Table of Contents
- Two ways to buy the same server
- Lightsail: the bundle
- EC2: the line items, priced
- Side by side at 2 GB and 4 GB
- Burstable CPU on both, with the numbers EC2 publishes
- Free Tier in 2026
- What only EC2 has, and what only Lightsail has
- Triggers for moving to EC2
- What this page could not verify
- FAQ
- Sources
Two ways to buy the same server
Lightsail packages compute, disk, transfer and an address into a bundle with a monthly price, billed hourly up to that price. EC2 sells each of those separately: an instance type per hour, an EBS volume per GB-month, a public IPv4 address per hour, and data transfer out per GB, with a 100 GB a month allowance shared across all AWS services. The bundle is simpler and, at small sizes, cheaper. The line items are more flexible and, with reserved instances or savings plans, can be cheaper at scale. Everything else on this page follows from that split.
Lightsail: the bundle
From Lightsail's pricing page in September 2026, Linux bundles with IPv4: $5 (512 MB, 2 vCPUs, 20 GB SSD, 1 TB), $7 (1 GB, 40 GB, 2 TB), $12 (2 GB, 60 GB, 3 TB), $24 (4 GB, 80 GB, 4 TB), $44 (8 GB, 160 GB, 5 TB), then $84, $164, $384 and $884. IPv6-only bundles from $3.50. Included in every plan: "Static IP address, Intuitive management console, DNS management, One-click SSH terminal access (Linux/Unix), One-click RDP access (Windows), Powerful API, Highly available SSD storage, Server monitoring". Snapshots $0.05 per GB a month; block storage $0.10 per GB; managed database $15; load balancer $18. Transfer: "Both inbound and outbound data transfer count towards your data transfer allowance. Only outbound data transfer in excess of your plan's data transfer allowance is subject to overage charges", at $0.09 per GB in US regions. Billing, per the FAQ: "Lightsail plans are charged on an hourly, on-demand basis", capped at the monthly price. The Lightsail review has every table.
EC2: the line items, priced
EC2 on-demand prices below are Linux, US East (N. Virginia), shared tenancy, from the price feed AWS publishes for its pricing page (publication date 2026-09-18), converted to a month at 730 hours. The baseline column is from EC2's burstable-instance documentation.
| Instance | vCPUs / memory | Baseline per vCPU | Per hour | Per 730-hour month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| t3.nano | 2 / 0.5 GiB | 5% | $0.0052 | $3.80 |
| t3.micro | 2 / 1 GiB | 10% | $0.0104 | $7.59 |
| t3.small | 2 / 2 GiB | 20% | $0.0208 | $15.18 |
| t3.medium | 2 / 4 GiB | 20% | $0.0416 | $30.37 |
| t3.large | 2 / 8 GiB | 30% | $0.0832 | $60.74 |
| t3a.small (AMD) | 2 / 2 GiB | 20% | $0.0188 | $13.72 |
| t3a.medium (AMD) | 2 / 4 GiB | 20% | $0.0376 | $27.45 |
| t4g.micro (Arm) | 2 / 1 GiB | 10% | $0.0084 | $6.13 |
| t4g.small (Arm) | 2 / 2 GiB | 20% | $0.0168 | $12.26 |
| t4g.medium (Arm) | 2 / 4 GiB | 20% | $0.0336 | $24.53 |
| t4g.large (Arm) | 2 / 8 GiB | 30% | $0.0672 | $49.06 |
| t8i.small (newest Intel) | 2 / 2 GiB | 20% | $0.02496 | $18.22 |
The other line items, from the AWS Price List for US East (N. Virginia), publication date 2026-09-18:
| Item | Price | Example |
|---|---|---|
| EBS General Purpose gp3 storage | $0.08 per GB-month | 60 GB = $4.80; 30 GB = $2.40 |
| Public IPv4 address, in use or idle | $0.005 per hour | $3.65 a month |
| Data transfer out to the internet | $0 for the first 100 GB a month across all AWS services; then $0.090 per GB for the first 10 TB; $0.085 per GB for the next 40 TB | 1 TB out in a month: about $83 |
| Data transfer in | $0 |
EC2 has no transfer allowance per instance; the 100 GB is account-wide, as the on-demand pricing page says: "AWS customers receive 100 GB of free data transfer out to the internet free each month, aggregated across all AWS Services and Regions (except China and GovCloud)". A Lightsail bundle's 3 TB is per instance.
Side by side at 2 GB and 4 GB
| Line | Lightsail 2 GB | EC2 t3.small | EC2 t4g.small | Lightsail 4 GB | EC2 t3.medium |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compute | in bundle | $15.18 | $12.26 | in bundle | $30.37 |
| Disk | 60 GB in bundle | 60 GB gp3: $4.80 | 60 GB gp3: $4.80 | 80 GB in bundle | 80 GB gp3: $6.40 |
| Public IPv4 | in bundle | $3.65 | $3.65 | in bundle | $3.65 |
| Transfer included | 3 TB per instance | 100 GB per account | 100 GB per account | 4 TB per instance | 100 GB per account |
| Monthly before overage | $12 | $23.63 | $20.71 | $24 | $40.42 |
| With 1 TB out in the month | $12 | about $107 | about $104 | $24 | about $124 |
| With 3 TB out | $12 | about $291 | about $288 | $24 | about $308 |
The compute gap is small (t4g.small is close to the bundle); the transfer gap is what separates them. A Lightsail bundle carries terabytes; an EC2 instance carries the account's 100 GB and then $0.09 per GB. For a server that serves files, video or a busy site, that line decides. For a server that serves little, EC2 costs about $8 to $12 more a month than the bundle for the same memory, and buys the flexibility below.
Burstable CPU on both, with the numbers EC2 publishes
EC2's documentation gives, per T size, the CPU credits earned per hour, the accrual limit and the baseline utilization per vCPU: nano 6 credits and 5%, micro 12 and 10%, small 24 and 20%, medium 24 and 20%, large 36 and 30% (the same across t3, t3a, t4g and t8i). It also says "T8i, T4g, T3a, and T3 instances do not earn launch credits. These instances launch as unlimited by default, and therefore can burst immediately upon start without any launch credits", where, in unlimited mode, an instance with no accrued credits "spends surplus credits to burst" and pays them down later from credits it earns below baseline, with the guide describing how EC2 averages utilization over 24 hours. Lightsail's FAQ describes its bundles as "burstable performance instances that provide a baseline level of CPU performance with the additional ability to burst above the baseline" and, for sustained work "such as video encoding or HPC applications, we recommend you use Amazon EC2"; it does not publish a baseline per bundle, and this page does not infer one from the EC2 table. What follows for buyers: a web server that idles between requests fits either; a build server, encoder or busy database fits neither at the T sizes, and on EC2 the answer is a non-burstable family (M, C, R) at a higher price.
Free Tier in 2026
The AWS Free Tier changed shape, and older comparisons describe the old one. From the AWS billing documentation in September 2026: a new account chooses "Free account plan or Paid account plan"; "If you are new to AWS, you receive USD $100 in credits after you create an account, regardless of your account plan"; "You can also earn up to an additional USD $100 in credits by completing activities"; and "Your free account plan ends after six months or when your credits are fully used - whichever occurs first". The Free Tier page lists t3.micro and t4g.small among free-plan-eligible instances, and Lightsail's pricing page says you can "get started with Amazon Lightsail for free" under the same Free Tier. In practice the credits cover either product for a small server for months; read the current terms before counting on them.
What only EC2 has, and what only Lightsail has
| Capability | Lightsail | EC2 |
|---|---|---|
| Instance choice | Fixed bundles, 512 MB to 128 GB | Many families and sizes: burstable, general, compute, memory, GPU, Arm |
| Disk | Fixed per bundle; block storage add-on at $0.10 per GB | Any size; gp3 at $0.08 per GB-month with provisioned IOPS and throughput; other volume types |
| Pricing options | On-demand, hourly, capped | On-demand, reserved instances, savings plans, spot |
| Transfer | Per-instance allowance, 1 to 9 TB | Account-wide 100 GB, then per GB |
| Network | Simple firewall, static IP, DNS zone, VPC peering to the account | VPCs, subnets, security groups, NACLs, Elastic IPs, multiple interfaces |
| Identity | Account-level | IAM roles on the instance |
| Scaling | Manual resize via snapshot | Auto Scaling groups, load balancers with health checks |
| Managed database | $15 standard, $30 HA, fixed | RDS and Aurora, itemised |
| Console | One product, one screen | The whole AWS console |
| Path between them | Upgrade to EC2 from a manual snapshot | No path back to Lightsail |
Triggers for moving to EC2
- Sustained CPU. The workload runs above the baseline most of the day. On EC2 you can pick a non-burstable family; on Lightsail you cannot.
- Disk shape. You need more or faster disk than the bundle plus block storage gives, or provisioned IOPS.
- An instance type Lightsail does not sell. GPU, high memory, or an Arm (t4g) instance, which Lightsail's bundle list does not name.
- Identity and network. The application needs an IAM role to reach S3 or SQS without keys, or security-group rules across services in one VPC.
- Scale and commitment. You need auto scaling, or you will run the server for a year and want a reserved or savings-plan price that only EC2 offers.
The move is documented: Lightsail's FAQ says "Upgrade to EC2 is a feature that allows you to create a copy of your Lightsail instance in Amazon EC2", starting from an exported manual snapshot; automatic snapshots "cannot be tagged or exported directly to Amazon EC2". Plan it like any migration (guide): build, test on the new address, switch DNS, keep the old instance a week.
What this page could not verify
- Whether Lightsail bundles run on the same instance families as EC2's T instances: not stated on the pages read.
- Lightsail's baseline CPU percentage per bundle: not published on its pricing page or FAQ.
- EC2 prices in regions other than US East (N. Virginia): the feed is per region; Ohio and Oregon can differ.
- Reserved-instance and savings-plan rates: not compared; on-demand only.
- The exact Free Tier allowances per service beyond the credit and six-month terms quoted: on AWS's Free Tier page, which changes.