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Convertible costs more. Is it worth it?
A Convertible Reserved Instance can be exchanged mid-term. A Standard one can't, and discounts deeper for it. Pick an instance type, a term, and a payment option, and see the exact premium, the discount points given up, and the chance of change that makes Convertible pay for itself.
m6i.xlarge in us-east-1, at $0.192/hr on-demand.
Buy Convertible only if your chance of changing this instance before month 18 is above 24%. Below that, Standard wins.
What this assumes
- An AWS exchange must be for equal or greater value. It never returns cash.
- A Standard EC2 RI can be resold on the RI Marketplace. A resale recovers part of a stranded commitment. A Convertible RI cannot be resold.
- RDS and ElastiCache sell no Convertible class and allow no resale. This choice applies to EC2 only.
Prices: AWS Price List API. EC2 as of Aug 27, 2026. Verify in the AWS console before you buy.
Original research
What the discount actually costs.
Across every priced EC2 Standard and Convertible pair in the committed rate card, Convertible costs a median of 15% more than Standard for the same instance, term, and payment option (10% to 29% across the middle of the range). In discount points, Convertible gives up 6.3 to 9.5 points, depending on term and payment option. Nobody else publishes this per instance type.
Read this first
Three limits this tool never hides.
An AWS exchange must be for equal or greater value. It preserves the value you already committed, and it never hands cash back. A Standard EC2 reservation can be resold on the RI Marketplace, but a Convertible one cannot. RDS and ElastiCache sell no Convertible class and allow no resale, so this choice does not arise there.
Convertible Check, answered
Questions about the choice.
Is a Convertible RI's premium ever worth paying?
Convertible costs a median of about 15% more than Standard for the same instance, term, and payment option. It pays off only when your real chance of changing this instance mid-term clears the break-even point. Run your own numbers with the free Convertible Check tool.
What can I actually exchange a Convertible RI into?
A different family, instance size, operating system, or tenancy, all within EC2. AWS requires an exchange of equal or greater value. You can top up the difference in cash. An exchange never hands cash back. RDS and ElastiCache sell no Convertible class at all, so this exchange right only exists on EC2.
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