t2.mediumvst3.medium
t3.medium is 10% cheaper than t2.medium on demand in US East (N. Virginia), saving $3.50 a month.
| At a glance | t2.medium | t3.medium |
|---|---|---|
| On-demand | $0.0464/hr | $0.0416/hr10% less |
| Lowest rate | $0.0119/hr14% lessSpot, can be interrupted | $0.0139/hrSpot, can be interrupted |
| Size | 2 vCPUs, 4 GiB | 2 vCPUs, 4 GiB |
| Processor | Intel Xeon Family | Intel Skylake E5 2686 v5 |
| Architecture | x86_64 | x86_64 |
| CPU | BurstableBest for workloads that are mostly idle | BurstableBest for workloads that are mostly idle |
Prices in US East (N. Virginia)
“Off” is the discount against each type’s own on-demand price. Linux, USD per hour.
| Option | t2.medium | t3.medium | t3.medium vs t2.medium |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-demandPay by the hour | $0.0464 | $0.0416 | ▼ 10% |
| SpotCan be interrupted | 74% off$0.0119 | 67% off$0.0139 | ▲ 17% |
| 1-yr reservedNo upfront | 38% off$0.0287 | 37% off$0.0261 | ▼ 9% |
| 3-yr reservedNo upfront | 57% off$0.02 | 57% off$0.018 | ▼ 10% |
| 1-yr savings planHourly commitment | 29% off$0.0331 | 28% off$0.03 | ▼ 9% |
| 3-yr savings planHourly commitment | 50% off$0.0231 | 50% off$0.0206 | ▼ 11% |
Key differences
The biggest lead each one has.
Where t2.medium leads
Physical cores2 vs 1
2× higherMax EBS volumes40 vs 27
48% higherWhere t3.medium leads
On-demand price$0.0416 vs $0.0464 per hour
10% cheaperNetwork peak5 Gbps vs 1.024 Gbps
4.9× higherSustained clock2.5 GHz vs 2.3 GHz
9% higherSpecs
22 of 40 specs differ. Those are in bold.
| Compute6 of 10 differ | t2.medium | t3.medium |
|---|---|---|
| vCPUs | 2 | 2 |
| Physical cores | 2 | 1 |
| Threads per core | 1 | 2 |
| Architecture | x86_64 | x86_64 |
| Processor | Intel Xeon Family | Intel Skylake E5 2686 v5 |
| CPU maker | Intel | Intel |
| Clock speed | Up to 3.3 GHz | 3.1 GHz |
| Sustained clock | 2.3 GHz | 2.5 GHz |
| Processor features | Intel AVX; Intel Turbo | AVX; AVX2; Intel AVX; Intel AVX2; Intel AVX512; Intel Turbo |
| Burstable | Yes | Yes |
| MemoryAll 1 match | t2.medium | t3.medium |
|---|---|---|
| Memory (GiB) | 4 | 4 |
| Networking3 of 8 differ | t2.medium | t3.medium |
|---|---|---|
| Network | Low to Moderate | Up to 5 Gigabit |
| Network baseline | 0.256 Gbps | 0.256 Gbps |
| Network peak | 1.024 Gbps | 5 Gbps |
| Enhanced networking | No | Yes (ENA) |
| EFA | No | No |
| IPv6 | Yes | Yes |
| Max network interfaces | 3 | 3 |
| IPv4 addresses per interface | 6 | 6 |
| Storage10 of 11 differ | t2.medium | t3.medium |
|---|---|---|
| Storage | EBS only | EBS only |
| EBS optimized | No | Yes |
| EBS over NVMe | No | Required |
| EBS throughput | – | Up to 2085 Mbps |
| EBS baseline bandwidth | – | 347 Mbps |
| EBS max bandwidth | – | 2,085 Mbps |
| EBS baseline throughput | – | 43.375 MB/s |
| EBS max throughput | – | 260.625 MB/s |
| EBS baseline IOPS | – | 2,000 |
| EBS max IOPS | – | 11,800 |
| Max EBS volumes | 40 | 27 |
| Instance details3 of 10 differ | t2.medium | t3.medium |
|---|---|---|
| Family | t2 | t3 |
| Category | General purpose | General purpose |
| Current generation | Yes | Yes |
| Normalization factor | 2 | 2 |
| Bare metal | No | No |
| Hypervisor | Xen | Nitro |
| Placement groups | Partition, Spread | Partition, Spread |
| Hibernation | Yes | Yes |
| Nitro Enclaves | No | No |
| Boot modes | Legacy BIOS | Legacy BIOS, UEFI |
On-demand prices by region
Cheapest for t2.medium first. Linux, USD per hour.
| Region | t2.medium | t3.medium | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| US East (N. Virginia)Used in summaryus-east-1 | $0.0464 | $0.0416 | ▼ 10% |
| US East (Ohio)us-east-2 | $0.0464 | $0.0416 | ▼ 10% |
| US West (Oregon)us-west-2 | $0.0464 | $0.0416 | ▼ 10% |
| Asia Pacific (Mumbai)ap-south-1 | $0.0496 | $0.0448 | ▼ 10% |
| EU (Ireland)eu-west-1 | $0.05 | $0.0456 | ▼ 9% |
| Canada (Central)ca-central-1 | $0.0512 | $0.0464 | ▼ 9% |
| EU (London)eu-west-2 | $0.052 | $0.0472 | ▼ 9% |
| EU (Paris)eu-west-3 | $0.0528 | $0.0472 | ▼ 11% |
| EU (Frankfurt)eu-central-1 | $0.0536 | $0.048 | ▼ 10% |
| AWS GovCloud (US-West)us-gov-west-1 | $0.0544 | $0.0488 | ▼ 10% |
| US West (N. California)us-west-1 | $0.0552 | $0.0496 | ▼ 10% |
| Asia Pacific (Seoul)ap-northeast-2 | $0.0576 | $0.052 | ▼ 10% |
| Asia Pacific (Singapore)ap-southeast-1 | $0.0584 | $0.0528 | ▼ 10% |
| Asia Pacific (Sydney)ap-southeast-2 | $0.0584 | $0.0528 | ▼ 10% |
| Asia Pacific (Osaka)ap-northeast-3 | $0.0608 | $0.0544 | ▼ 11% |
| Asia Pacific (Tokyo)ap-northeast-1 | $0.0608 | $0.0544 | ▼ 11% |
| South America (Sao Paulo)sa-east-1 | $0.0744 | $0.0672 | ▼ 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.