EDP NegotiationSavings Plans OptimizationReserved Instances StrategyEC2 Right-SizingS3 Cost ReductionEgress NegotiationMigration CreditsSupport Tier AdvisoryMulti-Cloud LeverageBedrock AI PricingEDP NegotiationSavings Plans OptimizationReserved Instances StrategyEC2 Right-SizingS3 Cost ReductionEgress NegotiationMigration CreditsSupport Tier AdvisoryMulti-Cloud LeverageBedrock AI Pricing
White Paper · Free Download

AWS Reserved Instances Optimization Handbook.

By Migration Practice·Last updated ·6 min read

Reserved Instances were AWS's first long-term commitment construct, and they are still the right tool for a specific set of workloads — primarily RDS, ElastiCache, Redshift, OpenSearch, and DynamoDB capacity. This handbook documents the com

$2.4B+
AWS spend reviewed
500+
Engagements
38%
Avg reduction
$340M+
Documented savings
Abstract

What's inside.

Reserved Instances were AWS's first long-term commitment construct, and they are still the right tool for a specific set of workloads — primarily RDS, ElastiCache, Redshift, OpenSearch, and DynamoDB capacity. This handbook documents the complete RI strategy for the workloads where Savings Plans don't apply, plus the cleanup playbook for legacy EC2 RIs that should now be converted to Savings Plans. It is built on 500+ AWS engagements and $2.4 billion in reviewed spend.

Most enterprise customers have a mixed RI portfolio that has accumulated over years — Standard RIs, Convertible RIs, regional and zonal RIs, RIs marked for sale on the RI Marketplace, and forgotten RIs running against decommissioned workloads. This handbook provides the audit framework to inventory that portfolio, the conversion logic for each RI type, and the negotiation strategy for new RI commitments against the services Savings Plans don't cover.

The white paper also addresses the harder question of size flexibility and family normalization. RDS RIs in particular have non-obvious flexibility characteristics that materially change the optimization math, and most internal teams apply RDS RI strategy as if it were identical to EC2 — producing systematically suboptimal portfolios.

Table of contents

  1. Executive summary — when Reserved Instances are still the right tool
  2. RI portfolio audit framework — inventory, ownership, and utilization analysis
  3. Standard vs. Convertible RI economics by service and term
  4. RDS RI size flexibility and family normalization mechanics
  5. ElastiCache, Redshift, OpenSearch, and DynamoDB RI strategy
  6. Legacy EC2 RI cleanup — when to convert, when to sell, when to let expire
  7. RI Marketplace mechanics — pricing, fees, and timing
  8. Cross-region and cross-account RI sharing under AWS Organizations
  9. Appendix A — RI portfolio audit template
  10. Appendix B — conversion decision tree for each RI type

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Methodology

Built on 500+ engagements.

Every figure, benchmark, and recommendation in this white paper is grounded in primary data from real AWS negotiation engagements. We have advised on more than $2.4 billion in AWS spend across 500+ engagements, spanning financial services, SaaS, media, retail, healthcare, public sector, and AI-native companies. The data set is anonymized and aggregated; no individual customer agreement is identifiable.

This white paper is buyer-side analysis. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or reviewed by Amazon Web Services. The recommendations reflect what works in negotiation against AWS's standard playbook, not AWS's preferred customer behavior. Where the two diverge, we have written from the customer's perspective.

Related resources

If you found this useful.

Service

Reserved Instance Strategy

Hands-on RI portfolio management across all instance families and accounts.

White Paper

Savings Plans Complete Strategy Guide

Convert legacy EC2 RIs to Savings Plans using the framework in this companion white paper.

Pricing

RDS & Databases Pricing

Detailed RDS pricing guide — RIs are still the right primary lever for RDS workloads.

Need help applying the playbook?

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Frequently asked questions

Do EC2 Reserved Instances still make sense after Savings Plans launched?

For new commitments, no. Savings Plans produce equivalent or better economics with materially better flexibility. The remaining EC2 RI use case is highly specific zonal capacity reservations, where the capacity guarantee — not the discount — is the value.

How do RDS RIs differ from EC2 RIs?

RDS RIs have size flexibility within an instance family and engine type — a db.r6g.large RI can apply to half a db.r6g.xlarge. This changes the optimization math materially: you can commit to smaller units and still capture coverage on larger workloads. Most customers do not exploit this.

Should we sell unused RIs on the RI Marketplace?

Sometimes. The RI Marketplace charges a 12% fee and prices are typically 10% to 30% below remaining book value. For RIs with 6+ months remaining and no internal use case, selling can recover meaningful value. For RIs with less than 6 months remaining, letting them expire is usually cheaper than the sales overhead.

Can RIs be negotiated under an EDP?

Volume tier breakpoints on RI purchases can be negotiated for very large RI commitments. More commonly, the underlying compute spend (post-RI discount) is the EDP-eligible commitment driver, so the negotiation focuses on RI strategy as a precursor to EDP modeling, not as a separate negotiation.

Related reading

Continue with the negotiation playbook.

See the full Reserved Instance Strategy guide, or browse all services and case studies.