Amazon EC2
Secure and resizable compute capacity for virtually any workload
What is Amazon EC2?
Amazon EC2 is a compute service that provides secure, resizable virtual servers in the cloud, giving you complete control over your computing resources with the broadest choice of processor, storage, networking, and operating system configurations.
Benefits
What problems does Amazon EC2 solve?
Hardware procurement and capacity planning
EC2 eliminates the need to forecast demand, purchase physical servers, and wait weeks for hardware delivery. You launch instances in minutes, scale capacity in seconds, and pay only for what you use. There is no capital expenditure, no rack-and-stack, and no stranded capacity.
Performance optimization
Choose from more than 750 instance types that are purpose-built for specific workloads. Whether you need compute-optimized instances for batch processing, memory-optimized instances for in-memory databases, or GPU instances for machine learning training, EC2 provides the exact resource configuration your workload requires without overprovisioning.
Security and isolation
Every modern EC2 instance runs on the AWS Nitro System, which offloads virtualization, storage, and networking to dedicated hardware. Administrative access to the hypervisor is prohibited by design, eliminating the possibility of human error and tampering at the infrastructure level.
Use cases
What are the top Amazon EC2 use cases?
Machine learning and AI
EC2 provides GPU and accelerator instances (P5, Trn2, Inf2) for training and inference workloads, delivering the best price performance for ML training in the cloud.
Enterprise applications
Run SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, and custom enterprise workloads with the performance, availability, and compliance certifications required for production business systems.
High performance computing
HPC instances with Elastic Fabric Adapter networking deliver the low-latency, high-throughput interconnects required for computational fluid dynamics, genomics, financial modeling, and weather simulation.
Pricing
How much does Amazon EC2 cost?
Try Amazon EC2 for free
New AWS customers receive up to $200 in AWS Free Tier credits, which can be applied towards eligible AWS services, including Amazon EC2. The free plan is available for 6 months after account creation.
Learn more about the AWS Free Tier
Pay only for the compute you use
EC2 charges per instance-hour or per second depending on instance type and operating system. On-Demand instances require no upfront commitment. Spot Instances offer up to 90% discount on spare capacity. Savings Plans reduce costs by up to 72% in exchange for a one- or three-year hourly spend commitment.
Get started with Amazon EC2
Amazon EC2 documentation
Guides for launching instances, configuring security groups, attaching storage, and managing Auto Scaling policies.
Find your EC2 instance
Amazon EC2 provides over 850 instance types optimized to fit different use cases.
Start building with Amazon EC2
Secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud.
Get started with Amazon EC2Key details
Create an AWS account, open the EC2 console, and launch your first instance. New AWS customers receive up to $200 in AWS Free Tier credits, which can be applied towards eligible AWS services, including Amazon EC2. The free plan is available for 6 months after account creation.
Amazon EC2 is ideal for any workload that requires configurable compute resources, from startups running web applications to enterprises operating SAP and HPC clusters. EC2 serves teams that need full control over their compute environment with the flexibility to optimize for performance, cost, or both.
EC2 provides full virtual servers with complete OS-level control, persistent state, and configurable resources. Lambda is serverless and event-driven with no infrastructure management but limited execution duration. Containers (ECS/EKS) package applications with dependencies for portability and density. EC2 is the right choice when you need full control, specific instance configurations, or long-running stateful workloads.
The AWS Nitro System is a combination of dedicated hardware and a lightweight hypervisor purpose-built for EC2. It offloads virtualization, storage, and networking to specialized cards, delivering near-bare-metal performance and a security model that prohibits administrative access to the hypervisor.
See a list of all FAQs here.
Did you find what you were looking for today?
Let us know so we can improve the quality of the content on our pages