AWS announced the general availability of Amazon EC2 T8i instances, low-cost instances with temporarily burstable performance, powered by custom sixth-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors known as Granite Rapids. AWS says T8i provides up to 30% better price performance compared with the previous-generation T3, making it an option aimed at workloads that need small and flexible computing resources.
The instances are available in t8i.nano, t8i.micro, t8i.small, and t8i.medium sizes. They retain the burstable performance model that distinguishes the T family: each instance receives a baseline level of CPU performance and can exceed it when needed by using CPU credits. They also support Standard and Unlimited modes, with Unlimited being the default mode on T8i.
What does T8i offer compared with T3?
- Up to 30% better price performance, according to AWS.
- Up to 70% higher compute performance.
- Up to 1.25 times higher network bandwidth.
- Up to 2.4 times higher Amazon EBS bandwidth.
- Distinctive vCPU-to-memory ratios, including 1:0.25, 1:0.5, and 1:1, ratios that are not offered by other EC2 instances, according to the company.
AWS says the new instances are designed to run free or freemium services, training and demonstration environments, development and testing stages, data-processing tasks, microservices, low-traffic websites, and login portals. They can also be used for short-lived tasks such as batch processing, event-driven functions, and CI/CD pipelines.
What changes in practice for users?
For T3 users, the main change is the ability to move to T8i while retaining the CPU credit system and familiar operating model. According to AWS, migration requires only selecting the T8i instance type instead of T3, reducing the need to redesign lightweight workloads that rely on existing EC2 tools.
Teams moving from on-premises infrastructure or seeking a low-cost entry point to AWS receive a newer option for workloads with low or moderate CPU utilization. This may also benefit gradually scaling environments, such as microservices, small websites, and development stages, where ongoing cost and the ability to handle short demand spikes are important factors.
Availability and limitations
T8i is currently available in AWS Regions in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia Pacific, including Northern Virginia, Ohio, Oregon, and Northern California, as well as Hyderabad, Malaysia, Mumbai, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo, along with the Canada Central Region, Frankfurt, Ireland, London, and Paris. AWS asks customers to check the regional availability expansion through CloudFormation resources on the AWS Capabilities by Region page.
The instances can be purchased On-Demand or through Spot, while the Savings Plan option will come later. T8i supports shared tenancy only and does not support Dedicated tenancy or Dedicated Hosts. The t8i.micro and t8i.small instances are also available under the AWS Free Tier.
certi.news analysis: The importance of T8i lies not only in adding a new size to EC2, but also in updating a class aimed at small workloads while preserving a simple upgrade path from T3. However, the actual improvement in cost and performance remains tied to CPU utilization patterns, the accumulation of CPU credits, the Region used, and the purchasing model. The shared-tenancy limitation may also exclude environments that require dedicated isolation, while the Savings Plan option remains unavailable at launch.