AWS EC2 Mac Pricing 2026: Every Instance per Hour and per Month (M4 $1.23/h)
The short answer: an EC2 Mac costs from $0.65 per host hour for the oldest M1 to $12.50 for the M3 Ultra in N. Virginia, which is about $475 to $9,125 a month if the host stays allocated. The current M4 host is $1.23 an hour, about $898a month. Every allocation is billed for at least 24 hours, and storage and data transfer come on top. Every rate below is from AWS's public Dedicated Host price feed, published 25 September 2026.
EC2 Mac prices for every instance type
| Instance | Chip | Memory | Per host hour | Per month (730 h) | Minimum charge (24 h) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
mac1.metal | Intel Core i7 | 32 GB | $1.083 | $791 | $25.99 |
mac2.metal | M1 | 16 GB | $0.65 | $475 | $15.60 |
mac2-m2.metal | M2 | 24 GB | $0.878 | $641 | $21.07 |
mac2-m2pro.metal | M2 Pro | 32 GB | $1.56 | $1,139 | $37.44 |
mac2-m1ultra.metal | M1 Ultra | 128 GB | $5.00 | $3,650 | $120.00 |
mac-m4.metal | M4 | 24 GB | $1.23 | $898 | $29.52 |
mac-m4pro.metal | M4 Pro | 48 GB | $1.97 | $1,438 | $47.28 |
mac-m4max.metal | M4 Max | 128 GB | $6.25 | $4,563 | $150.00 |
mac-m3ultra.metal | M3 Ultra | 256 GB | $12.50 | $9,125 | $300.00 |
On demand rates for the N. Virginia region. Europe costs more: the M4 host is $1.353 an hour in Ireland and $1.476 in Frankfurt, 10 to 20% above Virginia. Savings Plans lower the host rate in exchange for a one or three year commitment. Check the EC2 Mac page for the instance list and the AWS Pricing Calculator for your region.
How EC2 Mac billing works
Mac instances are the only EC2 family that needs a Dedicated Host: you allocate a physical Mac, then launch an instance on it. The host is billed per second, but every allocation carries a 24 hour minimum, which AWS attributes to the Apple macOS license. Stop your instance after two hours and you still pay for the full day; release the host and allocate it again the next morning and a new 24 hour minimum starts. You pay for the host whether or not an instance is running on it, which is why hourly Mac pricing on AWS works out closer to daily or monthly pricing in practice.
What else you pay for
- EBS storage. The root volume is a separate charge per GB; a usable macOS image with Xcode or a few language models runs to hundreds of gigabytes.
- Data transfer. Inbound is free; serving results out is metered egress at standard EC2 rates.
- Setup time. Dedicated Host allocation, IAM roles, VPC and security groups, and a first boot that can take hours are engineering time rather than a line on the bill.
- The step up between chips. Each tier roughly doubles the host rate: the M4 Pro host costs 2.2 times the M2 host for the same 24 hour minimum, and that matters for language models, where memory bandwidth sets your tokens per second.
EC2 Mac against a monthly dedicated Mac
Full disclosure: the right column is us. Same chip and the same unified memory, EC2 at 730 host hours in N. Virginia against a Macyou machine billed by the month.
| Machine | EC2 Mac per month | Macyou per month | Macyou billed yearly |
|---|---|---|---|
| M4, 24 GB | $898 | $143 | $113 |
| M4 Pro, 48 GB | $1,438 | $257 | $180 |
| M4 Max, 128 GB | $4,563 | $471 | $305 |
| M3 Ultra, 256 GB | $9,125 | $857 | $530 |
Every Macyou machine is a physical Mac used by one customer, ready in about 5 minutes, with Ollama, MLX and an OpenAI compatible API preinstalled and no charge for storage or traffic on top. The fine print of every EC2 Mac plan is in our AWS EC2 Mac review, and the wider field, from MacStadium to Scaleway, is in EC2 Mac alternatives and Mac cloud hosting compared.
When EC2 Mac is the right call
If the rest of your stack already runs on AWS and the Mac has to sit in the same VPC with the same IAM and audit trail, EC2 Mac is a rational choice: that integration is what the premium buys. Large iOS CI fleets that scale hosts up and down under automation, with committed use discounts, are the classic fit. For one Mac that runs around the clock, such as a language model endpoint, an agent host or a build box for a small team, a monthly dedicated Mac costs a fraction of the host rate.
FAQ
How much does an EC2 Mac cost per month? In N. Virginia on demand, from about $475 for the M1 host to $9,125 for the M3 Ultra at 730 hours, before EBS and data transfer. The M4 host is about $898 and the M4 Pro host about $1,438.
Can I pay hourly for an EC2 Mac? The host is metered per second, but every allocation carries a 24 hour minimum, so the smallest charge is one day: $29.52 for an M4 host in N. Virginia.
Does AWS offer M4 Macs? Yes: mac-m4 (M4, 24 GB), mac-m4pro (M4 Pro, 48 GB) and mac-m4max (M4 Max, 128 GB), plus mac-m3ultra (M3 Ultra, 256 GB), alongside the older Intel, M1 and M2 hosts.
Is there a free tier for EC2 Mac? No. Dedicated Hosts, and therefore Mac instances, are not part of the EC2 free tier.
What is the cheapest way to get an M4 Mac in the cloud? A monthly dedicated Mac. An M4 Mac mini with 16 GB at Macyou is $99/mo, or $80/mo billed yearly, against about $898 for an M4 host on EC2.