Instancepedia - EC2 Instance Type Browser

Browse AWS EC2 instance types with pricing in your terminal. Interactive TUI for exploration. Scriptable CLI for automation.

Quick Start

# Install
pip install instancepedia

# Configure AWS (if not already done)
aws configure

# Launch interactive browser
instancepedia

# Or use CLI mode
instancepedia list --region us-east-1
instancepedia pricing t3.micro

That's it! You're now browsing EC2 instances with real-time pricing.

Why Instancepedia?

• 🚀 Fast: Smart caching, batch API calls, instant results
• 💰 Complete Pricing: On-demand, spot, savings plans, reserved instances
• 🎯 Practical: Filter presets, cost optimization, multi-region comparison
• ⚡ Dual Mode: Interactive TUI for exploration, CLI for scripting
• 🆓 Free: Uses only free AWS APIs, never costs you money

Common Tasks

Browse All Instances Interactively

instancepedia

Press ? for keyboard shortcuts. Press F to filter, / to search, Enter to see details.

Find the Cheapest Instance for Your Workload

TUI: Open filter modal (F), set your requirements, press S to sort by price.

CLI:

# Web server: 4+ vCPU, 8+ GB RAM, current gen
instancepedia list --min-vcpu 4 --min-memory 8 --current-generation --sort price

# Database: Memory-optimized, 32+ GB
instancepedia list --family r6i,r7g --min-memory 32 --sort price

# Budget dev box: up to 2 vCPU, 4 GB, cheapest
instancepedia list --max-vcpu 2 --max-memory 4 --sort price | head -20

Compare Instance Types

TUI: Navigate to an instance, press C to mark it, repeat for second instance, press V to compare.

CLI:

# Side-by-side comparison
instancepedia compare t3.medium t3a.medium

# Compare all instances in a family
instancepedia compare-family t3

Get Pricing Information

# Single instance, all pricing types
instancepedia pricing t3.micro --region us-east-1

# Spot price history (30 days)
instancepedia spot-history t3.micro --region us-east-1

# Cost optimization recommendations
instancepedia optimize t3.micro --region us-east-1

# Multi-region comparison
instancepedia compare-regions t3.micro --regions us-east-1,us-west-2,eu-west-1

Use Filter Presets

# List built-in presets
instancepedia presets list

# Apply a preset
instancepedia presets apply web-server

# Create custom preset
instancepedia presets save my-preset --min-vcpu 4 --architecture arm64

# Delete custom preset
instancepedia presets delete my-preset

Export Data for Analysis

TUI: Press E to export current view to JSON and CSV.

CLI:

# Export filtered list to JSON
instancepedia list --family t3 --format json > t3-instances.json

# Export to CSV for spreadsheet
instancepedia list --current-generation --format csv > instances.csv

Key Features

Interactive TUI

• Hierarchical tree view with categories → families → instances
• Real-time pricing loading with 4-hour cache (instant on subsequent runs)
• Advanced filtering by vCPU, memory, GPU, architecture, price, and more
• Smart search with instant results as you type
• Cost optimization with intelligent recommendations (spot, right-sizing, savings plans)
• Spot price history with 30-day trends and volatility analysis
• Multi-region comparison to find the cheapest region
• Export to JSON/CSV for further analysis

Scriptable CLI

• Multiple output formats: Table, JSON, CSV
• Powerful filters: All TUI filters available in CLI
• Batch operations: Process multiple instances or regions
• Filter presets: Built-in and custom presets
• Quiet mode: Clean output for scripting (--quiet)

See all features →

Installation

From PyPI (Recommended)

pip install instancepedia

From Source

git clone https://github.com/pfrederiksen/instancepedia.git
cd instancepedia
pip install -e .

AWS Credentials

Choose one method:

# AWS CLI configuration
aws configure

# Environment variables
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-key
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-secret

# Named profile
export AWS_PROFILE=your-profile

Note: Instancepedia uses only free AWS APIs (EC2 DescribeInstanceTypes, EC2 DescribeSpotPriceHistory, Pricing GetProducts). You will never be charged for using this tool.

Documentation

• Quick Start Guide - Get productive in 5 minutes
• Complete Feature List - All capabilities explained
• CLI Reference - Every command and option
• Keyboard Shortcuts - TUI navigation
• Configuration Guide - Customize behavior
• Examples - Real-world usage scenarios

Example Workflows

Scenario: Choosing an Instance for a Web Application

# 1. Browse interactively to understand options
instancepedia

# 2. Filter to reasonable specs (4 vCPU, 8-16 GB, current gen)
# Press F, set filters, apply

# 3. Sort by price (press S repeatedly until "Price (Low-High)")

# 4. Compare top candidates (mark with C, view with V)

# 5. Check cost optimization (press O on selected instance)

# 6. View spot price history for fault-tolerant workloads (press P)

# 7. Compare pricing across regions (press R)

# 8. Export shortlist for team review (press E)

Scenario: Cost Optimization Analysis

# Get recommendations for existing instance
instancepedia optimize m5.xlarge --region us-east-1 --usage-pattern standard

# Compare spot pricing across regions
instancepedia compare-regions m5.xlarge --regions us-east-1,us-west-2,eu-west-1

# Analyze spot price history
instancepedia spot-history m5.xlarge --region us-east-1 --days 30

# Find cheaper alternatives in the same family
instancepedia compare-family m5 --sort price

Scenario: Infrastructure Planning Script

#!/bin/bash
# Find the cheapest ARM instance with 4 vCPU and 16 GB RAM

INSTANCE=$(instancepedia list \
  --architecture arm64 \
  --min-vcpu 4 \
  --max-vcpu 4 \
  --min-memory 16 \
  --max-memory 16 \
  --current-generation \
  --sort price \
  --format json \
  --quiet | jq -r '.[0].instance_type')

echo "Recommended instance: $INSTANCE"

# Get detailed pricing
instancepedia pricing "$INSTANCE" --format json

Configuration

Instancepedia can be configured via ~/.instancepedia/config.toml:

# Default AWS region
default_region = "us-east-1"

# Default AWS profile (optional)
# aws_profile = "my-profile"

# Enable Vim-style navigation (hjkl)
vim_keys = false

# TUI pricing concurrency (5-50)
tui_pricing_concurrency = 20

# CLI pricing concurrency (5-100)
cli_pricing_concurrency = 50

# Pricing cache TTL in seconds (default: 4 hours)
pricing_cache_ttl = 14400

Full configuration options →

Keyboard Shortcuts (TUI)

Essential shortcuts (press ? for complete list):

Key	Action
/	Search instances
F	Open filter modal
S	Cycle sort order
Enter	View instance details
C	Mark instance for comparison
V	View comparison (2 marked instances)
P	Spot price history
O	Cost optimization recommendations
R	Multi-region pricing comparison
E	Export to JSON/CSV
Q or Esc	Quit / Go back
?	Show all shortcuts

All keyboard shortcuts →

CLI Commands

# Instance browsing
instancepedia list [filters]
instancepedia show <instance-type>
instancepedia search <query>

# Pricing and cost analysis
instancepedia pricing <instance-type>
instancepedia spot-history <instance-type>
instancepedia optimize <instance-type>
instancepedia cost-estimate <instance-type>

# Comparison
instancepedia compare <type1> <type2>
instancepedia compare-family <family>
instancepedia compare-regions <instance-type> --regions r1,r2,r3

# Presets
instancepedia presets list
instancepedia presets apply <preset-name>
instancepedia presets save <name> [filters]
instancepedia presets delete <name>

# Utilities
instancepedia regions
instancepedia cache stats
instancepedia cache clear

Complete CLI reference →

Troubleshooting

Slow first launch? Pricing data is being fetched. Subsequent runs use the cache (4-hour TTL) and are instant.

AWS credentials error? Run aws configure or see Configuration Guide.

Permission errors? Ensure your AWS credentials have ec2:DescribeInstanceTypes, ec2:DescribeSpotPriceHistory, and pricing:GetProducts permissions.

Prices not showing? Some regions may have rate limits. Press R in TUI to retry failed requests.

Want debug info? Run with --debug flag: instancepedia --debug

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Related Projects

• ec2instances.info - Web-based EC2 instance browser
• AWS CLI - Official AWS command-line tool
• Textual - TUI framework (powers Instancepedia)

Acknowledgments

Built with Textual by Textualize.io. Pricing data from AWS Price List API.

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Made with ❤️ for the AWS community

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