c3.2xlargevsc4.2xlarge

c4.2xlarge is 5% cheaper than c3.2xlarge on demand in US East (N. Virginia), saving $16.06 a month.

At a glancec3.2xlargec4.2xlarge
On-demand$0.42/hr$0.398/hr5% less
Lowest rate$0.138/hr1% lessSpot, can be interrupted$0.139/hrSpot, can be interrupted
Size8 vCPUs, 15 GiB8 vCPUs, 15 GiB
ProcessorIntel Xeon E5-2680 v2 (Ivy Bridge)Intel Xeon E5-2666 v3 (Haswell)
Architecturex86_64x86_64

Prices in US East (N. Virginia)

“Off” is the discount against each type’s own on-demand price. Linux, USD per hour.

Optionc3.2xlargec4.2xlargec4.2xlarge vs c3.2xlarge
On-demandPay by the hour$0.42$0.398▼ 5%
SpotCan be interrupted67% off$0.13865% off$0.139▲ 1%
1-yr reservedNo upfront30% off$0.29237% off$0.252▼ 14%
3-yr reservedNo upfront—56% off$0.177—
1-yr savings planHourly commitment27% off$0.30527% off$0.29▼ 5%
3-yr savings planHourly commitment37% off$0.26349% off$0.204▼ 22%

Key differences

The biggest lead each one has.

Where c3.2xlarge leads

No clear lead on the measures we compare.

Where c4.2xlarge leads
On-demand price$0.398 vs $0.42 per hour
5% cheaper
Network baseline2.5 Gbps vs 1 Gbps
2.5× higher
ECU31 vs 28
11% higher
Max EBS volumes40 vs 39
3% higher

Specs

12 of 42 specs differ. Those are in bold.

Compute5 of 11 differc3.2xlargec4.2xlarge
vCPUs88
Physical cores44
Threads per core22
Architecturex86_64x86_64
ProcessorIntel Xeon E5-2680 v2 (Ivy Bridge)Intel Xeon E5-2666 v3 (Haswell)
CPU makerIntelIntel
Clock speed2.8 GHz2.9 GHz
Sustained clock2.8 GHz2.9 GHz
Processor featuresIntel AVX; Intel TurboIntel AVX; Intel AVX2; Intel Turbo
BurstableNoNo
ECU2831
MemoryAll 1 matchc3.2xlargec4.2xlarge
Memory (GiB)1515
Networking1 of 8 differc3.2xlargec4.2xlarge
NetworkHighHigh
Network baseline1 Gbps2.5 Gbps
Network peak10 Gbps10 Gbps
Enhanced networkingNoNo
EFANoNo
IPv6YesYes
Max network interfaces44
IPv4 addresses per interface1515
Storage4 of 12 differc3.2xlargec4.2xlarge
Storage2 x 80 SSDEBS only
Local disks2 × 80 GB SSD–
EBS optimizedYesYes
EBS over NVMeNoNo
EBS throughput–1000 Mbps
EBS baseline bandwidth1,000 Mbps1,000 Mbps
EBS max bandwidth1,000 Mbps1,000 Mbps
EBS baseline throughput125 MB/s125 MB/s
EBS max throughput125 MB/s125 MB/s
EBS baseline IOPS8,0008,000
EBS max IOPS8,0008,000
Max EBS volumes3940
Instance details2 of 10 differc3.2xlargec4.2xlarge
Familyc3c4
CategoryCompute optimizedCompute optimized
Current generationNoYes
Normalization factor1616
Bare metalNoNo
HypervisorXenXen
Placement groupsCluster, Partition, SpreadCluster, Partition, Spread
HibernationYesYes
Nitro EnclavesNoNo
Boot modesLegacy BIOSLegacy BIOS

On-demand prices by region

Cheapest for c3.2xlarge first. Linux, USD per hour.

Regionc3.2xlargec4.2xlargeDifference
US East (N. Virginia)Used in summaryus-east-1$0.42$0.398▼ 5%
US West (Oregon)us-west-2$0.42$0.398▼ 5%
Asia Pacific (Seoul)ap-northeast-2$0.46$0.454▼ 1%
EU (Ireland)eu-west-1$0.478$0.453▼ 5%
US West (N. California)us-west-1$0.478$0.498▲ 4%
AWS GovCloud (US-West)us-gov-west-1$0.504$0.479▼ 5%
Asia Pacific (Tokyo)ap-northeast-1$0.511$0.504▼ 1%
EU (Frankfurt)eu-central-1$0.516$0.454▼ 12%
Asia Pacific (Singapore)ap-southeast-1$0.529$0.462▼ 13%
Asia Pacific (Sydney)ap-southeast-2$0.529$0.522▼ 1%
South America (Sao Paulo)sa-east-1$0.65$0.618▼ 5%

Keep exploring

Each type’s own page, and how it compares with others.

c3.2xlargeCompute optimized, c3 family
c3.2xlarge prices and specsEvery size in the c3 family
c4.2xlargeCompute optimized, c4 family
c4.2xlarge prices and specsEvery size in the c4 family

Compare c4.2xlarge with

m4.2xlarger4.2xlargec5.2xlarge

Pay the committed rate, with commitment protection

The best committed rate on these two is 37–56% below on-demand. Connect your cloud accounts to unlock greater savings with commitment protection.

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AWS EC2 Linux prices in USD. Monthly figures use 730 hours. Prices last updated 12 Nov 2026.