t3.medium
Part of the T3 General Purpose family — Balanced compute, memory, and networking for a wide range of workloads.
Name:
tBurstable General Purposet = Burstable General PurposeCost-effective instances providing baseline CPU performance with the ability to burst above baseline when workload surges.33rd Generation3 = 3rd GenerationAWS 3rd generation hardware platform with updated CPU/system architecture.mediumMediummedium = Medium2 vCPUs • 4 GB RAM • EBS only • Up to 5 Gbps NetworkPrice (Linux)
$0.0416/ hr
~$30.37/mo
Compute
2vCPUs
1 cores • x86_64
Memory
4GB
2.0 GB / vCPU
Value
$0.0208/ vCPU-hr
$0.0104/GB-hr
Network
Up to 5 Gbps
Baseline: 0.256 Gbps
Storage & EBS
260.625MB/s
Max: 11,800 IOPS
Alternatives to t3.medium
| Option | Price vs t3.medium | Why look at it |
|---|---|---|
| t3a.mediumCompare → | -10%-$0.004/hr Linux on-demand, us-east-1 | AMD (x86_64), same vCPU and RAM |
| t4g.mediumCompare → | -19%-$0.008/hr Linux on-demand, us-east-1 | Graviton (arm64), newer generation, same vCPU and RAM |
| t2.mediumCompare → | +12%+$0.0048/hr Linux on-demand, us-east-1 | Previous generation, same vCPU and RAM |
What to know about T3 General Purpose
Burstable x86 instances that are cheap per hour but meant for workloads that idle most of the time.
The t3 is a burstable general-purpose family on Intel. Instances earn CPU credits while idle and spend them when load rises. It comes in seven sizes from nano to 2xlarge, up to 8 vCPUs.
The hourly price looks good. A t3.large costs $0.0832 in us-east-1 on Linux, about 17% below an m7i.large with the same 2 vCPUs and 8 GiB. That only pays off if the instance is quiet most of the time. Run it hot and the credits drain, and you either get throttled or pay for unlimited mode. Under steady load an m7g or m7i is usually the better deal.
The ceilings are lower too. EBS throughput peaks at 347.5 MB/s, against 1,250 MB/s on the m7 families, and network bandwidth is up to 5 Gbps.
If your software runs on arm64, the t4g is about 19% cheaper at the same size. Windows works on t3, and the large costs about 33% more per hour with a license.
Good for
- Dev and test environments
- Small sites and low-traffic services
- Spiky workloads that idle between bursts
Watch for
- Sustained high CPU exhausts burst credits and slows the instance, or costs extra in unlimited mode
- EBS throughput tops out at 347.5 MB/s and network at up to 5 Gbps
- t4g is about 19% cheaper at the same size if you can run arm64
Technical Specifications & Limits
Hardware specs, container thresholds, and system limitsCompute & Processor
ProcessorIntel Skylake E5 2686 v5
Architecturex86_64 (x86_64)
vCPUs / Threads2 vCPUs
Physical Cores1
Clock Speed3.1 GHz
Intel AVX / AVX2AVX & AVX2 Supported
Intel Turbo BoostYes
Bare MetalNo (Virtualized)
Performance & Benchmarks
CoreMark Score29,163
CoreMark / vCPU14,581.5 / core
FFmpeg Transcoding—
CoreMark per Dollar701,034 score / $
Cost per vCPU-hr$0.0208
Cost per GB-hr$0.0104
Containers & Kubernetes
EKS Max Pods17 pods
Max ECS Tasks2 tasks
Max ENIs3
IPv4/v6 per ENI6
Total Addressable IPs18 total IPs
CNI Prefix DelegationSupported (High Density)
Networking & Bandwidth
Network PerformanceUp to 5 Gbps
Baseline Bandwidth0.256 Gbps
Burst / Peak Bandwidth5 Gbps
Enhanced NetworkingNo
EFA SupportNo
IPv6 SupportNative Dual-Stack Supported
Storage & EBS Optimization
Storage ConfigurationEBS only
Local NVMe DiskNone (EBS only)
EBS Baseline Throughput43.375 MB/s
EBS Max Throughput260.625 MB/s
EBS Baseline IOPS2,000
EBS Max / Burst IOPS11,800
Dedicated EBS ThroughputUp to 2085 Mbps
Platform & Architecture Details
Hypervisor / SystemAWS Nitro System (PCIe Offload)
Nitro EnclavesNot Supported
Normalization Factor2
Generation StatusCurrent Generation (Recommended)
Date Introduced2018-08-21
Regional Pricing Matrix
Live on-demand rates across all global AWS cloud regionsLowest Price Region
$0.0416/ hr
US East (N. Virginia) (us-east-1)Highest Price Region
$0.0840/ hr
Peru (Lima) (us-east-1-lim-1)Global Fleet Average
$0.0553/ hr
Across all active regionsRegional Coverage
102regions
Available worldwide| Region | On-Demand Price |
|---|---|
af-south-1 Africa (Cape Town) | $0.0542 |
us-east-1-bue-1 Argentina (Buenos Aires) | $0.0773 |
ap-east-1 Asia Pacific (Hong Kong) | $0.0584 |
ap-south-2 Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) | $0.0448 |
ap-southeast-3 Asia Pacific (Jakarta) | $0.0528 |
ap-northeast-1-wl1-kix1 Asia Pacific (KDDI) - Osaka | $0.0734 |
ap-northeast-1-wl1-nrt1 Asia Pacific (KDDI) - Tokyo | $0.0734 |
ap-southeast-5 Asia Pacific (Malaysia) | $0.0475 |
ap-southeast-4 Asia Pacific (Melbourne) | $0.0528 |
ap-south-1 Asia Pacific (Mumbai) | $0.0448 |
ap-southeast-6 Asia Pacific (New Zealand) | $0.0554 |
ap-northeast-3 Asia Pacific (Osaka) | $0.0544 |
ap-northeast-2 Asia Pacific (Seoul) | $0.0520 |
ap-southeast-1 Asia Pacific (Singapore) | $0.0528 |
ap-northeast-2-wl1-cjj1 Asia Pacific (SKT) - Daejeon | $0.0650 |
ap-northeast-2-wl1-sel1 Asia Pacific (SKT) - Seoul | $0.0650 |
ap-southeast-2 Asia Pacific (Sydney) | $0.0528 |
ap-east-2 Asia Pacific (Taipei) | $0.0490 |
ap-southeast-7 Asia Pacific (Thailand) | $0.0475 |
ap-northeast-1 Asia Pacific (Tokyo) | $0.0544 |
ap-southeast-2-per-1 Australia (Perth) | $0.0713 |
us-gov-east-1 AWS GovCloud (US-East) | $0.0488 |
us-gov-west-1 AWS GovCloud (US-West) | $0.0488 |
ca-central-1-wl1-yto1 Canada (BELL) - Toronto | $0.0626 |
ca-central-1 Canada (Central) | $0.0464 |
ca-west-1 Canada West (Calgary) | $0.0464 |
us-east-1-scl-1 Chile (Santiago) | $0.0706 |
eu-north-1-cph-1 Denmark (Copenhagen) | $0.0583 |
eu-central-1 EU (Frankfurt) | $0.0480 |
eu-west-1 EU (Ireland) | $0.0456 |
eu-west-2 EU (London) | $0.0472 |
eu-south-1 EU (Milan) | $0.0479 |
eu-west-3 EU (Paris) | $0.0472 |
eu-north-1 EU (Stockholm) | $0.0432 |
eu-west-2-wl2-man1 Europe (British Telecom) - Manchester | $0.0590 |
eu-south-2 Europe (Spain) | $0.0456 |
eu-central-1-wl1-ber1 Europe (Vodafone) - Berlin | $0.0600 |
eu-central-1-wl1-dtm1 Europe (Vodafone) - Dortmund | $0.0600 |
eu-west-2-wl1-lon1 Europe (Vodafone) - London | $0.0590 |
eu-west-2-wl1-man1 Europe (Vodafone) - Manchester | $0.0590 |
eu-central-1-wl1-muc1 Europe (Vodafone) - Munich | $0.0600 |
eu-central-2 Europe (Zurich) | $0.0528 |
eu-north-1-hel-1 Finland (Helsinki) | $0.0497 |
eu-central-1-ham-1 Germany (Hamburg) | $0.0648 |
ap-south-1-del-1 India (Delhi) | $0.0605 |
ap-south-1-ccu-1 India (Kolkata) | $0.0605 |
il-central-1 Israel (Tel Aviv) | $0.0479 |
mx-central-1 Mexico (Central) | $0.0437 |
us-east-1-qro-1 Mexico (Queretaro) | $0.0562 |
me-south-1 Middle East (Bahrain) | $0.0502 |
me-central-1 Middle East (UAE) | $0.0502 |
eu-west-3-wl1-cmn1 Morocco (Casablanca) | $0.0547 |
ap-southeast-2-akl-1 New Zealand (Auckland) | $0.0713 |
af-south-1-los-1 Nigeria (Lagos) | $0.0624 |
me-south-1-mct-1 Oman (Muscat) | $0.0577 |
us-east-1-lim-1 HighestPeru (Lima) | $0.0840 |
ap-southeast-1-mnl-1 Philippines (Manila) | $0.0634 |
eu-central-1-waw-1 Poland (Warsaw) | $0.0552 |
eu-west-3-wl1-dss1 Senegal (Dakar) | $0.0547 |
sa-east-1 South America (Sao Paulo) | $0.0672 |
ap-northeast-1-tpe-1 Taiwan (Taipei) | $0.0680 |
ap-southeast-1-bkk-1 Thailand (Bangkok) | $0.0739 |
us-east-1-atl-1 US East (Atlanta) | $0.0520 |
us-east-1-bos-1 US East (Boston) | $0.0520 |
us-east-1-chi-1 US East (Chicago) | $0.0520 |
us-east-1-dfw-1 US East (Dallas) | $0.0520 |
us-east-1-iah-1 US East (Houston) | $0.0520 |
us-east-1-mci-1 US East (Kansas City 2) | $0.0520 |
us-east-1-mia-1 US East (Miami) | $0.0520 |
us-east-1-msp-1 US East (Minneapolis) | $0.0520 |
us-east-1 LowestUS East (N. Virginia) | $0.0416 |
us-east-1-nyc-1 US East (New York City) | $0.0520 |
us-east-2 LowestUS East (Ohio) | $0.0416 |
us-east-1-phl-1 US East (Philadelphia) | $0.0520 |
us-east-1-wl1-atl1 US East (Verizon) - Atlanta | $0.0560 |
us-east-1-wl1 US East (Verizon) - Boston | $0.0560 |
us-east-1-wl1-clt1 US East (Verizon) - Charlotte | $0.0560 |
us-east-1-wl1-chi1 US East (Verizon) - Chicago | $0.0560 |
us-east-1-wl1-dfw1 US East (Verizon) - Dallas | $0.0560 |
us-east-1-wl1-dtw1 US East (Verizon) - Detroit | $0.0560 |
us-east-1-wl1-iah1 US East (Verizon) - Houston | $0.0560 |
us-east-1-wl1-mia1 US East (Verizon) - Miami | $0.0560 |
us-east-1-wl1-msp1 US East (Verizon) - Minneapolis | $0.0560 |
us-east-1-wl1-bna1 US East (Verizon) - Nashville | $0.0560 |
us-east-1-wl1-nyc1 US East (Verizon) - New York | $0.0560 |
us-east-1-wl1-tpa1 US East (Verizon) - Tampa | $0.0560 |
us-east-1-wl1-was1 US East (Verizon) - Washington DC | $0.0560 |
us-west-2-den-1 US West (Denver) | $0.0520 |
us-west-2-hnl-1 US West (Honolulu) | $0.0645 |
us-west-2-las-1 US West (Las Vegas) | $0.0520 |
us-west-2-lax-1 US West (Los Angeles) | $0.0499 |
us-west-1 US West (N. California) | $0.0496 |
us-west-2 LowestUS West (Oregon) | $0.0416 |
us-west-2-phx-1 US West (Phoenix) | $0.0520 |
us-west-2-pdx-1 US West (Portland) | $0.0520 |
us-west-2-sea-1 US West (Seattle) | $0.0520 |
us-west-2-wl1-den1 US West (Verizon) - Denver | $0.0560 |
us-west-2-wl1-las1 US West (Verizon) - Las Vegas | $0.0560 |
us-west-2-wl1-lax1 US West (Verizon) - Los Angeles | $0.0560 |
us-west-2-wl1-phx1 US West (Verizon) - Phoenix | $0.0560 |
us-west-2-wl1 US West (Verizon) - San Francisco Bay Area | $0.0560 |
us-west-2-wl1-sea1 US West (Verizon) - Seattle | $0.0560 |
| Region | On-Demand Price |
|---|---|
af-south-1 Africa (Cape Town) | $0.0726 |
us-east-1-bue-1 Argentina (Buenos Aires) | $0.0957 |
ap-east-1 Asia Pacific (Hong Kong) | $0.0768 |
ap-south-2 Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) | $0.0632 |
ap-southeast-3 Asia Pacific (Jakarta) | $0.0712 |
ap-northeast-1-wl1-kix1 Asia Pacific (KDDI) - Osaka | $0.0918 |
ap-northeast-1-wl1-nrt1 Asia Pacific (KDDI) - Tokyo | $0.0918 |
ap-southeast-5 Asia Pacific (Malaysia) | $0.0659 |
ap-southeast-4 Asia Pacific (Melbourne) | $0.0712 |
ap-south-1 Asia Pacific (Mumbai) | $0.0632 |
ap-southeast-6 Asia Pacific (New Zealand) | $0.0738 |
ap-northeast-3 Asia Pacific (Osaka) | $0.0728 |
ap-northeast-2 Asia Pacific (Seoul) | $0.0704 |
ap-southeast-1 Asia Pacific (Singapore) | $0.0712 |
ap-northeast-2-wl1-cjj1 Asia Pacific (SKT) - Daejeon | $0.0834 |
ap-northeast-2-wl1-sel1 Asia Pacific (SKT) - Seoul | $0.0834 |
ap-southeast-2 Asia Pacific (Sydney) | $0.0712 |
ap-east-2 Asia Pacific (Taipei) | $0.0674 |
ap-southeast-7 Asia Pacific (Thailand) | $0.0659 |
ap-northeast-1 Asia Pacific (Tokyo) | $0.0728 |
ap-southeast-2-per-1 Australia (Perth) | $0.0897 |
us-gov-east-1 AWS GovCloud (US-East) | $0.0672 |
us-gov-west-1 AWS GovCloud (US-West) | $0.0672 |
ca-central-1-wl1-yto1 Canada (BELL) - Toronto | $0.0810 |
ca-central-1 Canada (Central) | $0.0648 |
ca-west-1 Canada West (Calgary) | $0.0648 |
us-east-1-scl-1 Chile (Santiago) | $0.0890 |
eu-north-1-cph-1 Denmark (Copenhagen) | $0.0767 |
eu-central-1 EU (Frankfurt) | $0.0664 |
eu-west-1 EU (Ireland) | $0.0640 |
eu-west-2 EU (London) | $0.0656 |
eu-south-1 EU (Milan) | $0.0663 |
eu-west-3 EU (Paris) | $0.0656 |
eu-north-1 EU (Stockholm) | $0.0616 |
eu-west-2-wl2-man1 Europe (British Telecom) - Manchester | $0.0774 |
eu-south-2 Europe (Spain) | $0.0640 |
eu-central-1-wl1-ber1 Europe (Vodafone) - Berlin | $0.0784 |
eu-central-1-wl1-dtm1 Europe (Vodafone) - Dortmund | $0.0784 |
eu-west-2-wl1-lon1 Europe (Vodafone) - London | $0.0774 |
eu-west-2-wl1-man1 Europe (Vodafone) - Manchester | $0.0774 |
eu-central-1-wl1-muc1 Europe (Vodafone) - Munich | $0.0784 |
eu-central-2 Europe (Zurich) | $0.0712 |
eu-north-1-hel-1 Finland (Helsinki) | $0.0681 |
eu-central-1-ham-1 Germany (Hamburg) | $0.0832 |
ap-south-1-del-1 India (Delhi) | $0.0789 |
ap-south-1-ccu-1 India (Kolkata) | $0.0789 |
il-central-1 Israel (Tel Aviv) | $0.0663 |
mx-central-1 Mexico (Central) | $0.0621 |
us-east-1-qro-1 Mexico (Queretaro) | $0.0746 |
me-south-1 Middle East (Bahrain) | $0.0686 |
me-central-1 Middle East (UAE) | $0.0686 |
eu-west-3-wl1-cmn1 Morocco (Casablanca) | $0.0731 |
ap-southeast-2-akl-1 New Zealand (Auckland) | $0.0897 |
af-south-1-los-1 Nigeria (Lagos) | $0.0808 |
me-south-1-mct-1 Oman (Muscat) | $0.0761 |
us-east-1-lim-1 HighestPeru (Lima) | $0.1024 |
ap-southeast-1-mnl-1 Philippines (Manila) | $0.0818 |
eu-central-1-waw-1 Poland (Warsaw) | $0.0736 |
eu-west-3-wl1-dss1 Senegal (Dakar) | $0.0731 |
sa-east-1 South America (Sao Paulo) | $0.0856 |
ap-northeast-1-tpe-1 Taiwan (Taipei) | $0.0864 |
ap-southeast-1-bkk-1 Thailand (Bangkok) | $0.0923 |
us-east-1-atl-1 US East (Atlanta) | $0.0704 |
us-east-1-bos-1 US East (Boston) | $0.0704 |
us-east-1-chi-1 US East (Chicago) | $0.0704 |
us-east-1-dfw-1 US East (Dallas) | $0.0704 |
us-east-1-iah-1 US East (Houston) | $0.0704 |
us-east-1-mci-1 US East (Kansas City 2) | $0.0704 |
us-east-1-mia-1 US East (Miami) | $0.0704 |
us-east-1-msp-1 US East (Minneapolis) | $0.0704 |
us-east-1 LowestUS East (N. Virginia) | $0.0600 |
us-east-1-nyc-1 US East (New York City) | $0.0704 |
us-east-2 LowestUS East (Ohio) | $0.0600 |
us-east-1-phl-1 US East (Philadelphia) | $0.0704 |
us-east-1-wl1-atl1 US East (Verizon) - Atlanta | $0.0744 |
us-east-1-wl1 US East (Verizon) - Boston | $0.0744 |
us-east-1-wl1-clt1 US East (Verizon) - Charlotte | $0.0744 |
us-east-1-wl1-chi1 US East (Verizon) - Chicago | $0.0744 |
us-east-1-wl1-dfw1 US East (Verizon) - Dallas | $0.0744 |
us-east-1-wl1-dtw1 US East (Verizon) - Detroit | $0.0744 |
us-east-1-wl1-iah1 US East (Verizon) - Houston | $0.0744 |
us-east-1-wl1-mia1 US East (Verizon) - Miami | $0.0744 |
us-east-1-wl1-msp1 US East (Verizon) - Minneapolis | $0.0744 |
us-east-1-wl1-bna1 US East (Verizon) - Nashville | $0.0744 |
us-east-1-wl1-nyc1 US East (Verizon) - New York | $0.0744 |
us-east-1-wl1-tpa1 US East (Verizon) - Tampa | $0.0744 |
us-east-1-wl1-was1 US East (Verizon) - Washington DC | $0.0744 |
us-west-2-den-1 US West (Denver) | $0.0704 |
us-west-2-hnl-1 US West (Honolulu) | $0.0829 |
us-west-2-las-1 US West (Las Vegas) | $0.0704 |
us-west-2-lax-1 US West (Los Angeles) | $0.0683 |
us-west-1 US West (N. California) | $0.0680 |
us-west-2 LowestUS West (Oregon) | $0.0600 |
us-west-2-phx-1 US West (Phoenix) | $0.0704 |
us-west-2-pdx-1 US West (Portland) | $0.0704 |
us-west-2-sea-1 US West (Seattle) | $0.0704 |
us-west-2-wl1-den1 US West (Verizon) - Denver | $0.0744 |
us-west-2-wl1-las1 US West (Verizon) - Las Vegas | $0.0744 |
us-west-2-wl1-lax1 US West (Verizon) - Los Angeles | $0.0744 |
us-west-2-wl1-phx1 US West (Verizon) - Phoenix | $0.0744 |
us-west-2-wl1 US West (Verizon) - San Francisco Bay Area | $0.0744 |
us-west-2-wl1-sea1 US West (Verizon) - Seattle | $0.0744 |
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