# Comparing AL2027 standard and minimal AMIs
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**AL2027 Preview**  
AL2027 is currently available for preview. It is intended for evaluation and testing only and is not recommended for production workloads.

You can launch an Amazon EC2 instance with either a standard (default) or minimal AL2027 AMI. For instructions on how to launch an Amazon EC2 instance with the standard or minimal AMI type, see [AL2027 on Amazon EC2](ec2.md).

The standard AL2027 AMI comes with all of the most commonly used applications and tools installed. We recommend the standard AMI if you want to get started quickly and aren't interested in customizing the AMI.

The minimal AL2027 AMI is a streamlined version that contains only essential tools and utilities necessary to run the operating system. We recommend it when you want the smallest OS footprint possible, with slightly reduced disk space utilization and better long-term cost efficiency. Use the minimal AMI when you are comfortable manually installing additional tools and applications as needed.

The container image is closer to the AL2027 minimal AMI in package set.