i3.xlarge as an EKS node
4 vCPU30.5 GiBx86_64Intel Xeon E5-2686 v4 (Broadwell)AWS us-east-1I3 High I/O Extra Large
Where the i3.xlarge goes
Default EKS setup: EKS, VPC CNI default (ENI limit).
CPU3.72 of 4 vCPU left for your pods
Memory29.24 GiB of 30.5 GiB left for your pods
your podsDaemonSets (200m, 300 MiB assumed)kubelet reservedeviction
58max pods per node
$227.76on demand / month · $0.3120/h
$92.87spot / month (varies)
i3.xlarge EKS max pods and allocatable memory — quick answers
- How many pods can a i3.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 29.53 GiB and 3.92 vCPU for pods.
- How many pods can a i3.xlarge run as a node with EKS, prefix delegation? Up to 110; kubelet keeps 1565 MiB of memory and 80m CPU, leaving 28.97 GiB and 3.92 vCPU for pods.
- How many 500m / 1 GiB pods fit? 7 per node after DaemonSets; 2 nodes for 10 replicas, about $455.52/month on demand.
What kubelet reserves on i3.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 | 29.53 GiB | 96.8% |
| EKS, prefix delegation ENABLE_PREFIX_DELEGATION=true | 110 | 80m | 1465 Mi + 100 Mi | 3.92 | 28.97 GiB | 95.0% |
How these numbers are computed: reservation formulas. How many subnet IPs a i3.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 i3.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 | $6.16 |
| 250m / 256 Mi | 14 | 14 | $16.27 |
| 250m / 512 Mi | 14 | 14 | $16.27 |
| 500m / 512 Mi | 7 | 7 | $32.54 |
| 500m / 1024 Mi | 7 | 7 | $32.54 |
| 1000m / 1024 Mi | 3 | 3 | $75.92 |
| 1000m / 2048 Mi | 3 | 3 | $75.92 |
| 2000m / 4096 Mi | 1 | 1 | $227.76 |
| 4000m / 8192 Mi | 0 | 0 | — |
Similar EKS node types
| Type | vCPU | GiB | Alloc CPU | Alloc memory | Max pods | $/month | $ per alloc GiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| r4.xlarge | 4 | 30.5 | 3.92 | 29.53 GiB | 58 | $194.18 | $6.58 |
| r6g.xlarge | 4 | 32 | 3.92 | 31.03 GiB | 58 | $147.17 | $4.74 |
| r7g.xlarge | 4 | 32 | 3.92 | 31.03 GiB | 58 | $156.37 | $5.04 |
| r5a.xlarge | 4 | 32 | 3.92 | 31.03 GiB | 58 | $164.98 | $5.32 |
| r6a.xlarge | 4 | 32 | 3.92 | 31.03 GiB | 58 | $165.56 | $5.34 |
| r6gd.xlarge | 4 | 32 | 3.92 | 31.03 GiB | 58 | $168.19 | $5.42 |
| r8g.xlarge | 4 | 32 | 3.92 | 31.03 GiB | 58 | $172.02 | $5.54 |
| r5.xlarge | 4 | 32 | 3.92 | 31.03 GiB | 58 | $183.96 | $5.93 |
Closest match on other clouds
| Type | vCPU | GiB | Alloc CPU | Alloc memory | Max pods | $/month | $ per alloc GiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c4d-highmem-4 | 4 | 31 | 3.92 | 27.40 GiB | 110 | $180.43 | $6.58 |
| c4-highmem-4 | 4 | 31 | 3.92 | 27.40 GiB | 110 | $190.29 | $6.94 |
| c4-highmem-4-lssd | 4 | 31 | 3.92 | 27.40 GiB | 110 | $250.29 | $9.13 |
| c4n-highmem-4 | 4 | 31 | 3.92 | 27.40 GiB | 110 | $304.48 | $11.11 |
| c4n-highmem-4-lssd | 4 | 31 | 3.92 | 27.40 GiB | 110 | $334.48 | $12.21 |
| e2-highmem-4 | 4 | 32 | 3.92 | 28.34 GiB | 110 | $131.98 | $4.66 |