Difficulty: Advanced
Description
We identified several EC2 instances in your account that are using older generation instance types. Modernizing these instances will reduce your EC2 bill.
Selection Criteria
The EC2 instance has been running for at least 30 days
The EC2 instance uses an older generation family:
t2,c3,c4,c5,c5a,m1,m3,m4,m5,r3,r4The estimated savings after modernization exceed $10/month, accounting for any active Savings Plans or Reserved Instances applied to the instance
⚠️ Warning — Graviton families (t4g, c6g, m6g, r6g): Arm64 architecture — requires verifying application compatibility before migrating. This is an Advanced change that may require code recompilation.
⚠️ Warning — Standard Reserved Instance: Fixed commitment on the instance family. Cannot change family without expiration or exchange (Convertible RI only).
⚠️ Warning — EC2 Instance Savings Plan: Fixed to the committed instance family within a region — modernization savings are limited to the delta between the old and new on-demand rates.
Expected Saving
Savings depend on the target generation and architecture:
Upgrade path | Example | Typical savings |
Same arch, newer gen (e.g. m5 → m6i) | m5.xlarge $0.192/hr → m6i.xlarge $0.192/hr | ~5-10% (better perf, similar price) |
AMD equivalent (e.g. m5 → m6a) | m5.xlarge $0.192/hr → m6a.xlarge $0.1728/hr | ~10% |
Graviton/Arm (e.g. m5 → m6g) | m5.xlarge $0.192/hr → m6g.xlarge $0.1536/hr | ~20% |
Savings are calculated net of existing commitments (Compute Savings Plan, EC2 Instance Savings Plan, Reserved Instances). The minimum threshold to surface a recommendation is $10/month.
Operational Impact
Difficulty: Advanced — Migrating to Graviton (Arm64) families often involves breaking changes and code recompilation.
Downtime: Required — a stop/start of the instance is necessary to change the instance type. Plan a maintenance window.
Breaking changes:
Same-architecture upgrade (Intel → Intel or Intel → AMD): generally no breaking changes; OS and applications run without modification.
Cross-architecture upgrade (x86 → Graviton/Arm64): all applications and dependencies must be verified and potentially recompiled for Arm64.
⚠️ Warning — Windows instances: Savings may be overstated. Validate the pricing calculation for Windows workloads before actioning.
Recovery: Revert by stopping the instance and changing the instance type back — data and volumes are not affected.