What are the main factors that affect EC2 pricing?
- Instance type — the CPU/RAM/network specs (t2.micro vs. a large compute-optimized instance) — bigger = pricier
- Region — the same instance type costs different amounts in different regions (e.g., us-east-1 is typically cheaper than ap-south-1)
- Pricing model — On-Demand (most expensive, most flexible) vs. Reserved/Savings Plans (cheaper, requires commitment) vs. Spot Instances (cheapest, but can be interrupted) vs. Dedicated Hosts (priciest, dedicated physical hardware)