AWS m5zn.12xlargevsAWS m5zn.metal

m5zn.12xlarge pairs 48 vCPUs with 192GB of RAM at $3.9641/hr On-Demand (about $2854/mo at 24×7). m5zn.metal pairs 48 vCPUs with 192GB at $3.9641/hr (~$2854/mo). Both are priced identically per hour on-demand.

m5zn.12xlarge (general-purpose, Intel Xeon (x86_64)) and m5zn.metal (general-purpose, Intel Xeon (x86_64)) target different workload shapes. The vCPU:RAM ratios are different (48:192 vs 48:192), and depending on the architectures involved you may also see meaningful single-thread performance and per-hour-cost differences. This kind of cross-category comparison is most useful when you're early in the design phase and not yet sure whether your workload is CPU-bound, memory-bound, or balanced — once that's clear, the right pick is usually obvious.

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 1540/56947 for m5zn.12xlarge and pending for m5zn.metal. 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 m5zn.12xlarge when your workload is closer to general-purpose (balanced general-purpose workloads with a 1:4 vCPU-to-memory ratio). Pick m5zn.metal when it's closer to general-purpose (balanced general-purpose workloads with a 1:4 vCPU-to-memory ratio). 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.