c8a.medium as an EKS node
1 vCPU2 GiBx86_64AMD EPYC 9R45 ProcessorAWS us-east-1C8A Medium
Where the c8a.medium goes
Default EKS setup: EKS, VPC CNI default (ENI limit).
CPU0.74 of 1 vCPU left for your pods
Memory1.27 GiB of 2 GiB left for your pods
your podsDaemonSets (200m, 300 MiB assumed)kubelet reservedeviction
8max pods per node
$39.34on demand / month · $0.0539/h
$9.99spot / month (varies)
c8a.medium EKS max pods and allocatable memory — quick answers
- How many pods can a c8a.medium run as a node with EKS, VPC CNI default (ENI limit)? Up to 8; kubelet keeps 443 MiB of memory and 60m CPU, leaving 1.57 GiB and 0.94 vCPU for pods.
- How many pods can a c8a.medium run as a node with EKS, prefix delegation? Up to 110; kubelet keeps 1565 MiB of memory and 60m CPU, leaving 0.47 GiB and 0.94 vCPU for pods.
- How many 500m / 1 GiB pods fit? 1 per node after DaemonSets; 10 nodes for 10 replicas, about $393.40/month on demand.
What kubelet reserves on c8a.medium
| 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 | 8 | 60m | 343 Mi + 100 Mi | 0.94 | 1.57 GiB | 78.4% |
| EKS, prefix delegation ENABLE_PREFIX_DELEGATION=true | 110 | 60m | 1465 Mi + 100 Mi | 0.94 | 0.47 GiB | 23.6% |
How these numbers are computed: reservation formulas. How many subnet IPs a c8a.medium 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 c8a.medium
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 | 5 | 1 | $7.87 |
| 250m / 256 Mi | 2 | 0 | $19.67 |
| 250m / 512 Mi | 2 | 0 | $19.67 |
| 500m / 512 Mi | 1 | 0 | $39.34 |
| 500m / 1024 Mi | 1 | 0 | $39.34 |
| 1000m / 1024 Mi | 0 | 0 | — |
| 1000m / 2048 Mi | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2000m / 4096 Mi | 0 | 0 | — |
| 4000m / 8192 Mi | 0 | 0 | — |
Similar EKS node types
| Type | vCPU | GiB | Alloc CPU | Alloc memory | Max pods | $/month | $ per alloc GiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| t2.small | 1 | 2 | 0.94 | 1.54 GiB | 11 | $16.79 | $10.94 |
| c6g.medium | 1 | 2 | 0.94 | 1.57 GiB | 8 | $24.82 | $15.84 |
| c7g.medium | 1 | 2 | 0.94 | 1.57 GiB | 8 | $26.50 | $16.91 |
| c6gd.medium | 1 | 2 | 0.94 | 1.57 GiB | 8 | $28.03 | $17.88 |
| c8g.medium | 1 | 2 | 0.94 | 1.57 GiB | 8 | $29.11 | $18.57 |
| c6gn.medium | 1 | 2 | 0.94 | 1.57 GiB | 8 | $31.54 | $20.12 |
| c9g.medium | 1 | 2 | 0.94 | 1.22 GiB | 40 | $31.73 | $25.93 |
| c7gd.medium | 1 | 2 | 0.94 | 1.57 GiB | 8 | $33.14 | $21.14 |
Closest match on other clouds
| Type | vCPU | GiB | Alloc CPU | Alloc memory | Max pods | $/month | $ per alloc GiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n4a-highcpu-1 | 1 | 2 | 0.94 | 1.40 GiB | 110 | $23.71 | $16.91 |
| c4a-highcpu-1 | 1 | 2 | 0.94 | 1.40 GiB | 110 | $27.65 | $19.72 |
| f1alsv7 | 1 | 2 | 0.94 | 1.40 GiB | 250 | $44.16 | $31.49 |
| f1aldsv7 | 1 | 2 | 0.94 | 1.40 GiB | 250 | $52.19 | $37.22 |
| n1-standard-1 | 1 | 3.75 | 0.94 | 2.71 GiB | 110 | $34.67 | $12.77 |
| n4a-standard-1 | 1 | 4 | 0.94 | 2.90 GiB | 110 | $28.11 | $9.68 |