c3.xlargevsc4.xlarge

c4.xlarge is 5% cheaper than c3.xlarge on demand in US East (N. Virginia), saving $8.03 a month.

At a glancec3.xlargec4.xlarge
On-demand$0.21/hr$0.199/hr5% less
Lowest rate$0.0656/hrSpot, can be interrupted$0.0625/hr5% lessSpot, can be interrupted
Size4 vCPUs, 7.5 GiB4 vCPUs, 7.5 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.xlargec4.xlargec4.xlarge vs c3.xlarge
On-demandPay by the hour$0.21$0.199▼ 5%
SpotCan be interrupted69% off$0.065669% off$0.0625▼ 5%
1-yr reservedNo upfront30% off$0.14637% off$0.126▼ 14%
3-yr reservedNo upfront—55% off$0.089—
1-yr savings planHourly commitment27% off$0.15327% off$0.145▼ 5%
3-yr savings planHourly commitment38% off$0.13149% off$0.102▼ 22%

Key differences

The biggest lead each one has.

Where c3.xlarge leads
Network peak10 Gbps vs 2.8 Gbps
3.6× higher
Where c4.xlarge leads
On-demand price$0.199 vs $0.21 per hour
5% cheaper
Network baseline1.25 Gbps vs 0.7 Gbps
79% higher
EBS baseline bandwidth750 Mbps vs 500 Mbps
50% higher
ECU16 vs 14
14% higher

Specs

20 of 42 specs differ. Those are in bold.

Compute5 of 11 differc3.xlargec4.xlarge
vCPUs44
Physical cores22
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
ECU1416
MemoryAll 1 matchc3.xlargec4.xlarge
Memory (GiB)7.57.5
Networking3 of 8 differc3.xlargec4.xlarge
NetworkModerateHigh
Network baseline0.7 Gbps1.25 Gbps
Network peak10 Gbps2.8 Gbps
Enhanced networkingNoNo
EFANoNo
IPv6YesYes
Max network interfaces44
IPv4 addresses per interface1515
Storage10 of 12 differc3.xlargec4.xlarge
Storage2 x 40 SSDEBS only
Local disks2 × 40 GB SSD–
EBS optimizedYesYes
EBS over NVMeNoNo
EBS throughput–750 Mbps
EBS baseline bandwidth500 Mbps750 Mbps
EBS max bandwidth500 Mbps750 Mbps
EBS baseline throughput62.5 MB/s93.75 MB/s
EBS max throughput62.5 MB/s93.75 MB/s
EBS baseline IOPS4,0006,000
EBS max IOPS4,0006,000
Max EBS volumes3940
Instance details2 of 10 differc3.xlargec4.xlarge
Familyc3c4
CategoryCompute optimizedCompute optimized
Current generationNoYes
Normalization factor88
Bare metalNoNo
HypervisorXenXen
Placement groupsCluster, Partition, SpreadCluster, Partition, Spread
HibernationYesYes
Nitro EnclavesNoNo
Boot modesLegacy BIOSLegacy BIOS

On-demand prices by region

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

Regionc3.xlargec4.xlargeDifference
US East (N. Virginia)Used in summaryus-east-1$0.21$0.199▼ 5%
US West (Oregon)us-west-2$0.21$0.199▼ 5%
Asia Pacific (Seoul)ap-northeast-2$0.23$0.227▼ 1%
EU (Ireland)eu-west-1$0.239$0.226▼ 5%
US West (N. California)us-west-1$0.239$0.249▲ 4%
AWS GovCloud (US-West)us-gov-west-1$0.252$0.239▼ 5%
Asia Pacific (Tokyo)ap-northeast-1$0.255$0.252▼ 1%
EU (Frankfurt)eu-central-1$0.258$0.227▼ 12%
Asia Pacific (Singapore)ap-southeast-1$0.265$0.231▼ 13%
Asia Pacific (Sydney)ap-southeast-2$0.265$0.261▼ 2%
South America (Sao Paulo)sa-east-1$0.325$0.309▼ 5%

Keep exploring

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

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

Compare c4.xlarge with

m4.xlarger4.xlargec5.xlarge

Pay the committed rate, with commitment protection

The best committed rate on these two is 38–55% 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.