t2.smallvst3.small
t3.small is 10% cheaper than t2.small on demand in US East (N. Virginia), saving $1.61 a month. Per vCPU, t3.small costs 55% less.
| At a glance | t2.small | t3.small |
|---|---|---|
| On-demand | $0.023/hr | $0.0208/hr10% less |
| Lowest rate | $0.0048/hr4% lessSpot, can be interrupted | $0.005/hrSpot, can be interrupted |
| Size | 1 vCPUs, 2 GiB | 2 vCPUs, 2 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.small | t3.small | t3.small vs t2.small |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-demandPay by the hour | $0.023 | $0.0208 | ▼ 10% |
| SpotCan be interrupted | 79% off$0.0048 | 76% off$0.005 | ▲ 4% |
| 1-yr reservedNo upfront | 37% off$0.0144 | 38% off$0.013 | ▼ 10% |
| 3-yr reservedNo upfront | 57% off$0.01 | 57% off$0.009 | ▼ 10% |
| 1-yr savings planHourly commitment | 28% off$0.0165 | 28% off$0.015 | ▼ 9% |
| 3-yr savings planHourly commitment | 50% off$0.0115 | 50% off$0.0103 | ▼ 10% |
Key differences
The biggest lead each one has.
Where t2.small leads
Max EBS volumes40 vs 27
48% higherClock speedUp to 3.3 GHz vs 3.1 GHz
6% higherWhere t3.small leads
On-demand price$0.0208 vs $0.023 per hour
10% cheaperNetwork peak5 Gbps vs 1.024 Gbps
4.9× highervCPUs2 vs 1
2× higherSpecs
22 of 41 specs differ. Those are in bold.
| Compute5 of 10 differ | t2.small | t3.small |
|---|---|---|
| vCPUs | 1 | 2 |
| Physical cores | 1 | 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 | 2.5 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.small | t3.small |
|---|---|---|
| Memory (GiB) | 2 | 2 |
| Networking3 of 8 differ | t2.small | t3.small |
|---|---|---|
| Network | Low to Moderate | Up to 5 Gigabit |
| Network baseline | 0.128 Gbps | 0.128 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 | 4 | 4 |
| Storage10 of 11 differ | t2.small | t3.small |
|---|---|---|
| Storage | EBS only | EBS only |
| EBS optimized | No | Yes |
| EBS over NVMe | No | Required |
| EBS throughput | – | Up to 2085 Mbps |
| EBS baseline bandwidth | – | 174 Mbps |
| EBS max bandwidth | – | 2,085 Mbps |
| EBS baseline throughput | – | 21.75 MB/s |
| EBS max throughput | – | 260.625 MB/s |
| EBS baseline IOPS | – | 1,000 |
| EBS max IOPS | – | 11,800 |
| Max EBS volumes | 40 | 27 |
| Instance details4 of 11 differ | t2.small | t3.small |
|---|---|---|
| Family | t2 | t3 |
| Category | General purpose | General purpose |
| Current generation | Yes | Yes |
| Normalization factor | 1 | 1 |
| 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 |
| Free tier eligible | – | Yes |
On-demand prices by region
Cheapest for t2.small first. Linux, USD per hour.
| Region | t2.small | t3.small | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| US East (N. Virginia)Used in summaryus-east-1 | $0.023 | $0.0208 | ▼ 10% |
| US East (Ohio)us-east-2 | $0.023 | $0.0208 | ▼ 10% |
| US West (Oregon)us-west-2 | $0.023 | $0.0208 | ▼ 10% |
| Asia Pacific (Mumbai)ap-south-1 | $0.0248 | $0.0224 | ▼ 10% |
| EU (Ireland)eu-west-1 | $0.025 | $0.0228 | ▼ 9% |
| Canada (Central)ca-central-1 | $0.0256 | $0.0232 | ▼ 9% |
| EU (London)eu-west-2 | $0.026 | $0.0236 | ▼ 9% |
| EU (Paris)eu-west-3 | $0.0264 | $0.0236 | ▼ 11% |
| EU (Frankfurt)eu-central-1 | $0.0268 | $0.024 | ▼ 10% |
| AWS GovCloud (US-West)us-gov-west-1 | $0.0272 | $0.0244 | ▼ 10% |
| US West (N. California)us-west-1 | $0.0276 | $0.0248 | ▼ 10% |
| Asia Pacific (Seoul)ap-northeast-2 | $0.0288 | $0.026 | ▼ 10% |
| Asia Pacific (Singapore)ap-southeast-1 | $0.0292 | $0.0264 | ▼ 10% |
| Asia Pacific (Sydney)ap-southeast-2 | $0.0292 | $0.0264 | ▼ 10% |
| Asia Pacific (Osaka)ap-northeast-3 | $0.0304 | $0.0272 | ▼ 11% |
| Asia Pacific (Tokyo)ap-northeast-1 | $0.0304 | $0.0272 | ▼ 11% |
| South America (Sao Paulo)sa-east-1 | $0.0372 | $0.0336 | ▼ 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.