m3.xlargevsm4.xlarge

m4.xlarge is 25% cheaper than m3.xlarge on demand in US East (N. Virginia), saving $48.18 a month.

At a glancem3.xlargem4.xlarge
On-demand$0.266/hr$0.2/hr25% less
Lowest rate$0.0477/hr30% lessSpot, can be interrupted$0.0681/hrSpot, can be interrupted
Size4 vCPUs, 15 GiB4 vCPUs, 16 GiB
ProcessorIntel Xeon E5-2670 v2 (Ivy Bridge/Sandy Bridge)Intel Xeon E5-2676 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.

Optionm3.xlargem4.xlargem4.xlarge vs m3.xlarge
On-demandPay by the hour$0.266$0.2▼ 25%
SpotCan be interrupted82% off$0.047766% off$0.0681▲ 43%
1-yr reservedNo upfront29% off$0.1938% off$0.1239▼ 35%
3-yr reservedNo upfront—57% off$0.0864—
1-yr savings planHourly commitment25% off$0.19929% off$0.1425▼ 28%
3-yr savings planHourly commitment36% off$0.17150% off$0.0994▼ 42%

Key differences

The biggest lead each one has.

Where m3.xlarge leads
Network peak10 Gbps vs 2.8 Gbps
3.6× higher
Clock speed2.5 GHz vs 2.4 GHz
4% higher
Where m4.xlarge leads
On-demand price$0.2 vs $0.266 per hour
25% cheaper
EBS baseline bandwidth750 Mbps vs 500 Mbps
50% higher
Memory (GiB)16 vs 15
7% higher

Specs

21 of 42 specs differ. Those are in bold.

Compute4 of 11 differm3.xlargem4.xlarge
vCPUs44
Physical cores22
Threads per core22
Architecturex86_64x86_64
ProcessorIntel Xeon E5-2670 v2 (Ivy Bridge/Sandy Bridge)Intel Xeon E5-2676 v3 (Haswell)
CPU makerIntelIntel
Clock speed2.5 GHz2.4 GHz
Sustained clock2.5 GHz2.4 GHz
Processor featuresIntel AVX; Intel TurboIntel AVX; Intel AVX2; Intel Turbo
BurstableNoNo
ECU1313
Memory1 of 1 differm3.xlargem4.xlarge
Memory (GiB)1516
Networking3 of 8 differm3.xlargem4.xlarge
NetworkHighHigh
Network baseline1 Gbps0.75 Gbps
Network peak10 Gbps2.8 Gbps
Enhanced networkingNoNo
EFANoNo
IPv6NoYes
Max network interfaces44
IPv4 addresses per interface1515
Storage10 of 12 differm3.xlargem4.xlarge
Storage2 x 40 SSDEBS only
Local disks2 × 40 GB SSD–
EBS optimizedYesYes
EBS over NVMeNoNo
EBS throughput500 Mbps750 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 details3 of 10 differm3.xlargem4.xlarge
Familym3m4
CategoryGeneral purposeGeneral purpose
Current generationNoYes
Normalization factor88
Bare metalNoNo
HypervisorXenXen
Placement groupsPartition, SpreadCluster, Partition, Spread
HibernationYesYes
Nitro EnclavesNoNo
Boot modesLegacy BIOSLegacy BIOS

On-demand prices by region

Cheapest for m3.xlarge first. Linux, USD per hour.

Regionm3.xlargem4.xlargeDifference
US East (N. Virginia)Used in summaryus-east-1$0.266$0.2▼ 25%
US West (Oregon)us-west-2$0.266$0.2▼ 25%
EU (Ireland)eu-west-1$0.293$0.222▼ 24%
US West (N. California)us-west-1$0.308$0.234▼ 24%
EU (Frankfurt)eu-central-1$0.315$0.24▼ 24%
AWS GovCloud (US-West)us-gov-west-1$0.336$0.252▼ 25%
Asia Pacific (Seoul)ap-northeast-2$0.366$0.246▼ 33%
Asia Pacific (Sydney)ap-southeast-2$0.372$0.25▼ 33%
South America (Sao Paulo)sa-east-1$0.381$0.318▼ 17%
Asia Pacific (Tokyo)ap-northeast-1$0.385$0.258▼ 33%
Asia Pacific (Singapore)ap-southeast-1$0.392$0.25▼ 36%

Keep exploring

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

m3.xlargeGeneral purpose, m3 family
m3.xlarge prices and specsEvery size in the m3 family
m4.xlargeGeneral purpose, m4 family
m4.xlarge prices and specsEvery size in the m4 family

Compare m4.xlarge with

t3.xlargec4.xlarger4.xlarget2.xlargem5.xlarge

Pay the committed rate, with commitment protection

The best committed rate on these two is 36–57% 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.