How does the billing system work for macOS instances in cloud services? Is it possible to pay on an hourly basis, or are there other pricing models available?

Question

I have a question regarding whether it's possible to pay only for a few hours a month or if it's necessary to pay for the entire month to have an instance in macOS. Additionally, I'm curious if it's possible to create snapshots and duplicate these machines. Any information on these topics would be greatly appreciated.

Accepted Answer

I have an answer about your question.

**Pricing Model:**
**- Dedicated Hosts:** macOS instances on EC2 run on Dedicated Hosts. This means you pay for the whole physical host, not just for the virtual instances you run on it. The billing is on a per-host basis.

**- Payment Options:** AWS provides both On-Demand and Savings Plan pricing models for macOS Dedicated Hosts.
**- On-Demand:** Pay for the dedicated host by the hour. No long-term commitments or upfront payments are needed. You can increase or decrease your host count based on your requirements.
**- Savings Plans:** This offers lower prices compared to On-Demand pricing in exchange for a commitment to a consistent amount of usage (measured in $/hour) for a 1 or 3 year term.

**- Hourly Billing:** Yes, with On-Demand pricing, you can pay on an hourly basis. However, remember that you're paying for the whole dedicated host, not just an individual VM.

**Snapshots & Duplication**
**- Snapshots:** You can create Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) from your macOS instances. These AMIs can then be used to launch new instances.
**- Duplicating Machines:** By using the AMIs, you can effectively duplicate macOS instances. However, due to the dedicated host nature of macOS on EC2, you would need available capacity on your dedicated host or provision additional hosts to run multiple instances concurrently.

**- Additional Costs:** Don't forget about potential additional costs, such as data transfer, EBS storage, or other associated AWS services that you might use with your macOS instances.

**- Instance Stop and Start:** You can stop and start macOS instances. While an instance is stopped, you're not billed for additional instance hours, but you still incur charges for the dedicated host.

If you're considering using macOS instances on AWS, I would recommend reviewing the official AWS pricing page for the most up-to-date details on macOS EC2 pricing, as prices and features can change over time. https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/mac/

How does the billing system work for macOS instances in cloud services? Is it possible to pay on an hourly basis, or are there other pricing models available?

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