AWS Pricing for upgrading reserved instances

Question

We have bought a AWS EC2 Instance a while ago and now our app has became huge we need a better server and we are planning to upgrade the server, if we are going to upgrade an reserved instance, will they charge only extra amount needed to upgrade or full amount of the new reserved one.

Any help is greatly appreciated and thanks in advance.

Answer 1

When you buy a reserved instance, you have locked yourself into the contract, whether it be 1 or 3 years. In return for lower pricing, you agreed to keep the server for that term.

If it's a light or medium duty instance, you can simply stop using it and stop accruing hourly/daily charges - a heavy instance (which I am guessing is what you have), gets billed 24x7 whether you use it or not.

So, in one sense you are 'stuck' with it, but you do have the option of selling your unused instance 'used' here: http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/purchasing-options/reserved-instances/marketplace/

You probably will be able to get back at least some of your costs - I have bought several hear myself when I need a heavy/reserved instance, but didn't want to lock myself into a three year contract.

Answer 2

When your computing needs change, you can modify your Standard or Convertible Reserved Instances and continue to benefit from the billing benefit. You can modify the Availability Zone, scope, network platform, or instance size (within the same instance type) of your Reserved Instance. To modify a Reserved Instance, you specify the Reserved Instances that you want to modify, and you specify one or more target configurations.

Note:-You can also exchange a Convertible Reserved Instance for another Convertible Reserved Instance with a different configuration, including instance family. For more information, see Exchanging Convertible Reserved Instances.

For more detailed information you can refer to the following link:-

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ri-modifying.html

Answer 3

Depending on your situation, you may be able to modify your RI. E.g. convert two m1.small to one m1.medium.