t3.micro as an EKS node
2 vCPU1 GiBx86_64Intel Skylake E5 2686 v5AWS us-east-1T3 Micro
Where the t3.micro goes
Default EKS setup: EKS, VPC CNI default (ENI limit).
CPU1.73 of 2 vCPU left for your pods
Memory0.32 GiB of 1 GiB left for your pods
your podsDaemonSets (200m, 300 MiB assumed)kubelet reservedeviction
4max pods per node
$7.59on demand / month · $0.0104/h
$2.13spot / month (varies)
t3.micro EKS max pods and allocatable memory — quick answers
- How many pods can a t3.micro run as a node with EKS, VPC CNI default (ENI limit)? Up to 4; kubelet keeps 399 MiB of memory and 70m CPU, leaving 0.61 GiB and 1.93 vCPU for pods.
- How many pods can a t3.micro run as a node with EKS, prefix delegation? Up to 110; kubelet keeps 1565 MiB of memory and 70m CPU, leaving 0.00 GiB and 1.93 vCPU for pods.
- How many 500m / 1 GiB pods fit? 0 per node after DaemonSets; 10 nodes for 10 replicas.
What kubelet reserves on t3.micro
| 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 | 4 | 70m | 299 Mi + 100 Mi | 1.93 | 0.61 GiB | 61.0% |
| EKS, prefix delegation ENABLE_PREFIX_DELEGATION=true | 110 | 70m | 1465 Mi + 100 Mi | 1.93 | 0.00 GiB | 0.0% |
How these numbers are computed: reservation formulas. How many subnet IPs a t3.micro 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 t3.micro
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 | 1 | 0 | $7.59 |
| 250m / 256 Mi | 1 | 0 | $7.59 |
| 250m / 512 Mi | 0 | 0 | — |
| 500m / 512 Mi | 0 | 0 | — |
| 500m / 1024 Mi | 0 | 0 | — |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| t4g.micro | 2 | 1 | 1.93 | 0.61 GiB | 4 | $6.13 | $10.05 |
| t3a.micro | 2 | 1 | 1.93 | 0.61 GiB | 4 | $6.86 | $11.24 |
| t8i.micro | 2 | 1 | 1.93 | 0.00 GiB | 110 | $9.11 | — |
| t4g.nano | 2 | 0.5 | 1.93 | 0.11 GiB | 4 | $3.07 | $27.78 |
| t3a.nano | 2 | 0.5 | 1.93 | 0.11 GiB | 4 | $3.43 | $31.09 |
| t3.nano | 2 | 0.5 | 1.93 | 0.11 GiB | 4 | $3.80 | $34.40 |
| t8i.nano | 2 | 0.5 | 1.93 | 0.00 GiB | 110 | $4.56 | — |
| t2.micro | 1 | 1 | 0.94 | 0.61 GiB | 4 | $8.47 | $13.87 |
Closest match on other clouds
| Type | vCPU | GiB | Alloc CPU | Alloc memory | Max pods | $/month | $ per alloc GiB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| e2-micro | 2 | 1 | 0.94 | 0.65 GiB | 110 | $33.98 | $52.09 |
| n1-highcpu-2 | 2 | 1.7998 | 1.93 | 1.25 GiB | 110 | $51.72 | $41.30 |
| e2-highcpu-2 | 2 | 2 | 1.93 | 1.40 GiB | 110 | $36.11 | $25.75 |
| e2-small | 2 | 2 | 0.94 | 1.40 GiB | 110 | $36.11 | $25.75 |
| n2d-highcpu-2 | 2 | 2 | 1.93 | 1.40 GiB | 110 | $45.53 | $32.47 |
| n2-highcpu-2 | 2 | 2 | 1.93 | 1.40 GiB | 110 | $52.34 | $37.32 |