Amazon Redshift RG instances have added rg.large / rg.12xlarge, so I tried launching rg.large
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Introduction
On July 16, 2026, two new sizes — rg.large and rg.12xlarge — were added to the RG instances for Amazon Redshift.
The RG instance architecture and the integrated data lake engine are explained in the previous article.
RG Instance Spec List
With this addition, the RG family now consists of the following 4 sizes.
| Instance | vCPU | Memory | Slices/Node | RMS Limit/Node | Node Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rg.large (newly added) | 2 | 16 GiB | 2 | 8 TB | 2–16 |
| rg.xlarge | 4 | 32 GiB | 2 | 32 TB | 2–16 (resize: 32) |
| rg.4xlarge | 16 | 128 GiB | 8 | 128 TB | 2–32 (resize: 64) |
| rg.12xlarge (newly added) | 48 | 384 GiB | 16 | 128 TB | 2–128 |
Source: Amazon Redshift Management Guide — Clusters and nodes
※ As of July 16, 2026, rg.large / rg.12xlarge are not yet reflected in the spec table of the Management Guide. The specs for the new sizes are organized based on the product attributes of the Pricing API and the options available at cluster creation time. Among these, the RMS limit and slice count for rg.large were also verified in an actual environment.
rg.large has 2 vCPUs / 16 GiB and is the smallest size in the RG family. It becomes the most affordable entry point to benefit from RG advantages (Graviton + integrated data lake engine). rg.12xlarge has 48 vCPUs / 384 GiB and is the largest size in the RG family.
Launching rg.large
A 2-node cluster of rg.large was created in the Tokyo region.
aws redshift create-cluster \
--region ap-northeast-1 \
--cluster-identifier rg-large-test \
--cluster-type multi-node \
--node-type rg.large \
--number-of-nodes 2 \
--master-username admin \
--master-user-password '****'
After the cluster became available, the main parameters confirmed via describe-clusters are as follows.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Parameter Group | default.redshift-2.0 |
| Encryption | Enabled by default (AWS_OWNED_KMS_KEY) |
| AQUA | disabled |
| Node Configuration | LEADER + COMPUTE-0 + COMPUTE-1 |
| Elastic Resize Target | 3 or 4 nodes |
| MultiAZ | Disabled |
| MaintenanceTrack | current |
Note that rg.large and rg.12xlarge are only available on the current track (P202).
Checking System Information via DB Connection
SQL was executed using the Redshift Data API (aws redshift-data execute-statement / get-statement-result) and the results were verified.
version()
PostgreSQL 8.0.2 on i686-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by GCC gcc (GCC) 3.4.2 20041017 (Red Hat 3.4.2-6.fc3), Redshift 1.0.358853
stv_node_storage_capacity
| node | used (MB) | capacity (MB) |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 47 | 8,000,000 |
| 1 | 22 | 8,000,000 |
capacity = 8,000,000 MB (8 TB). This matched the RMS limit in the spec table (8 TB/node).
stv_slices
| node | slice | localslice | type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 0 | D |
| 0 | 1 | 1 | D |
| 1 | 2 | 0 | D |
| 1 | 3 | 1 | D |
2 nodes × 2 slices/node = 4 slices total. This matched the spec table (2 slices/node).
Checking Pricing via the Pricing API
You can retrieve the on-demand price for each size and region by specifying instanceType and regionCode with aws pricing get-products.
aws pricing get-products \
--region us-east-1 \
--service-code AmazonRedshift \
--filters \
'Type=TERM_MATCH,Field=instanceType,Value=rg.large' \
'Type=TERM_MATCH,Field=regionCode,Value=ap-northeast-1' \
'Type=TERM_MATCH,Field=productFamily,Value=Compute Instance'
The on-demand pricing for all 4 RG sizes is summarized below. The following is the unit price per compute node.
| Instance | vCPU | Memory | Tokyo (ap-northeast-1) | US East (us-east-1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| rg.large (newly added) | 2 | 16 GiB | $0.4473/h | $0.3801/h |
| rg.xlarge | 4 | 32 GiB | $0.8946/h | $0.7602/h |
| rg.4xlarge | 16 | 128 GiB | $3.58027/h | $3.04267/h |
| rg.12xlarge (newly added) | 48 | 384 GiB | $10.7429/h | $9.128/h |
Prices were retrieved from the Pricing API as of 2026-07-16. For the latest pricing, please check Amazon Redshift Pricing.
Cleanup
After completing the verification, the cluster was deleted.
aws redshift delete-cluster \
--region ap-northeast-1 \
--cluster-identifier rg-large-test \
--skip-final-cluster-snapshot
Summary
The RG instance family has been expanded to 4 sizes, making it possible to choose from the 2 vCPU rg.large to the 48 vCPU rg.12xlarge. This makes it easier to select a size suited to your workload, from small-scale testing use cases to large-scale configurations.
The on-demand price for rg.large in the Tokyo region is $0.4473/node-hour, and the compute cost for the minimum 2-node configuration is $0.8946/hour. As the smallest size in the RG family, it serves as an entry point for trying out the RG architecture.
Reference Links
RG Instance Related Articles
