Reserved instances offer discounted hourly rates — often 30-50% below on-demand — in exchange for upfront commitment to a usage period, typically 1 month, 3 months, 1 year, or 3 years. The longer the commitment, the steeper the discount.
The economics work for sustained workloads: production inference services, long-running training jobs, or any usage with predictable hourly demand over months. Reserved capacity is guaranteed available (unlike spot) and is dedicated to the customer for the reservation period.
Reserved pricing varies substantially across marketplace partners and is often negotiated rather than publicly listed. AIMC tracks reserved-tier listings where partners publish them but maintains canonical comparisons at the on-demand tier.