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Amazon Aurora

Amazon Aurora Instance Types

Why Amazon Aurora instances?

Amazon Aurora provides a selection of instance types optimized to fit different relational database use cases. Instance types comprise varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity and give you the flexibility to choose the appropriate mix of resources for your database. Each instance type includes several instance sizes, allowing you to scale your database to the requirements of your specific application or workload.

Not every instance type is supported for every edition or region. Please see the Amazon Aurora Pricing Page for details. Looking for R3 instances? See the Previous Generation Instances page. 

Key Terms

The following terminology is used to describe hardware specifications for Aurora DB instance classes:

The number of virtual central processing units (CPUs). A virtual CPU is a unit of capacity that you can use to compare DB instance classes. Instead of purchasing or leasing a particular processor to use for several months or years, you are renting capacity by the hour. Our goal is to make a consistent and specific amount of CPU capacity available, within the limits of the actual underlying hardware.

The RAM, in gibibytes, allocated to the DB instance. There is often a consistent ratio between memory and vCPU. As an example, take the db.r4 instance class, which has a memory to vCPU ratio similar to the db.r5 instance class. However, for most use cases the db.r5 instance class provides better, more consistent performance than the db.r4 instance class.

The maximum EBS bandwidth in megabits per second. Divide by 8 to get the expected throughput in megabytes per second. Please note the figures in the tables below refers to I/O bandwidth for local storage within the DB instance. It doesn't apply to communication with the Aurora storage volume.

General Purpose

Provides a balance of compute, memory, and networking resources, and can be used for a variety of diverse workloads.

T4g Instances

T4g instances are the next generation burstable general-purpose instance type that provide a baseline level of CPU performance with the ability to burst CPU usage at any time for as long as required. T4g instances offer a balance of compute, memory, and network resources and are ideal for database workloads with moderate CPU usage that experience temporary spikes in use.

T4g instances accumulate CPU credits when a workload is operating below baseline threshold. Each earned CPU credit provides the T4g instance the opportunity to burst with the performance of a full CPU core for one minute when needed. Amazon Aurora T4g instances are configured for Unlimited mode, which means they can burst beyond the baseline over a 24-hour window for an additional charge.

Model vCPU* CPU Credits/hour Mem (GiB) Network Performance (Gbps)
db.t4g.medium 2
 24
 4 Up to 5
db.t4g.large 2 36 8 Up to 5

All instances have the following features and specs:

  • Custom built AWS Graviton2 Processor with 64-bit Arm Neoverse cores
  • Burstable CPU, governed by CPU Credits, and consistent baseline performance
  • Unlimited mode to ensure performance during peak periods
  • Powered by the AWS Nitro System, a combination of dedicated hardware and lightweight hypervisor
  • Enhanced Networking

T3 Instances

T3 instances are burstable general-purpose instance type that provide a baseline level of CPU performance with the ability to burst CPU usage at any time for as long as required. T3 instances offer a balance of compute, memory, and network resources and are ideal for database workloads with moderate CPU usage that experience temporary spikes in use.

T3 instances accumulate CPU credits when a workload is operating below baseline threshold. Each earned CPU credit provides the T3 instance the opportunity to burst with the performance of a full CPU core for one minute when needed. Amazon Aurora T3 instances are configured for Unlimited mode, which means they can burst beyond the baseline over a 24-hour window for an additional charge.

Model vCPU* CPU Credits/hour Mem (GiB) Network Performance (Gbps)
db.t3.small 2
 24
 2 Up to 5
db.t3.medium 2 24
 4 Up to 5
db.t3.large 2 36
 8 Up to 5

All instances have the following features and specs:

  • Burstable CPU, governed by CPU Credits, and consistent baseline performance
  • Unlimited mode to ensure performance during peak periods
  • Powered by the AWS Nitro System, a combination of dedicated hardware and lightweight hypervisor
  • AWS Nitro System and high frequency Intel Xeon Scalable processors result in better price performance than T2 instances
  • Enhanced Networking
  • 2.5 GHz Intel Scalable Processor
  • Intel AVX, Intel AVX2, Intel Turbo

T2 Instances

T2 instances are burstable general-purpose performance instances that provide a baseline level of CPU performance with the ability to burst above the baseline. T2 instances are a good choice for development, testing, and staging databases.

The baseline performance and ability to burst are governed by CPU Credits. T2 instances receive CPU Credits continuously at a set rate depending on the instance size, accumulating CPU Credits when they are idle, and consuming CPU credits when they are active. 

T2 instance types are only available with the MySQL-compatible edition of Amazon Aurora.

Model vCPU* CPU Credits/hour Mem (GiB) Network Performance (Gbps)
db.t2.small 1 12 2 Low to Moderate
db.t2.medium 2 24 4 Low to Moderate

All instances have the following features and specs:

  • High frequency Intel Xeon processorsBurstable CPU, governed by CPU Credits, and consistent baseline performance
  • Lowest-cost general purpose instance type
  • Balance of compute, memory, and network resources
  • Intel AVX, Intel Turbo
  • db.t2.small, db.t2.medium have up to 3.3 GHz Intel Scalable Processor

Memory Optimized

Designed to deliver fast performance for workloads that process large data sets in memory.

R8g

Model
vCPU
Memory (GiB)
Network Bandwidth (Gbps)
dbr8glarge

2

16

Up to 12.5
db.r8g.xlarge

4

32

Up to 12.5
db.r8g.2xlarge

8

64

Up to 15
db.r8g.4xlarge

16

128

Up to 15
db.r8g.8xlarge

32

256

15
db.r8g.12xlarge

48

384

22.5
db.r8g.16xlarge

64

512

30
db.r8g.24xlarge

96

768

40
db.r8g.48xlarge

192

1,536

50

All R8g instances have the following features and specs:

  • Powered by custom-built AWS Graviton4 processors
  • Optimized for Amazon EBS by default
  • Larger instance sizes with up to 3x more vCPUs and memory than R7g instances
  • Features the latest DDR5-5600 memory
  • Powered by the AWS Nitro System, a combination of dedicated hardware and lightweight hypervisor

R7i

Model
vCPU
Memory (GiB)
Network Bandwidth (Gbps)
db.r7i.large

2

16

Up to 12.5
db.r7i.xlarge

4

32

Up to 12.5
db.r7i.2xlarge

8

64

Up to 12.5
db.r7i.4xlarge

16

128

Up to 12.5
db.r7i.8xlarge

32

256

12.5
db.r7i.12xlarge

48

384

18.75
db.r7i.16xlarge

64

512

22.5
db.r7i.24xlarge

96

768

37.5
db.r7i.48xlarge

192

1,536

50

All R7i instances have the following features and specs:

  • Up to 3.2 GHz 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processor (Sapphire Rapids 8488C)
  • Latest DDR5 memory, which offers more bandwidth compared to DDR4
  • Up to 192 vCPUs and 1,536GiB memory
  • Powered by the AWS Nitro System, a combination of dedicated hardware and lightweight hypervisor
  • Optimized for Amazon EBS

R7g

Model
vCPU
Memory (GiB)
Network Bandwidth (Gbps)
db.r7g.large

2

16

Up to 12.5
db.r7g.xlarge

4

32

Up to 12.5
db.r7g.2xlarge

8

64

Up to 15
db.r7g.4xlarge

16

128

Up to 15
db.r7g.8xlarge

32

256

15
db.r7g.12xlarge

48

384

22.5
db.r7g.16xlarge

64

512

30

All R7ig instances have the following features and specs:

  • Powered by custom-built AWS Graviton3 processors
  • Features the latest DDR5 memory that offers 50% more bandwidth compared to DDR4
  • 20% higher enhanced networking bandwidth compared to R6g instances
  • EBS-optimized by default
  • Powered by the AWS Nitro System, a combination of dedicated hardware and lightweight hypervisor

R6i

Model
vCPU
Memory (GiB)
Network Bandwidth (Gbps)
db.r6i.large

2

16

Up to 12.5
db.r6i.xlarge

4

32

Up to 12.5
db.r6i.2xlarge

8

64

Up to 12.5
db.r6i.4xlarge

16

128

Up to 12.5
db.r6i.8xlarge

32

256

12.5
db.r6i.12xlarge

48

384

18.75
db.r6i.16xlarge

64

512

25
db.r6i.24xlarge

96

768

37.5
db.r6i.32xlarge

128

1,024

50

All R6i instances have the following features and specs:

  • Up to 3.5 GHz 3rd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (Ice Lake 8375C)
  • Up to 15% better compute price performance over R5 instances
  • Up to 20% higher memory bandwidth per vCPU compared to R5 instances
  • Up to 50 Gbps of networking speed
  • A new instance size (32xlarge) with 128 vCPUs and 1,024 GiB of memory
  • Supports Elastic Fabric Adapter on the 32xlarge and metal sizes
  • Built on the AWS Nitro System, a combination of dedicated hardware and lightweight hypervisor
  • Support for always-on memory encryption using Intel Total Memory Encryption (TME)
  • Support for new Intel Advanced Vector Extension (AVX 512) instructions for faster execution of cryptographic algorithms
  • Optimized for Amazon EBS
  • Enhanced networking

R6g

Model
vCPU
Memory (GiB)
Network Bandwidth (Gbps)
db.r6g.large

2

16

Up to 10
db.r6g.xlarge

4

32

Up to 10
db.r6g.2xlarge

8

64

Up to 10
db.r6g.4xlarge

16

128

Up to 10
db.r6g.8xlarge

32

256

12
db.r6g.12xlarge

48

384

20
db.r6g.16xlarge

64

512

25

All R6g instances have the following features and specs:

  • Custom built AWS Graviton2 Processor with 64-bit Arm Neoverse cores
  • Support for Enhanced Networking with up to 25 Gbps of Network bandwidth
  • Powered by the AWS Nitro System, a combination of dedicated hardware and lightweight hypervisor
  • Optimized for Amazon EBS by default
  • Enhanced Networking

R5

Model
vCPU
Memory (GiB)
Network Bandwidth (Gbps)
db.r5.large

2

16

Up to 10
db.r5.xlarge

4

32

Up to 10
db.r5.2xlarge

8

64

Up to 10
db.r5.4xlarge

16

128

Up to 10
db.r5.8xlarge

32

256

Up to 10
db.r5.12xlarge

48

384

10
db.r5.16xlarge

64

512

Up to 25
db.r5.24xlarge

96

768

25

All R5 instances have the following features and specs:

  • Up to 768 GiB of memory per instance
  • Up to 3.1 GHz Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8000 Processor
  • Intel AVX, Intel AVX2, Intel Turbo
  • Powered by the AWS Nitro System, a combination of dedicated hardware and lightweight hypervisor
  • Optimized for Amazon EBS
  • Enhanced Networking

R4

Model
vCPU
Memory (GiB)
Network Bandwidth (Gbps)
db.r4.large

2

15.25

Up to 10
db.r4.xlarge

4

30.5

Up to 10
db.r4.2xlarge

8

61

Up to 10
db.r4.4xlarge

16

122

Up to 10
db.r4.8xlarge

32

244

10
db.r4.16xlarge

64

488

25

All R4 instances have the following features and specs:

  • 2.3 GHz Intel Xeon E5-2686 v4 Processor
  • Intel AVX, Intel AVX2, Intel Turbo
  • DDR4 Memory
  • EBS Optimized
  • Enhanced Networking
     

X2g

Model
vCPU
Memory (GiB)
Network Bandwidth (Gbps)
db.x2g.large

2

32

Up to 10
db.x2g.xlarge

4

64

Up to 10
db.x2g.2xlarge

8

128

Up to 10
db.x2g.4xlarge

16

256

Up to 10
db.x2g.8xlarge

32

512

12
db.x2g.12xlarge

48

768

20
db.x2g.16xlarge

64

1,024

25

All X2g instances have the following features and specs:

  • Custom built AWS Graviton2 Processor with 64-bit Arm Neoverse cores
  • Up to 1,024 GiB of DRAM-based instance memory
  • Support for Enhanced Networking with Up to 25 Gbps of Network bandwidth

Instance Features

Aurora database instances offer additional features to help you deploy, manage, and scale your database workloads.

Amazon Aurora allows you to choose between Fixed Performance Instances (e.g. R5) and Burstable Performance Instances (e.g. T3). Burstable Performance Instances provide a baseline level of CPU performance with the ability to burst above the baseline.

T3 instances can sustain high CPU performance for as long as a workload needs it. For most general-purpose workloads, T3 instances will provide ample performance without any additional charges. The hourly T3 instance price automatically covers all interim spikes in usage when the average CPU utilization of a T3 instance is at or less than the baseline over a 24-hour window.

T3 instances’ baseline performance and ability to burst are governed by CPU Credits. Each T3 instance receives CPU Credits continuously, the rate of which depends on the instance size. T3 instances accrue CPU Credits when they are idle, and use CPU credits when they are active. A CPU Credit provides the performance of a full CPU core for one minute.

For example, a db.t3.small instance receives credits continuously at a rate of 12 CPU Credits per hour. This capability provides baseline performance equivalent to 20% of a CPU core (20% x 60 mins = 12 mins). If the instance does not use the credits it receives, they are stored in its CPU Credit balance up to a maximum of 288 CPU Credits. When the t3.small instance needs to burst to more than 20% of a core, it draws from its CPU Credit balance to handle this surge automatically.

While T2 instances are restricted to baseline performance once the CPU Credit balance is drawn down to zero, T3 instances can burst above the baseline even when its CPU Credit balance is zero. For a vast majority of database workloads where the average CPU utilization is at or below the baseline performance, the basic hourly price for t3.small covers all CPU bursts. If the instance happens to run at an average 25% CPU utilization (5% above baseline) over a period of 24 hours after its CPU Credit balance is drawn to zero, it will be charged an additional 10.8 cents (9 cents/vCPU-hour x 1 vCPU x 5% x 24 hours) with standard pricing. See Amazon Aurora Pricing for more details.

Many database workloads don’t need consistently high levels of CPU, but benefit significantly from having full access to very fast CPUs when they need them. Burstable Performance instances are engineered specifically for these use cases. If you need consistently high CPU performance for your database, we recommend you use Fixed Performance Instances.

Enhanced Networking enables you to get significantly higher packet per second (PPS) performance, lower network jitter and lower latencies. This feature uses a network virtualization stack that provides higher I/O performance and lower CPU utilization compared to traditional implementations. Amazon Aurora automatically enables Enhanced Networking for supported database instance types.

Optimized reads are ideal for running memory-intensive workloads. They deliver up to 8x improved query latency and up to 30% cost savings for applications with large datasets, that exceed the memory capacity of a DB instance. Optimized reads is only available for Aurora PostgreSQL. 

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