Welcome! Let's dive into AWS's specific pricing models—the different ways you can pay for services.
AWS offers several main models: On-Demand, Savings Plans, and Spot Instances. Each one offers a different balance between cost and commitment.
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Which pricing approach do you think offers the most flexibility?
On-Demand pricing is the most flexible. You pay for compute or database services by the hour or second with no upfront costs or long-term commitments.
Think of it like hailing a taxi—you pay for exactly the time and distance you use the service, with no contract.
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When might this flexibility be worth paying a higher price?
Savings Plans offer significant discounts (up to 72%) in exchange for committing to a consistent amount of usage for a 1- or 3-year term.
It's like getting a discount on your mobile phone plan by signing a contract. This is ideal for workloads with predictable, steady usage.
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Which of your applications run consistently enough to benefit from this?
Spot Instances are a special model for Amazon EC2. They let you use spare AWS computing capacity at discounts of up to 90% off On-Demand prices.
The catch? AWS can reclaim the capacity with just a two-minute warning. This makes Spot Instances perfect for workloads that can handle interruptions.
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Can you name a task that could be paused and resumed later without issues?
Here's the key trade-off: flexibility generally costs more, while commitment saves you money.
On-Demand offers maximum flexibility. Savings Plans provide deep discounts for commitment. Spot Instances offer the deepest discounts but with the risk of interruption.
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