(Old Model) Bid a price. Highest bidder wins

(New Model) Quote your maximum price. Prices decided by long term trends.

Up to 90% off (compared to On-Demand)

Can be terminated with a 2 minute notice

Ideal for Non time-critical workloads that can tolerate interruptions (faulttolerant)

A batch program that does not have a strict deadline AND can be stopped at short notice and

re-started

Variations:

Spot Block: Request Spot instances for specific duration (1 or 2 .. or 6 hrs)

Spot Fleet: Request multiple spot instances across a range of instance types

More instance types => better chances of fulfilling your spot request