Cost Optimisation
AWS Spot Instances: Best Practices to Save 70% Without Interruption Risk
Spot: The Biggest Cloud Discount
AWS Spot Instances use spare capacity at 60-90% discount. Instances can be reclaimed with 2-minute notice. Design for interruption.
Spot Pricing
| Instance | On-Demand/hr | Spot/hr | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| m7i.2xlarge | $0.4032 | $0.1411 | 65% |
| c7i.4xlarge | $0.7144 | $0.2501 | 65% |
| g5.xlarge GPU | $1.0060 | $0.3018 | 70% |
Best Workloads for Spot
- Batch processing and ETL jobs
- CI/CD build agents
- ML training with checkpointing
- Rendering and video processing
Spot Fleet Strategy
Use 6-10 instance types across 2-3 AZs. When one type is reclaimed, others absorb the load. Extremely low effective interruption probability with a diversified fleet.
Interruption Handling
2 minutes before reclamation: checkpoint state, drain connections, gracefully terminate. For Kubernetes: use aws-node-termination-handler to cordon and drain Spot nodes automatically.
Annual Savings — 50 Instances
| Model | Annual |
|---|---|
| On-Demand | $177,082 |
| Spot 65% off | $61,979 |
| Saving | $115,103 |
Any team running batch jobs, CI/CD, or ML training should use Spot. Savings are immediate and substantial with no architecture changes for suitable workloads.
Calculate Your Real Cloud Costs
Compare AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI and Alibaba Cloud pricing for your exact workload.