CLF-C02 Billing, Pricing, and Support Practice Question
A company is using Amazon EC2 and wants to understand the difference between Compute Savings Plans and EC2 Instance Savings Plans. Which statement is accurate?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates assume Compute Savings Plans always provide higher discounts due to their broader scope, but in reality, the discount is lower because flexibility is traded for a reduced rate, while EC2 Instance Savings Plans offer higher discounts for committing to a more specific usage pattern.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Compute Savings Plans apply to any EC2 instance, Fargate, and Lambda usage, while EC2 Instance Savings Plans apply to a specific instance family and region
Compute Savings Plans offer the broadest flexibility, automatically applying to any EC2 instance (regardless of family, size, or region), as well as AWS Fargate and AWS Lambda usage. In contrast, EC2 Instance Savings Plans are restricted to a specific instance family within a chosen region, providing a narrower scope of coverage. This distinction is fundamental to understanding how each plan optimizes costs based on workload flexibility.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Compute Savings Plans provide higher discounts than EC2 Instance Savings Plans
Why it's wrong here
This statement reverses the actual discount hierarchy. EC2 Instance Savings Plans offer the larger discount, up to 72%, because they require a firm commitment to a specific instance family and region. Compute Savings Plans, which allow you to change families, regions, and even use Fargate or Lambda, provide up to 66% off. The relationship is inverse: greater flexibility yields a lower potential savings rate.
- ✗
EC2 Instance Savings Plans are more flexible and apply across all instance families
Why it's wrong here
EC2 Instance Savings Plans are actually the more restrictive option—you commit to a single instance family and a single region for a 1- or 3-year term. This commitment unlocks the higher discount, but your usage is locked to that family and region; switching to any other family or region forfeits the savings. In contrast, Compute Savings Plans apply to any instance family, any region, plus Fargate and Lambda, which is the flexibility wrongly attributed to EC2 Instance Plans.
- ✓
Compute Savings Plans apply to any EC2 instance, Fargate, and Lambda usage, while EC2 Instance Savings Plans apply to a specific instance family and region
Why this is correct
Compute Savings Plans deliver maximum flexibility by automatically covering any EC2 instance across all families and regions, as well as AWS Fargate and AWS Lambda usage. EC2 Instance Savings Plans, on the other hand, bind you to a specific instance family in a specific region, which enables the higher discount (up to 72%) because you are surrendering flexibility. This trade-off between flexibility and discount depth is the fundamental distinction between the two products.
- ✗
Both Savings Plans types require specifying the exact instance size at purchase
Why it's wrong here
Purchasing a Savings Plan does not involve selecting an instance size at any point. Instead, you commit to an hourly dollar amount, and the plan automatically applies to any instance size within its scope—for EC2 Instance Savings Plans, any size in the chosen family and region; for Compute Savings Plans, any size across all families. This size flexibility is inherent and happens automatically, so stating that an exact instance size must be specified is incorrect.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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