Understand AMI billing information - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

Understand AMI billing information

There are many Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) to choose from when launching your instances, and they support a variety of operating system platforms and features. To understand how the AMI you choose when launching your instance affects the bottom line on your Amazon bill, you can research the associated operating system platform and billing information. Do this before you launch any On-Demand or Spot Instances, or purchase a Reserved Instance.

Here are two examples of how researching your AMI in advance can help you choose the AMI that best suits your needs:

  • For Spot Instances, you can use the AMI Platform details to confirm that the AMI is supported for Spot Instances.

  • When purchasing a Reserved Instance, you can make sure that you select the operating system platform (Platform) that maps to the AMI Platform details.

For more information about instance pricing, see Amazon EC2 pricing.

Contents