Purchasing Reserved Instances

To find and purchase a Reserved Instance

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

2. Click Reserved Instances in the Navigation pane.

3. In the Reserved Instances page, click Purchase Reserved Instances.

   

4. In the Purchase Reserved Instances page, specify the details of the Reserved Instances you want to purchase (use familiar filters like Platform, Instance Type, Availability Zone, Term, and Tenancy), and click Search.

   

   The Purchase Reserved Instances wizard will display a list of Reserved Instances that meet your search criteria.

5. Select the Reserved Instances that you want, enter the quantity that you want to purchase, and click Add to Cart. You can continue to select more Reserved Instances and add them to your cart.

   The Seller column indicates whether the seller is a 3rd Party seller or AWS. Notice that the Term column gives you non-standard terms if the seller is a third-party seller. At the bottom of the page, the Purchase Reserved Instances wizard keeps a running tally of the total in your cart.

   

6. Click View Cart to see a summary of the Reserved Instances that you have selected.

   If you want to add more Reserved Instances to your cart, click Add More To Cart. If you want to remove an item from your cart, click Delete.

   Or, click Cancel if you want to start over or search for a different set of Reserved Instances.

   

7. Click Purchase when you have all the Reserved Instances you want to purchase, and you want to check out.

   Note

   If at the time of purchase, there are offerings similar to your choice but with a lower price, AWS will sell you the offerings at the lower price.

   

   Your purchase is complete.

8. To verify your order, go to the Reserved Instances page in the EC2 console.

   

   The Reserved Instances page displays a list of Reserved Instances that belong to your account, including the new Reserved Instance that you just purchased.

To find and purchase a Reserved Instance

1. Use ec2-describe-reserved-instances-offerings to get a list of Reserved Instance offerings that match your specifications. In this example, we'll check to see what m1.small, Linux/UNIX Reserved Instances are available in the sa-east-1b Availability Zone.

   PROMPT> ec2-describe-reserved-instances-offerings -t m1.small -z sa-east-1b -d Linux/UNIX --headers

   Amazon EC2 returns output similar to the following example:

   PROMPT> ec2-describe-reserved-instances-offerings
   Type	Source	ReservedInstancesOfferingId	AvailabilityZone	InstanceType	Duration	FixedPrice	UsagePrice	ProductDescription	Currency	InstanceTenancy	OfferingType
   OFFERING	AWS	4b2293b4-3236-49f5-978d-a74c3example	sa-east-1b	m1.small	3y 	574.0	0.0	Linux/UNIX	USD	default	Heavy Utilization
   Type	Frequency	Amount
   RECURRING-CHARGE	Hourly	0.021
   OFFERING	AWS	3a98bf7d-07e1-4b33-8e11-e5314example	sa-east-1b	m1.small	3y 	473.0	0.031	Linux/UNIX	USD	default	Medium Utilization
   OFFERING	AWS	438012d3-5fc5-4e49-a88e-273edexample	sa-east-1b	m1.small	3y 	203.0	0.055	Linux/UNIX	USD	default	Light Utilization
   OFFERING	AWS	d586503b-bb92-41fa-9065-e5b90example	sa-east-1b	m1.small	1y 	372.94	0.0	Linux/UNIX	USD	default	Heavy Utilization
   Type	Frequency	Amount
   RECURRING-CHARGE	Hourly	0.03
   OFFERING	AWS	ceb6a579-b235-41e2-9aad-15a23example	sa-east-1b	m1.small	1y 	307.13	0.04	Linux/UNIX	USD	default	Medium Utilization
   OFFERING	AWS	649fd0c8-4ffb-443d-824d-eae3fexample	sa-east-1b	m1.small	1y 	131.63	0.07	Linux/UNIX	USD	default	Light Utilization
   OFFERING	3rd Party	b6121943-9faf-4350-8047-bc6d4example	sa-east-1b	m1.small	10m 	-	0.032	Linux/UNIX	USD	default	Medium Utilization
   Type	Count	Price
   PRICING_DETAIL	2	$1.2
   OFFERING	3rd Party	08edcff2-8143-4c1d-b23c-e4c11example	sa-east-1b	m1.small	5m 	-	0.032	Linux/UNIX	USD	default	Medium Utilization
   Type	Count	Price
   PRICING_DETAIL	19	$1.2
   PRICING_DETAIL	4	$1.23
   

   The preceding output shows a part of the overall offerings that are available.

   Tip

   You can filter this list to return only certain types of Reserved Instances offerings of interest to you. For more information about how to filter the results, see ec2-describe-reserved-instances-offerings in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud Command Line Reference.

2. From the list of available Reserved Instances, purchase the Reserved Instances that meet your requirements. To purchase a Reserved Instance, use the following command.

   PROMPT> ec2-purchase-reserved-instances-offering --offering offering --instance-count count

   Amazon EC2 returns output similar to the following:

   PURCHASE   af9f760e-c1c1-449b-8128-1342dexample  438012d3-80c7-42c6-9396-a209cexample

   The response includes the offering ID and a reservation ID.

3. Write down and save the reservation ID for future reference.

4. Verify the purchase.

   PROMPT> ec2-describe-reserved-instances

   Amazon EC2 returns output similar to the following:

   RESERVEDINSTANCE  af9f760e-c1c1-449b-8128-1342dexample    sa-east-1b      m1.small        1y      227.5   0.03    Linux/UNIX  Active

To find and purchase a Reserved Instance

1. Use DescribeReservedInstancesOfferings to get a list of Reserved Instance offerings that match your specifications. In this example, we'll check to see the available Linux/UNIX, Heavy Utilization Reserved Instances.

   https://ec2.amazonaws.com/?Action=DescribeReservedInstancesOfferings
   &MaxResults=50
   &ProductDescription=Linux%2FUNIX
   &OfferingType=Heavy+Utilization
   &AUTHPARAMS
   

   Note

   When using the Query API the “/” is denoted as “%2F”.

   Following is an example response.

   <DescribeReservedInstancesOfferingsResponse xmlns='http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2012-08-15/'>
       <requestId>768e52ac-20f5-42b1-8559-e70e9example</requestId>
       <reservedInstancesOfferingsSet>
           <item>
               <reservedInstancesOfferingId>d0280f9e-afc1-47f3-9899-c3a2cexample</reservedInstancesOfferingId>
               <instanceType>m1.xlarge</instanceType>
               <availabilityZone>us-east-1a</availabilityZone>
               <duration>25920000</duration>
               <fixedPrice>195.0</fixedPrice>
               <usagePrice>0.0</usagePrice>
               <productDescription>Linux/UNIX</productDescription>
               <instanceTenancy>dedicated</instanceTenancy>
               <currencyCode>USD</currencyCode>
               <offeringType>Heavy Utilization</offeringType>
               <recurringCharges>
                   <item>
                       <frequency>Hourly</frequency>
                       <amount>0.2</amount>
                   </item>
               </recurringCharges>
               <marketplace>true</marketplace>
               <pricingDetailsSet>
                   <item>
                       <price>195.0</price>
                       <count>1</count>
                   </item>
                   <item>
                       <price>310.0</price>
                       <count>1</count>
                   </item>
                   <item>
                       <price>377.0</price>
                       <count>1</count>
                   </item>
                   <item>
                       <price>380.0</price>
                       <count>1</count>
                   </item>
               </pricingDetailsSet>
           </item>
           <item>
               <reservedInstancesOfferingId>649fd0c8-7846-46b8-8f84-a6400example</reservedInstancesOfferingId>
               <instanceType>m1.large</instanceType>
               <availabilityZone>us-east-1a</availabilityZone>
               <duration>94608000</duration>
               <fixedPrice>1200.0</fixedPrice>
               <usagePrice>0.0</usagePrice>
               <productDescription>Linux/UNIX</productDescription>
               <instanceTenancy>default</instanceTenancy>
               <currencyCode>USD</currencyCode>
               <offeringType>Heavy Utilization</offeringType>
               <recurringCharges>
                   <item>
                       <frequency>Hourly</frequency>
                       <amount>0.052</amount>
                   </item>
               </recurringCharges>
               <marketplace>false</marketplace>
               <pricingDetailsSet/>
           </item>
       </reservedInstancesOfferingsSet>
       <nextToken>QUUVo/0S3X6nEBjSQZR/pRRlCPP/5Lrx79Wyxexample</nextToken>
   </DescribeReservedInstancesOfferingsResponse>
   

2. From the list of available Reserved Instances in the previous example, select the marketplace offering and specify a limit price.

   https://ec2.amazonaws.com/?Action=PurchaseReservedInstancesOffering
   &ReservedInstancesOfferingId=d0280f9e-afc1-47f3-9899-c3a2cexample
   &InstanceCount=1
   &LimitPrice.Amount=200
   &AUTHPARAMS
   

   Following is an example response.

   <PurchaseReservedInstancesOfferingResponse xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2012-08-15/">
      <requestId>59dbff89-35bd-4eac-99ed-be587example</requestId> 
      <reservedInstancesId>e5a2ff3b-7d14-494f-90af-0b5d0example</reservedInstancesId> 
   </PurchaseReservedInstancesOfferingResponse>
   

3. To verify the purchase, check for your new Reserved Instance.

   http://ec2.amazonaws.com/?Action=DescribeReservedInstances
   &AUTHPARAMS

   Following is an example response:

   <DescribeReservedInstancesResponse xmlns='http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2012-08-15/'>
       <requestId>ebe3410a-8f37-441d-ae11-2e78eexample</requestId>
       <reservedInstancesSet>
           <item>
               <reservedInstancesId>e5a2ff3b-7d14-494f-90af-0b5d0example</reservedInstancesId>
               <instanceType>m1.xlarge</instanceType>
               <availabilityZone>us-east-1a</availabilityZone>
               <start>2012-08-23T15:19:31.071Z</start>
               <duration>25920000</duration>
               <fixedPrice>195.0</fixedPrice>
               <usagePrice>0.0</usagePrice>
               <instanceCount>1</instanceCount>
               <productDescription>Linux/UNIX</productDescription>
               <state>active</state>
               <instanceTenancy>dedicated</instanceTenancy>
               <currencyCode>USD</currencyCode>
               <offeringType>Heavy Utilization</offeringType>
               <recurringCharges>
                   <item>
                       <frequency>Hourly</frequency>
                       <amount>0.2</amount>
                   </item>
               </recurringCharges>
           </item>
       </reservedInstancesSet>
   </DescribeReservedInstancesResponse>