Do you feel that Spot Instance prices have been constantly fluctuating? If so, you’re not alone. We have conducted an in-depth analysis of Spot Instance pricing over the past 12 months, pulling data from every public cloud region for AWS, GCP, and Azure. Our findings provide a fascinating look into the current dynamics of Spot Instance pricing.
Cast AI tracks all Spot Instance prices in all cloud regions using the cloud provider API to retrieve inventory pricing. We focused on the changes over the past year, and we noticed that the differences were not trivial.
Let’s review the findings and identify what really happens with Spot Instance pricing.
Spot Instance pricing: a comparative analysis of AWS, Azure, and GCP
Across the three major cloud providers, we observe the following global trends: Azure spot VM prices have surged by 108% from 2022 to 2023, leading in price increases. AWS follows with a 21% rise. In contrast, GCP has taken a different path, with spot VM prices decreasing by nearly 26%.
Azure: 108.01%
AWS: 21.09%
GCP: -25.95%Let’s look at each cloud to understand the factors driving these changes and explore strategies to mitigate their impact on your costs.
When looking across the three main clouds, we find that on aggregate, worldwide, the following is true:
Azure: 108.01%
AWS: 21.09%
GCP: -25.95%Azure spot VM prices have led the way with a 108% increase from 2022 to 2023.
AWS comes second with a 21% rise. GCP bucked the trend with a nearly 26% decrease in spot VM prices.
Let’s dive deeper into each cloud to check where these hikes come from and consider ways to mitigate their impact on your spend.
Spot Instance pricing hikes in Azure
Delving deeper into Azure results, let’s see where these price increases come from on a regional basis.
We broke down the top 10 regions that are experiencing the most significant Spot Instance pricing increases:
germanywestcentral: 150.01%
australiaeast: 131.83%
eastus2: 131.14%
southeastasia: 130.36%
westeurope: 130.13%
southcentralus: 128.92%
westus2: 128.70%
northcentralus: 128.22%
uksouth: 127.58%
northeurope: 127.14%Many of these are smaller regions.
The Spot Instance pricing hikes may result from cloud users escaping large regions, hoping to find lower rates in smaller areas. This influx may create more demand and drag prices up.
The regions with the largest percentage increases may still be a good bet.
However, the one region that stands out is germanywestcentral – the third most expensive region in Azure globally for Spot Instances.
The instance types that drive these changes the most are:
Standard_Dpds: 1011.15%
Standard_Dplds: 1009.28%
Standard_Dpls: 1005.91%
Standard_Dps: 961.96%
Standard_Eps: 950.78%
Standard_Epds: 857.69%
Standard_M-s: 542.48%
Standard_NVas: 443.86%
Standard_NV: 413.03%
Standard_NVs: 340.29%If you were running one of these instance types without changing your strategy over the past year, you likely saw significant increases in your spend. These changes were due just to spot prices drifting over time.
Let’s consider another interesting example by looking at the D-family, which showed massive differences in Spot Instance pricing increases:
Standard_Dads_v5: 31.36%
Standard_Das_v5: 32.94%
Standard_Das_v4: 53.35%
Standard_Da_v4: 64.07%
Standard_Ds_v5: 73.21%
Standard_Dd_v5: 75.54%
Standard_Dds_v5: 77.11%
Standard_Dds_v4: 78.61%
Standard_Ds_v4: 80.93%
Standard_Ds_v3: 86.25%
Standard_Dd_v4: 91.47%
Standard_Dps_v5: 961.96%
Standard_Dpls_v5: 1005.91%
Standard_Dplds_v5: 1009.28%
Standard_Dpds_v5: 1011.15%The variation between the lowest and highest price hikes was 980%!
And while sometimes you may need specific features, even the difference between very similar Das_v5 and Das_v4 was 20%.
They are the same machine style but are from a different generation. If you configured your node pool for Das_v4 last year, you’re likely paying 20% more than you need today.
By allowing more flexibility in your Spot Instance selection, you could swap high-priced instances for much better options. We’ll tell you how to pull it off in a moment, but first, let’s consider the other two cloud providers.
Spot Instance pricing changes in AWS
In AWS, the ten regions that have recorded the highest Spot Instance price increases include:
af-south-1: 24.98%
ap-southeast-4: 24.81%
ap-northeast-3: 23.19%
us-gov-west-1: 22.74%
eu-south-1: 22.60%
ap-east-1: 22.46%
eu-north-1: 22.39%
ap-northeast-2: 22.26%
ca-central-1: 22.03%
me-south-1: 21.80%There’s also an interesting pattern regarding the instance families affected by the most significant price changes in AWS.
The highest increases occurred for the instance types that are very old or have specific high-performance requirements, such as onboard NVMe like the I3 and I3en:
p4d: 180.23%
trn1: 143.51%
f1: 127.84%
t1: 100.91%
x2iezn: 100.20%
i3en: 73.85%
r3: 65.70%
i3: 65.54%
r4: 59.83%
trn1n: 57.95%For comparison, let’s look at a commonly used instance type – the C family. These instances are largely interchangeable, except for the Graviton machines.
Here is how the price increases varied in just this one family, again showing the benefits of being flexible in machine types:
c6a: -11.82% (decrease)
c1: -6.71% (decrease)
c6g: -3.15% (decrease)
c7g: -2.07% (decrease)
cc2: 0.00% (no change)
c6gd: 0.02%
c5a: 3.24%
c6id: 5.37%
c3: 8.41%
c5ad: 10.91%
c5: 12.47%
c6gn: 15.95%
c6i: 17.41%
c5d: 17.87%
c4: 20.35%
c5n: 20.61%
c6in: 28.44%
c7gn: 49.58%If you were locked in on using c5s in 2022, this year you are paying, on average, 24% more than if you had dynamically moved to c6as as the Spot prices drifted up.
In a moment, we’ll tell you how to make that happen.
GCP: the only cloud to see Spot Instance pricing drops
Google Cloud presents an interesting anomaly, as it didn’t have a single region that increased Spot Instance prices in aggregate. On the contrary, GCP has reduced Spot Instance pricing across all areas compared to a year ago.
As the only provider to show a net decrease in Spot Instance pricing, GCP is an excellent choice for ephemeral workloads.
Spot Instance pricing changes in GCP were indeed interesting, as the regions with the highest percentage increase in price were still… NEGATIVE!
Compared to 2022, in 2023 GCP reduced Spot Instance pricing across all regions:
northamerica-northeast2: -20.24%
australia-southeast2: -20.34%
europe-west6: -23.73%
me-central1: -23.79%
asia-southeast2: -24.45%
southamerica-west1: -24.52%
europe-west1: -24.73%
us-south1: -24.77%
us-east4: -24.77%
asia-east1: -25.14%But instead of getting lost in percentages, let’s consider one more interesting example.
Launched in March 2023, the C3 type is a younger sister of the C2 series. Comparing their cost per compute core, you get the following:
- c2-standard: $.023/core
- c3-standard: $.016/core
If you set up your node pools to run on c2-standard Spot Instances in July 2022, you pay 30% more per CPU core for less performant machines.
When GCP launched the c3 instance types earlier this year, Cast AI automatically started provisioning these highly performant, low-cost Spot Instances. Users didn’t have to enroll for these new instance types; they became available to them by default.
One customer saved an additional 12.5% month-over-month from February to March purely because CAST AI used the c3 instance type where applicable.
Spot Instance pricing: why flexibility matters
Regarding Spot Instances, choosing the right generation of compute VMs is not a one-time decision.
A closer look at the price evolution of m5a, m6a, and m7a instances shows how quickly things can change.
While all three were similarly priced in February 2024, the price gap had widened significantly by the last quarter of the year, with m7a (the latest generation) becoming the most expensive.
If your team chose m7a for your clusters early in the year, believing the slight price increase was worth the performance, you would eventually find switching between different instance types more cost-effective as prices fluctuate.
For example, using m6a in non-critical environments like development where high compute power isn’t required could help you save costs while running production workloads on m7a, which would still ensure optimal performance.
The lesson?
Don’t get locked into a single generation of compute VMs. Stay adaptable, continuously revisit decisions, and consider a mix of instance types to balance cost savings and performance.
Download our 2025 Kubernetes Cost Benchmark Report to discover more insights about Spot Instances.
Automated provisioning is the answer
All the examples above prove that the landscape of Spot Instance pricing is ever-changing. Knowing these dynamics can help you make more informed decisions about your cloud strategy.
By being flexible and using automatic provisioning tools, you can navigate these changes and save significantly on your cloud spend.
Cast AI’s feature called scheduled rebalancing watches for these price changes. It automatically swaps out your Spot Instances as they increase in price on the market for more competitive instances.
As a result, you benefit from lower prices and much better performance, which matches your workload’s needs.
Final thoughts on Spot Instance pricing changes
Our analysis revealed some intriguing trends in the pricing strategies of major cloud providers. AWS showed a mix of regions and instance types with high price increases, while GCP demonstrated a trend toward price reductions in many areas.
It’s important to note that these findings are based on averages, and individual instance types within the groups may vary. Therefore, when deciding which cloud provider, region, or instance type to choose, it’s crucial to consider the specific requirements of your use case.
This is just a snapshot of the insights from an in-depth analysis of cloud pricing data. With more detailed data, we could delve into more granular insights, such as the impact of reserved instances, Spot Instances, or variations in pricing across different operating systems.
In future analyses, we could also consider the performance characteristics of different instance types, as the cost-performance ratio is often more important than the raw cost.
Stay tuned for future updates as we explore the fascinating world of cloud pricing trends!
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