c5.largevsc5a.large
c5a.large is 9% cheaper than c5.large on demand in US East (N. Virginia), saving $5.84 a month.
Prices in US East (N. Virginia)
“Off” is the discount against each type’s own on-demand price. Linux, USD per hour.
| Option | c5.large | c5a.large | c5a.large vs c5.large |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-demandPay by the hour | $0.085 | $0.077 | ▼ 9% |
| SpotCan be interrupted | 68% off$0.0269 | 65% off$0.0271 | ▲ 1% |
| 1-yr reservedNo upfront | 36% off$0.054 | 36% off$0.049 | ▼ 9% |
| 3-yr reservedNo upfront | 58% off$0.036 | 57% off$0.033 | ▼ 8% |
| 1-yr savings planHourly commitment | 27% off$0.062 | 27% off$0.056 | ▼ 10% |
| 3-yr savings planHourly commitment | 52% off$0.041 | 52% off$0.037 | ▼ 10% |
Key differences
The biggest lead each one has.
Where c5.large leads
EBS baseline IOPS4,000 vs 800
5× higherClock speed3.4 GHz vs 3.3 GHz
3% higherWhere c5a.large leads
On-demand price$0.077 vs $0.085 per hour
9% cheaperSpecs
15 of 41 specs differ. Those are in bold.
| Compute6 of 11 differ | c5.large | c5a.large |
|---|---|---|
| vCPUs | 2 | 2 |
| Physical cores | 1 | 1 |
| Threads per core | 2 | 2 |
| Architecture | x86_64 | x86_64 |
| Processor | Intel Xeon Platinum 8124M | AMD EPYC 7R32 |
| CPU maker | Intel | AMD |
| Clock speed | 3.4 GHz | 3.3 GHz |
| Sustained clock | 3.4 GHz | 3.3 GHz |
| Processor features | Intel AVX; Intel AVX2; Intel AVX512; Intel Turbo | AMD Turbo; AVX; AVX2 |
| Burstable | No | No |
| ECU | 10 | – |
| MemoryAll 1 match | c5.large | c5a.large |
|---|---|---|
| Memory (GiB) | 4 | 4 |
| NetworkingAll 8 match | c5.large | c5a.large |
|---|---|---|
| Network | Up to 10 Gigabit | Up to 10 Gigabit |
| Network baseline | 0.75 Gbps | 0.75 Gbps |
| Network peak | 10 Gbps | 10 Gbps |
| Enhanced networking | Yes (ENA) | Yes (ENA) |
| EFA | No | No |
| IPv6 | Yes | Yes |
| Max network interfaces | 3 | 3 |
| IPv4 addresses per interface | 10 | 10 |
| Storage7 of 11 differ | c5.large | c5a.large |
|---|---|---|
| Storage | EBS only | EBS only |
| EBS optimized | Yes | Yes |
| EBS over NVMe | Required | Required |
| EBS throughput | Up to 2250 Mbps | Up to 3170 Mbps |
| EBS baseline bandwidth | 650 Mbps | 200 Mbps |
| EBS max bandwidth | 4,750 Mbps | 3,170 Mbps |
| EBS baseline throughput | 81.25 MB/s | 25 MB/s |
| EBS max throughput | 593.75 MB/s | 396.25 MB/s |
| EBS baseline IOPS | 4,000 | 800 |
| EBS max IOPS | 20,000 | 13,300 |
| Max EBS volumes | 27 | 27 |
| Instance details2 of 10 differ | c5.large | c5a.large |
|---|---|---|
| Family | c5 | c5a |
| Category | Compute optimized | Compute optimized |
| Current generation | Yes | Yes |
| Normalization factor | 4 | 4 |
| Bare metal | No | No |
| Hypervisor | Nitro | Nitro |
| Placement groups | Cluster, Partition, Spread | Cluster, Partition, Spread |
| Hibernation | Yes | No |
| Nitro Enclaves | No | No |
| Boot modes | Legacy BIOS, UEFI | Legacy BIOS, UEFI |
On-demand prices by region
Cheapest for c5.large first. Linux, USD per hour.
| Region | c5.large | c5a.large | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asia Pacific (Mumbai)ap-south-1 | $0.085 | $0.047 | ▼ 45% |
| US East (N. Virginia)Used in summaryus-east-1 | $0.085 | $0.077 | ▼ 9% |
| US East (Ohio)us-east-2 | $0.085 | $0.077 | ▼ 9% |
| US West (Oregon)us-west-2 | $0.085 | $0.077 | ▼ 9% |
| EU (Stockholm)eu-north-1 | $0.091 | $0.082 | ▼ 10% |
| Canada (Central)ca-central-1 | $0.093 | $0.084 | ▼ 10% |
| Asia Pacific (Seoul)ap-northeast-2 | $0.096 | $0.086 | ▼ 10% |
| EU (Ireland)eu-west-1 | $0.096 | $0.086 | ▼ 10% |
| EU (Frankfurt)eu-central-1 | $0.097 | $0.087 | ▼ 10% |
| Asia Pacific (Singapore)ap-southeast-1 | $0.098 | $0.088 | ▼ 10% |
| EU (London)eu-west-2 | $0.101 | $0.091 | ▼ 10% |
| EU (Milan)eu-south-1 | $0.101 | $0.091 | ▼ 10% |
| EU (Paris)eu-west-3 | $0.101 | $0.091 | ▼ 10% |
| AWS GovCloud (US-East)us-gov-east-1 | $0.102 | $0.092 | ▼ 10% |
| AWS GovCloud (US-West)us-gov-west-1 | $0.102 | $0.092 | ▼ 10% |
| Middle East (Bahrain)me-south-1 | $0.106 | $0.095 | ▼ 10% |
| US West (N. California)us-west-1 | $0.106 | $0.095 | ▼ 10% |
| Asia Pacific (Tokyo)ap-northeast-1 | $0.107 | $0.096 | ▼ 10% |
| Asia Pacific (Hong Kong)ap-east-1 | $0.108 | $0.097 | ▼ 10% |
| Asia Pacific (Sydney)ap-southeast-2 | $0.111 | $0.1 | ▼ 10% |
| Africa (Cape Town)af-south-1 | $0.114 | $0.103 | ▼ 10% |
| South America (Sao Paulo)sa-east-1 | $0.131 | $0.118 | ▼ 10% |
Keep exploring
Each type’s own page, and how it compares with others.
AWS EC2 Linux prices in USD. Monthly figures use 730 hours. Prices last updated 12 Nov 2026.