c4.xlarge as an EKS node
4 vCPU7.5 GiBx86_64Intel Xeon E5-2666 v3 (Haswell)AWS us-east-1C4 High-CPU Extra Large
Where the c4.xlarge goes
Default EKS setup: EKS, VPC CNI default (ENI limit).
CPU3.72 of 4 vCPU left for your pods
Memory6.24 GiB of 7.5 GiB left for your pods
your podsDaemonSets (200m, 300 MiB assumed)kubelet reservedeviction
58max pods per node
$145.27on demand / month · $0.1990/h
$67.89spot / month (varies)
c4.xlarge EKS max pods and allocatable memory — quick answers
- How many pods can a c4.xlarge run as a node with EKS, VPC CNI default (ENI limit)? Up to 58; kubelet keeps 993 MiB of memory and 80m CPU, leaving 6.53 GiB and 3.92 vCPU for pods.
- How many pods can a c4.xlarge run as a node with EKS, prefix delegation? Up to 110; kubelet keeps 1565 MiB of memory and 80m CPU, leaving 5.97 GiB and 3.92 vCPU for pods.
- How many 500m / 1 GiB pods fit? 6 per node after DaemonSets; 2 nodes for 10 replicas, about $290.54/month on demand.
What kubelet reserves on c4.xlarge
| Setup | Max pods | kube-reserved CPU | Memory reserved + eviction | Allocatable CPU | Allocatable memory | Memory usable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EKS, VPC CNI default (ENI limit) secondary IPs per ENI | 58 | 80m | 893 Mi + 100 Mi | 3.92 | 6.53 GiB | 87.1% |
| EKS, prefix delegation ENABLE_PREFIX_DELEGATION=true | 110 | 80m | 1465 Mi + 100 Mi | 3.92 | 5.97 GiB | 79.6% |
How these numbers are computed: reservation formulas. How many subnet IPs a c4.xlarge takes with the VPC CNI: EKS max pods and IP calculator. Check a live node with kubectl describe node → Allocatable.
How many pods fit on one c4.xlarge
Assumes DaemonSets (CNI, kube-proxy, log and metrics agents) request 200m CPU, 300 Mi and 3 pods per node. Try your own numbers in the node calculator.
| Pod requests (CPU / memory) | EKS, VPC CNI default (ENI limit) | EKS, prefix delegation | $ per pod / month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100m / 128 Mi | 37 | 37 | $3.93 |
| 250m / 256 Mi | 14 | 14 | $10.38 |
| 250m / 512 Mi | 12 | 11 | $12.11 |
| 500m / 512 Mi | 7 | 7 | $20.75 |
| 500m / 1024 Mi | 6 | 5 | $24.21 |
| 1000m / 1024 Mi | 3 | 3 | $48.42 |
| 1000m / 2048 Mi | 3 | 2 | $48.42 |
| 2000m / 4096 Mi | 1 | 1 | $145.27 |
| 4000m / 8192 Mi | 0 | 0 | — |
Similar EKS node types
| Type | vCPU | GiB | Alloc CPU | Alloc memory | Max pods | $/month | $ per alloc GiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c6g.xlarge | 4 | 8 | 3.92 | 7.03 GiB | 58 | $99.28 | $14.12 |
| c7g.xlarge | 4 | 8 | 3.92 | 7.03 GiB | 58 | $105.85 | $15.06 |
| c6a.xlarge | 4 | 8 | 3.92 | 7.03 GiB | 58 | $111.69 | $15.89 |
| c6gd.xlarge | 4 | 8 | 3.92 | 7.03 GiB | 58 | $112.13 | $15.95 |
| c5a.xlarge | 4 | 8 | 3.92 | 7.03 GiB | 58 | $112.42 | $15.99 |
| c8g.xlarge | 4 | 8 | 3.92 | 7.03 GiB | 58 | $116.45 | $16.56 |
| c7i-flex.xlarge | 4 | 8 | 3.92 | 7.03 GiB | 58 | $123.79 | $17.61 |
| c5.xlarge | 4 | 8 | 3.92 | 7.03 GiB | 58 | $124.10 | $17.65 |
Closest match on other clouds
| Type | vCPU | GiB | Alloc CPU | Alloc memory | Max pods | $/month | $ per alloc GiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| d4plsv6 | 4 | 8 | 3.86 | 5.90 GiB | 250 | $90.52 | $15.34 |
| n4a-highcpu-4 | 4 | 8 | 3.92 | 6.10 GiB | 110 | $94.84 | $15.54 |
| d4plsv5 | 4 | 8 | 3.86 | 5.90 GiB | 250 | $99.28 | $16.82 |
| n4d-highcpu-4 | 4 | 8 | 3.92 | 6.10 GiB | 110 | $104.33 | $17.10 |
| c2d-highcpu-4 | 4 | 8 | 3.92 | 6.10 GiB | 110 | $109.44 | $17.93 |
| c3d-highcpu-4 | 4 | 8 | 3.92 | 6.10 GiB | 110 | $109.44 | $17.93 |