Both give discounts for committing to usage over 1 or 3 years, but they differ in flexibility, and the exam tests which suits a scenario.
The difference
Savings Plans commit to a dollar-per-hour spend and automatically apply across instance families, sizes, Regions, and even Fargate/Lambda — the more flexible, modern choice. Reserved Instances commit to specific instance attributes for a discount, with less flexibility but sometimes deeper savings. Want flexibility across changing workloads? Savings Plans.
Test yourself
A company’s compute usage is steady in total but shifts between instance types and Regions over time. Which commitment maximizes discount with flexibility?
- Standard Reserved Instances
- A Compute Savings Plan
- On-Demand only
- Spot Instances
👉 Click to reveal the answer & explanation
Correct answer: B. A Compute Savings Plan commits to hourly spend and applies flexibly across instance families, Regions, and Fargate/Lambda — ideal for shifting usage. Standard RIs (A) lock to specific attributes; On-Demand (C) has no discount; Spot (D) is for interruptible work, not steady commitment.
Related topics
Spot vs On-Demand · Amazon EC2 · AWS Cost Explorer
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