documentation.

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling and Spot Instances

You can create launch configurations with the maximum price you are willing to pay, so that Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling can launch Spot Instances. For more information, see Launching Spot Instances in Your Auto Scaling Group in the Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling User Guide.

Amazon EMR and Spot Instances

There are scenarios where it can be useful to run Spot Instances in an Amazon EMR cluster. For more information, see Spot Instances and When Should You Use Spot Instances in the Amazon EMR Management Guide.

AWS CloudFormation Templates

AWS CloudFormation enables you to create and manage a collection of AWS resources using a template in JSON format. AWS CloudFormation templates can include the maximum price you are willing to pay. For more information, see EC2 Spot Instance Updates - Auto Scaling and CloudFormation Integration.

AWS SDK for Java

You can use the Java programming language to manage your Spot Instances. For more information, see Tutorial: Amazon EC2 Spot Instances and Tutorial: Advanced Amazon EC2 Spot Request Management.

AWS SDK for .NET

You can use the .NET programming environment to manage your Spot Instances. For more information, see Tutorial: Amazon EC2 Spot instances.

Pricing

You pay the Spot price for Spot Instances, which is set by Amazon EC2 and adjusted gradually based on the long-term supply of and demand for Spot Instances. If the maximum price for your request exceeds the current Spot price, Amazon EC2 fulfills your request if capacity is available. Your Spot Instances run until you terminate them, capacity is no longer available, or the Spot price exceeds your maximum price.

Spot Instances with a predefined duration use a fixed hourly price that remains in effect for the Spot Instance while it runs.

View Prices

To view the current (updated every five minutes) lowest Spot price per region and instance type, see the Spot Instances Pricing page.

To view the Spot price history for the past three months, use the Amazon EC2 console or the describe-spot-price-history command (AWS CLI). For more information, see Spot Instance Pricing History.

We independently map Availability Zones to codes for each AWS account. Therefore, you can get different results for the same Availability Zone code (for example, us-west-2a) between different accounts.

View Billing

To review your bill, go to your AWS Account Activity page. Your bill contains links to usage reports that provide details about your bill. For more information, see AWS Account Billing.

If you have questions concerning AWS billing, accounts, and events, contact AWS Support.