AWS Spot Pricing Specifics

Question

Hi, for my purposes I am using AWS Batch with EC2 spot to run multiple jobs created every 15 minutes with each lasting ~2-10 seconds for computation.

From my understanding AWS Batch creates an instance for each job, where Spot prices a minimum of one minute's charge for each, although I am uncertain of the exact instance type chosen by the "optimal" selection's logic with best-fit.

As a result of my low duration workload, I was planning to create a load-balancing system that combines jobs (Each is calculated independently and are not easily multi-processed) before submitting them to AWS Batch, choosing a specific instance type instead of the "optimal" selection to reach the 1 minute time for a given instance consistently to avoid wasted time (However I still want the work to be computed in parallel over multiple instances whenever otherwise possible).

I was wondering if there were any faults in my understand of AWS Batch and Spot above, perhaps where AWS Batch packages the jobs similarly to how I was planning?

Venkatakrishna Pullela · Answer

**AWS Batch Spot Pricing Summary**

AWS Batch itself has no additional charges - you only pay for the underlying compute resources like EC2 instances. When using Spot Instances with AWS Batch, you can achieve significant cost savings of up to 90% compared to On-Demand pricing, with an average expected savings of around 70% on compute costs.

**Key Benefits for Your Workload**

For batch processing workloads like yours, AWS Batch can use Spot Instances as the compute environment, leading to significant cost savings especially for compute-intensive jobs. AWS Batch automatically handles job retries and check-pointing, improving fault tolerance and efficient resource utilization.

**Pricing Model Analysis**

Short duration instances like your 2-10 second jobs are ideal candidates for Spot Instances. Spot Instances offer the lowest cost by taking advantage of unused EC2 capacity, making them perfect for fault-tolerant, flexible workloads like batch processing. You can monitor your actual Spot Instance savings through the EC2 console's Spot Requests section.

AWS Spot Pricing Specifics

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