AWS i7ie.18xlargevsAWS i7ie.2xlarge

i7ie.18xlarge pairs 72 vCPUs with 576GB of RAM at $9.3564/hr On-Demand (about $6737/mo at 24×7). i7ie.2xlarge pairs 8 vCPUs with 64GB at $1.0396/hr (~$749/mo). i7ie.2xlarge is 89% cheaper per hour than i7ie.18xlarge ($8.3168/hr gap).

Because both instances are in the **i7ie family**, the only thing that changes between them is sizing — same silicon, same architecture (Intel Xeon (x86_64)), same burstable/sustained behavior. The choice is purely about how much capacity you actually need: i7ie.18xlarge gives you 72 vCPUs and 576GB of RAM, i7ie.2xlarge gives you 8 vCPUs and 64GB. AWS scales pricing close to linearly within a family, so picking the right size is mostly about right-sizing your workload, not getting a better deal per vCPU.

Benchmark data for at least one of these instances is still being collected, so a direct performance-per-dollar comparison isn't possible yet. Sysbench scores are pending for i7ie.18xlarge and 3289/13183 for i7ie.2xlarge. Check back as the benchmark queue completes — newer-generation instances typically score 10–30% higher on single-thread and 15–50% higher on multi-core vs the previous generation in the same series.

In practice, pick i7ie.18xlarge when your workload is closer to storage-optimized (NVMe SSD) (I/O-bound work needing low-latency NVMe local storage — NoSQL, search). Pick i7ie.2xlarge when it's closer to storage-optimized (NVMe SSD) (I/O-bound work needing low-latency NVMe local storage — NoSQL, search). When neither side is obviously right, the cheaper hourly rate usually wins for fault-tolerant batch workloads, while the higher single-core score usually wins for latency-sensitive web traffic. The regional pricing tables linked from each instance page below show where each is currently cheapest — sometimes a >20% regional gap flips the comparison entirely.