ElastiCache Engines Compared: Valkey vs Redis vs Memcached
Same node sizes, different engines, different bills
Node price by engine
On-demand, in US East (N. Virginia), per node. Monthly figures use 730 hours. Lowest rate in each row is highlighted.
| Node type | Valkey | Redis | Memcached |
|---|---|---|---|
| cache.t4g.small | $0.0256/hr$18.69/moLowest | $0.032/hr$23.36/mo | $0.032/hr$23.36/mo |
| cache.m7g.large | $0.126/hr$92.27/moLowest | $0.158/hr$115.34/mo | $0.158/hr$115.34/mo |
| cache.r7g.large | $0.175/hr$127.90/moLowest | $0.219/hr$159.87/mo | $0.219/hr$159.87/mo |
| cache.r7g.xlarge | $0.35/hr$255.21/moLowest | $0.437/hr$319.01/mo | $0.437/hr$319.01/mo |
Memcached and Redis nodes are priced identically at every size shown.
Which one to pick
Each recommendation links to the page for that option.
What to watch for
Gaps and gotchas that the price table does not show.
Replicas are billed as full nodes
A Valkey or Redis replication group with one primary and two replicas costs three times the node rate. The percent savings carry over, so the dollar savings grow with cluster size.
Memcached has no replication
Memcached spreads keys across nodes but keeps one copy of each. A node failure loses its share of the cache, so availability comes from the application rather than the engine.
Serverless and reserved nodes are not covered
The dataset prices on-demand node hours only. ElastiCache Serverless and reserved node discounts are billed differently and are outside this table.
Engine versions differ
ElastiCache supports Redis OSS up to version 7.1 and offers Valkey from 7.2 upward. Check client and module compatibility for the version you plan to run.