c4.xlargevsc5.xlarge

c5.xlarge is 15% cheaper than c4.xlarge on demand in US East (N. Virginia), saving $21.17 a month.

At a glancec4.xlargec5.xlarge
On-demand$0.199/hr$0.17/hr15% less
Lowest rate$0.0625/hrSpot, can be interrupted$0.0531/hr15% lessSpot, can be interrupted
Size4 vCPUs, 7.5 GiB4 vCPUs, 8 GiB
ProcessorIntel Xeon E5-2666 v3 (Haswell)Intel Xeon Platinum 8124M
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.

Optionc4.xlargec5.xlargec5.xlarge vs c4.xlarge
On-demandPay by the hour$0.199$0.17▼ 15%
SpotCan be interrupted69% off$0.062569% off$0.0531▼ 15%
1-yr reservedNo upfront37% off$0.12637% off$0.107▼ 15%
3-yr reservedNo upfront55% off$0.08958% off$0.071▼ 20%
1-yr savings planHourly commitment27% off$0.14528% off$0.123▼ 15%
3-yr savings planHourly commitment49% off$0.10252% off$0.082▼ 20%

Key differences

The biggest lead each one has.

Where c4.xlarge leads
Max EBS volumes40 vs 27
48% higher
Where c5.xlarge leads
On-demand price$0.17 vs $0.199 per hour
15% cheaper
EBS max bandwidth4,750 Mbps vs 750 Mbps
6.3× higher
Network peak10 Gbps vs 2.8 Gbps
3.6× higher
ECU20 vs 16
25% higher

Specs

21 of 41 specs differ. Those are in bold.

Compute5 of 11 differc4.xlargec5.xlarge
vCPUs44
Physical cores22
Threads per core22
Architecturex86_64x86_64
ProcessorIntel Xeon E5-2666 v3 (Haswell)Intel Xeon Platinum 8124M
CPU makerIntelIntel
Clock speed2.9 GHz3.4 GHz
Sustained clock2.9 GHz3.4 GHz
Processor featuresIntel AVX; Intel AVX2; Intel TurboIntel AVX; Intel AVX2; Intel AVX512; Intel Turbo
BurstableNoNo
ECU1620
Memory1 of 1 differc4.xlargec5.xlarge
Memory (GiB)7.58
Networking3 of 8 differc4.xlargec5.xlarge
NetworkHighUp to 10 Gigabit
Network baseline1.25 Gbps1.25 Gbps
Network peak2.8 Gbps10 Gbps
Enhanced networkingNoYes (ENA)
EFANoNo
IPv6YesYes
Max network interfaces44
IPv4 addresses per interface1515
Storage8 of 11 differc4.xlargec5.xlarge
StorageEBS onlyEBS only
EBS optimizedYesYes
EBS over NVMeNoRequired
EBS throughput750 MbpsUp to 2250 Mbps
EBS baseline bandwidth750 Mbps1,150 Mbps
EBS max bandwidth750 Mbps4,750 Mbps
EBS baseline throughput93.75 MB/s143.75 MB/s
EBS max throughput93.75 MB/s593.75 MB/s
EBS baseline IOPS6,0006,000
EBS max IOPS6,00020,000
Max EBS volumes4027
Instance details4 of 10 differc4.xlargec5.xlarge
Familyc4c5
CategoryCompute optimizedCompute optimized
Current generationYesYes
Normalization factor88
Bare metalNoNo
HypervisorXenNitro
Placement groupsCluster, Partition, SpreadCluster, Partition, Spread
HibernationYesYes
Nitro EnclavesNoYes
Boot modesLegacy BIOSLegacy BIOS, UEFI

On-demand prices by region

Cheapest for c4.xlarge first. Linux, USD per hour.

Regionc4.xlargec5.xlargeDifference
US East (N. Virginia)Used in summaryus-east-1$0.199$0.17▼ 15%
US East (Ohio)us-east-2$0.199$0.17▼ 15%
US West (Oregon)us-west-2$0.199$0.17▼ 15%
Asia Pacific (Mumbai)ap-south-1$0.2$0.17▼ 15%
Canada (Central)ca-central-1$0.218$0.186▼ 15%
EU (Ireland)eu-west-1$0.226$0.192▼ 15%
Asia Pacific (Seoul)ap-northeast-2$0.227$0.192▼ 15%
EU (Frankfurt)eu-central-1$0.227$0.194▼ 15%
Asia Pacific (Singapore)ap-southeast-1$0.231$0.196▼ 15%
EU (London)eu-west-2$0.237$0.202▼ 15%
AWS GovCloud (US-West)us-gov-west-1$0.239$0.204▼ 15%
US West (N. California)us-west-1$0.249$0.212▼ 15%
Asia Pacific (Osaka)ap-northeast-3$0.252$0.214▼ 15%
Asia Pacific (Tokyo)ap-northeast-1$0.252$0.214▼ 15%
Asia Pacific (Sydney)ap-southeast-2$0.261$0.222▼ 15%
South America (Sao Paulo)sa-east-1$0.309$0.262▼ 15%

Keep exploring

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

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

Compare c4.xlarge with

m4.xlarger4.xlargec3.xlarge
c5.xlargeCompute optimized, c5 family
c5.xlarge prices and specsEvery size in the c5 family

Compare c5.xlarge with

c5a.xlargec5d.xlargec5n.xlargem5.xlarger5.xlargec6i.xlarge

Pay the committed rate, with commitment protection

The best committed rate on these two is 55–58% 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.