c8a.12xlargeAWS Pricing, Specs & Benchmarks

The c8a family is a generation-8 compute-optimized line running on AMD EPYC (x86_64) — typically ~10% cheaper than the Intel sibling at comparable single-thread performance. c8a.12xlarge provides 48 vCPUs and 96GB of RAM (a 1:2 vCPU-to-memory ratio), priced at $2.5865/hr On-Demand — about $1862.27 per month at 24×7 utilization. In Sysbench CPU benchmarks it scores 5589 single-core and 263811 multi-core.

Compute-optimized instances are sized for CPU-bound web servers, batch processing, scientific computing, game servers, ad-serving, and any workload that sits near 100% CPU for extended periods. If your workload doesn't match that profile — for example, if you're running a memory-bound app on a compute-optimized instance, or a CPU-pegged batch job on a burstable t-series — you'll likely pay for capacity you can't use or run into bottlenecks you didn't anticipate. The pages for sibling families (linked further down) cover those alternatives in detail.

In the AWS instance-naming convention, the digit after the series letter is the generation — higher is newer. This appears to be one of AWS's newer generations in the series, so for most fresh workloads it's a reasonable default within its category.

Pricing varies by region (sometimes meaningfully — the gap between the cheapest and most expensive AWS region for the same SKU is often 15–30%). The regional pricing table further down shows where c8a.12xlarge is cheapest today, both On-Demand and Spot. Spot pricing for c8a.12xlarge is currently $1.0372/hr — roughly 60% off On-Demand — which makes the instance viable for fault-tolerant batch jobs, CI fleets, and any workload that can tolerate interruption with short notice.