I use spot instances for my development environment; saves me a ton on GPU instance types. I have an AMI w/ NICE DCV configured, Launch Template and a ASG set up that starts one up on-demand when needed. I have EFS set up as my persistent storage. Works great honestly. Answer from coinclink on reddit.com
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AWS
aws.amazon.com โ€บ compute โ€บ amazon ec2 โ€บ spot instances
Spot Instance - Amazon EC2 Spot Instances - AWS
1 week ago - Amazon EC2 Spot Instances let you take advantage of unused EC2 capacity in the AWS cloud and are available at up to a 90% discount compared to On-Demand prices.
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Amazon Web Services
docs.aws.amazon.com โ€บ amazon ec2 โ€บ user guide โ€บ amazon ec2 instances โ€บ amazon ec2 billing and purchasing options โ€บ spot instances
Spot Instances - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
A Spot Instance is an instance that uses spare EC2 capacity that is available for less than the On-Demand price. Because Spot Instances enable you to request unused EC2 instances at steep discounts, you can lower your Amazon EC2 costs significantly. The hourly price for a Spot Instance is called ...
Discussions

Amazon EC2-what is the difference between on demand and on spot instances other than pricing that spot is more cheaper than on demand - Stack Overflow
i want to the difference between spot and on demand instances. I know there is a price difference between these two but other than this i want to know the differences. Please help me More on stackoverflow.com
๐ŸŒ stackoverflow.com
AWS EC2 Spot Instances Availability by Region
You can check out the Spot Instance Advisor: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/spot/instance-advisor/ or in your EC2 console you can check out Spot Pricing History graphs to see more information. More on reddit.com
๐ŸŒ r/aws
3
4
May 5, 2022
Talk Me Out of Using Azure Spot Instances
Azure Spot is for dev/test/PoC etc not production. DC's should never be on a Azure Spot VM instances. What happens if MS takes all spot instances down at the same time? Just don't :-) More on reddit.com
๐ŸŒ r/AZURE
7
0
February 6, 2020
Spot Users, How Often Are Your Instances Interrupted?
We have a pool of around 15 xlarge instances (a mix of 4th and 5th gen) in us-west-2. We often lose an instance once per day, though it can sometimes be weeks with no interruptions. It varies quite a bit in my experience. More on reddit.com
๐ŸŒ r/aws
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October 1, 2019
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Zesty
zesty.co โ€บ home โ€บ spot instances
What are spot instances in AWS?
May 7, 2024 - Spot Instances provide users with access to spare compute capacity in the cloud at greatly reduced prices compared to standard on-demand instances. Users bid on this unused capacity, specifying the maximum price they are willing to pay per hour.
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AWS
aws.amazon.com โ€บ amazon ec2 โ€บ spot instances โ€บ pricing
Amazon EC2 Spot Instances Pricing
1 week ago - With Spot Instances, you pay the Spot price that's in effect for the time period your instances are running. Spot Instance prices are set by Amazon EC2 and adjust gradually based on long-term trends in supply and demand for Spot Instance capacity. To learn more about pricing, visit the Spot ...
Top answer
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Actually there are three allocation types:

  • on demand - kind of "default" mode. You request an instance, if there is free capacity, you will get the instance. No long term commitment, but once you get an instance, it's yours. It may happen that you will get a message that there is no free capacity for the specific instance type and AZ (so far it happened to me only once with AWS).

  • reserved - AWS reserves the capacity for you. You have guarantee that you will get the instance type in the selected region or AZ.

  • spot instance - it's kind of auction / bidding of unused capacity. You ask for an instance, you provide your maximum price and if there is free capacity and your price is at the current price or higher, you will get an instance. The difference is - if the free capacity is exhausted, or the current price is higher than your maximum bid price, your spot instance is terminated . You can get a termination warning event upfront.

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The resources for both are the same, spot instances utilise the spare compute capacity within the AWS availability zone (those that are not reserved or launched on-demand).

Depending on the demand for that instance class in the availability zone the spot price will increase or decrease (even surpassing the on-demand price).

When you use a spot instance you are taking a risk that if demand increases you will lose access to the spot instance (you are given a 2 minute warning before termination). For his reason it is common to use a mixture of on-demand/reserved instances and spot instances so that you can withstand instance terminations.

Commonly in EC2 applications you would use an autoscaling group with a configured proportion between on-demand/reserved nodes and spot instances.

For more information take a look at the Requesting Spot Instances for fault-tolerant and flexible applications documentation.

Find elsewhere
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Spot.io
spot.io โ€บ resources โ€บ aws-ec2-pricing โ€บ what-are-ec2-spot-instances
What are AWS spot instances?
December 13, 2022 - AWS spot instances represent AWSโ€™s excess capacity. As a cloud provider, they must have spare capacity available for any surge in customer demand. To offset the loss of idle infrastructure, AWS offers this excess capacity at a massive discount to drive usage.
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CloudZero
cloudzero.com โ€บ home โ€บ blog โ€บ spot instances explained: how they can lower cloud costs
Spot Instances Explained: How They Can Lower Cloud Costs
July 9, 2024 - You can utilize this capacity at a steeply discounted rate. Amazon will enable them to help EC2 users cut cloud computing costs by using idle EC2 capacity instead of relying only on costlier On-Demand Instances. What you pay in return is known as a Spot Price, and itโ€™s charged hourly for each Spot Instance.
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Seven Bridges
docs.sevenbridges.com โ€บ docs โ€บ about-spot-instances
About Spot Instances
With Spot instances, you pay the Spot price that's in effect for the time period your instances are running.
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Microsoft Learn
learn.microsoft.com โ€บ en-us โ€บ azure โ€บ virtual-machines โ€บ spot-vms
Use Azure Spot Virtual Machines - Azure Virtual Machines | Microsoft Learn
August 22, 2024 - A: Azure Spot Virtual Machines will have a separate quota pool. Spot quota will be shared between VMs and scale-set instances.
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RunPod Blog
runpod.ghost.io โ€บ spot-vs-on-demand
What is the Difference Between Spot and On-Demand Instances?
May 17, 2023 - Spot instances are originally a type of AWS EC2 instance that allows you to request spare compute capacity from AWS at a discounted price, but can be interrupted if that compute is needed elsewhere.
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GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org โ€บ devops โ€บ amazon-web-services-introduction-to-ec2-spot-instances
Amazon Web Services - Introduction to EC2 Spot Instances - GeeksforGeeks
July 23, 2025 - In this article, we will look into ... spot instances. Spot instances are spare compute capacity available to you at steep discounts (often as much as 90% cheaper) compared to on-demand prices....
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Spot.io
spot.io โ€บ resources โ€บ spot-instances โ€บ spot-instances-vs-on-demand-instances-pros-and-cons
Spot Instances vs. On-Demand Instances: Pros and Cons
September 26, 2023 - Spot instances are an innovative pricing model introduced by cloud computing providers. On-demand instances allow you to pay for compute capacity by the hour.
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AWS
aws.amazon.com โ€บ ec2 โ€บ ec2 spot โ€บ instance advisor
Amazon EC2 Spot Instances - AWS
1 week ago - Spot Instances are a good fit for fault tolerant workloads that are flexible to run on multiple instance types.
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Medium
medium.com โ€บ @trivedikashish โ€บ aws-advantages-of-spot-instances-and-quick-hands-on-tutorial-55444b307c47
AWS: Advantages of Spot Instances and Quick Hands-On Tutorial | by Kashish Trivedi | Medium
September 24, 2023 - Spot Instances offer an innovative approach to cloud computing by allowing users to access spare AWS capacity at a significantly lower cost than on-demand instances.
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Medium
medium.com โ€บ @Platform9 โ€บ the-argument-for-aws-spot-instances-ec774878de99
The argument for AWS Spot Instances | by Platform9 | Medium
June 19, 2024 - When applying this concept to the ... possible price. In AWS, Spot Instances are the lowest price AWS will offer for a fixed amount of computing resources over an unspecified period....
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CloudBolt Software
cloudbolt.io โ€บ home โ€บ eguides โ€บ the guide to aws cost optimization โ€บ the ultimate guide to ec2 spot instances
The Ultimate Guide to EC2 Spot Instances | CloudBolt Software
June 30, 2025 - An AWS EC2 Spot Instance is an unused EC2 instance which is available for less than the On-Demand price. Spot instances are up to 90% cheaper than On-Demand instances, which can significantly reduce your EC2 costs.
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Medium
medium.com โ€บ @chaisarfati โ€บ an-overview-of-ec2-spot-instances-c580e72510ce
An Overview of EC2 Spot Instances | by Chai Sarfati | Medium
February 11, 2024 - This statelessness also simplifies horizontal scaling, as new instances can be spun up or down without concern for preserving session state, making the system more adaptable to varying workloads. Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): Spot Instances are advantageous for CI/CD workflows because they offer scalable compute resources at lower costs.
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Intellipaat
intellipaat.com โ€บ home โ€บ blog โ€บ what are aws ec2 spot instances?
Amazon EC2 Spot Instances - Intellipaat
December 29, 2024 - AWS Spot Instances are a type of computing instance offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that allows users to bid for unused EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) capacity at significantly reduced prices compared to on-demand instances.