Alert
AWS Reserved Instance pricing restructure — enterprise contracts at risk
Intelligence Team5 min readMay 10, 2026
AWS has changed how Reserved Instance discounts stack with Enterprise Discount Programme (EDP) commitments. Contracts signed before January 2026 may be paying 12–18% more than necessary.
What changed
Previously, RI discounts applied on top of EDP commitment discounts — effectively stacking. AWS has restructured this so RI discounts now apply to the EDP-adjusted rate rather than the on-demand rate. For customers with both EDP and significant RI coverage, the effective saving is reduced by an average of 14%.
Who is affected
- Customers with both an EDP commitment and Reserved Instance portfolio
- EDP contracts signed before January 1, 2026
- Customers using EC2, RDS, or ElastiCache Reserved Instances
- Annual cloud spend above $500K (below this, impact is minimal)
Immediate actions
- Request a billing reconciliation from your AWS account team
- Model your RI portfolio against new stacking rules
- Consider Savings Plans as an alternative to traditional RIs
- Review your EDP commitment level — a restructure may unlock better terms
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