What is Savings Plans?
Savings Plans is a flexible pricing model that offer low prices on EC2 and Fargate usage, in exchange for a commitment to a consistent amount of usage (measured in $/hour) for a 1 or 3 year term. When you sign up for Savings Plans, you will be charged the discounted Savings Plans price for your usage up to your commitment. For example, if you commit to $10 of compute usage an hour, you will get the Savings Plans prices on that usage up to $10 and any usage beyond the commitment will be charged On Demand rates.
What types of Savings Plans does AWS offer to reduce my bill?
AWS offers two types of Savings Plans:
- Compute Savings Plans provide the most flexibility and help to reduce your costs by up to 66%. These plans automatically apply to EC2 instance usage regardless of instance family, size, AZ, region, OS or tenancy, and also apply to Fargate usage. For example, with Compute Savings Plans, you can change from C4 to M5 instances, shift a workload from EU (Ireland) to EU (London), or move a workload from EC2 to Fargate at any time and automatically continue to pay the Savings Plans price.
- EC2 Instance Savings Plans provide the lowest prices, offering savings up to 72% in exchange for commitment to usage of individual instance families in a region (e.g. M5 usage in N. Virginia). This automatically reduces your cost on the selected instance family in that region regardless of AZ, size, OS or tenancy. EC2 Instance Savings Plans give you the flexibility to change your usage between instances within a family in that region. For example, you can move from c5.xlarge running Windows to c5.2xlarge running Linux and automatically benefit from the Savings Plans prices.
How do I get started with Savings Plans?
You can get started with Savings Plans from AWS Cost Explorer in the management console or by using the API/CLI. You can easily make a commitment to Savings Plans by using the recommendations provided in AWS Cost Explorer, to realize the biggest savings. The recommended hourly commitment is based on your historical On Demand usage and your choice of plan type, term length, and payment option. Once you sign up for a Savings Plan, your compute usage will automatically be charged at the discounted Savings Plans prices and any usage beyond your commitment will be charged at regular On Demand rates.
What payment options are available to pay for Savings Plans?
Savings Plans is available in 3 different payment options. The No Upfront option does not require any upfront payment, and your commitment will be charged purely on a monthly basis. The Partial Upfront option offers lower prices on Savings Plans. With this option you be charged at least half of your commitment upfront and the remaining will be charged on a monthly basis. With the All Upfront option, you will receive the lowest prices and your entire commitment will be charged in one payment.
Where do I see the discounted prices offered by Savings Plans?
The prices offered by Savings Plans are available on the pricing page here and can also be obtained using APIs/CLI. After you sign up, you can view the prices offered by your active Savings Plans in the AWS Management console or by using the API/CLI.
How do Savings Plans work with AWS Organizations/Consolidated Billing?
Savings Plans can be purchased in any account within an AWS Organization/Consolidated Billing family. By default, the benefit provided by Savings Plans is applicable to usage across all accounts within an AWS Organization/consolidated billing family. However you can also choose to restrict the benefit of Savings Plans to only the account that purchased them
How do I find out how much my Savings Plans have helped me save?
AWS Cost Explorer will show you details on the savings realized with your Savings Plans. You can also use the Savings Plans performance reports in AWS Cost Explorer to understand how well you are utilizing your Savings Plans.
Can I have multiple Savings Plans active at the same time?
Yes. Your AWS bill will be generated by taking into account all active Savings Plans.
How do Savings Plans compare to EC2 RIs?
Savings Plans offers significant savings over On Demand, just like EC2 RIs, but automatically reduce your bills on compute usage across any AWS region, even as usage changes. This provides you the flexibility to use the compute option that best suits your needs and continue to save money, all without having to perform exchanges or modifications.
Compute Savings Plans, which provides savings up to 66% (just like Convertible RIs), automatically reduce your cost on any EC2 instance usage regardless of region, instance family, size, OS, tenancy and even on AWS Fargate. EC2 Instance Savings Plans, which provide savings up to 72% (just like Standard RIs), automatically save you money on any instance usage within a given EC2 instance family in a chosen region (e.g. M5 in N. Virginia) regardless of size, OS or tenancy.
Do Savings Plans provide capacity reservations for EC2 instances?
No, Savings Plans does not provide a capacity reservation. You can however reserve capacity with On Demand Capacity Reservations and pay lower prices on them with Savings Plans.
Can I continue to purchase EC2 RIs?
Yes. You can continue purchasing RIs to maintain compatibility with your existing cost management processes, and your RIs will work along-side Savings Plans to reduce your overall bill. However as your RIs expire we encourage you to sign up for Savings Plans as they offer the same savings as RIs, but with additional flexibility.
Learn about pricing.