m3.xlargeAWS Pricing, Specs & Benchmarks

The m3 family is a generation-3 general-purpose line running on Intel Xeon (x86_64). m3.xlarge provides 4 vCPUs and 15GB of RAM (a 1:4 vCPU-to-memory ratio), priced at $0.2660/hr On-Demand — about $191.52 per month at 24×7 utilization. In Sysbench CPU benchmarks it scores 1044 single-core and 3154 multi-core.

General-purpose instances are sized for application servers, mid-sized databases, caching fleets, and any workload where you want a balanced 1:4 vCPU-to-memory ratio without burstable credit accounting. 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. AWS's current-generation alternative in the same series is **m4**, which generally offers better price/performance on newer silicon; if you're spinning up a new workload it's usually worth comparing the two before committing.

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 m3.xlarge is cheapest today, both On-Demand and Spot. Spot pricing for m3.xlarge is currently $0.0942/hr — roughly 65% 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.