Amazon EC2 offers different instance families to match specific workloads, like compute-heavy, memory-intensive, or storage-optimized tasks.
✅ Choosing the right instance type helps you optimize performance and cost.
📦 EC2 Instance Families Overview
| Family |
Optimized For |
Common Use Cases |
Example Types |
| T |
General Purpose (Burstable) |
Small web servers, dev/test environments |
t4g, t3, t2
|
| M |
General Purpose |
App servers, balanced workloads |
m7i, m6i, m5
|
| C |
Compute Optimized |
High-performance computing, web apps |
c7g, c6a, c5
|
| R |
Memory Optimized |
In-memory databases, analytics, caching |
r7g, r6i, r5
|
| X |
High Memory |
SAP HANA, real-time big data processing |
x2idn, x1e, x2iezn
|
| Z |
High Compute + Memory |
Electronic design automation (EDA) |
z1d |
| P |
GPU for ML/AI |
Deep learning, training models |
p4, p3
|
| G |
GPU for Graphics |
3D rendering, video editing, gaming |
g5, g4ad
|
| Inf |
ML Inference |
Low-latency ML inference |
inf1 |
|
D/I
|
Storage Optimized |
Data warehousing, high IOPS, NoSQL DBs |
i4i, d3en, h1
|
| H |
High Disk Throughput |
Big data, log processing |
h1, hpc6id
|
| U/Mz/Trn |
Specialized |
SAP, HPC, or ML model training at scale |
u-6tb1.metal, trn1
|
🎯 Choosing the Right Instance (Quick Guide)
| Your Need |
Go With... |
| General apps or small web servers |
t4g, m6i
|
| Heavy backend compute |
c7g, c6a
|
| Memory-heavy workloads |
r6i, x2idn
|
| GPU-based AI or ML training |
p4, g5
|
| High IOPS, SSD-heavy workloads |
i4i, d3
|
🧠 Instance Naming Format (Decoded)
Example: c6g.large
-
c = Compute optimized
-
6 = 6th generation
-
g = Powered by AWS Graviton (ARM-based)
-
large = Size (nano → 4xlarge, metal, etc.)
⚙️ Instance Sizing
| Size |
vCPU |
RAM (Varies by family) |
nano |
1 |
~0.5 GB |
micro |
1 |
~1 GB |
small |
1 |
~2 GB |
medium |
2 |
~4 GB |
large |
2–4 |
~8 GB |
xlarge+ |
4–64+ |
~16–1000+ GB |
✅ Summary
| Attribute |
Value |
| Categories |
General, Compute, Memory, Storage, GPU |
| Architecture |
x86, ARM (Graviton) |
| Generations |
Newer = better performance & cost (e.g., 7g) |
| Use Case Fit |
Choose based on your app's profile |
