Find the right Linode instance type based on vCPU, memory, storage, and budget requirements.
Last verified: May 2026
Output will appear here...Linode's catalog spans Shared CPU, Dedicated CPU, High Memory, Premium, and GPU instance families across multiple regions. Picking the cheapest instance that comfortably runs your workload — not the next size up to be safe — saves real money at scale. The Linode Instance Type Finder filters the catalog by vCPU, RAM, disk, and budget, and surfaces dollar-per-vCPU and dollar-per-GB-RAM ratios so the trade-off between families is visible.
Shared CPU Linodes share their underlying hardware with other tenants — fine for development, bursty workloads, or anything that tolerates occasional CPU contention. Dedicated CPU Linodes get exclusive use of their underlying CPU cores — predictable performance, appropriate for production workloads that need consistency. Dedicated runs roughly 1.5-2x the Shared price for similar specs.
High Memory Linodes have a much higher RAM-to-vCPU ratio than the standard families. They're appropriate for in-memory databases (Redis, Memcached), analytics workloads with large working sets, and machine learning inference with big model weights. For most general workloads, standard Dedicated CPU is more cost-effective per useful unit of work.
A microservice team has been running on Dedicated 8 GB Linodes at $48/month each, but load tests show actual usage of 1 vCPU and 1.5 GB RAM. You filter the catalog to '1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, Shared CPU family'; the smallest match is a $10/month Shared 2 GB instance. Migrating 25 instances saves $950/month — paid back in the half hour it takes to update Terraform.
The finder maintains a current Linode instance catalog with vCPU, RAM, SSD storage, transfer allowance, and monthly price. Filtering applies the constraints you supply and sorts results by total monthly cost. Each result also shows derived ratios — dollars per vCPU-month, dollars per GB-RAM-month — so cross-family comparisons are concrete rather than vibes.
Don't pick by total monthly price alone — pick by price per useful resource. A $40/month instance with 4 GB RAM costs $10/GB; an $80/month with 16 GB costs $5/GB. The larger instance is cheaper per gigabyte and often the right call when RAM is a constraint.
Reserve at least 25-30% headroom over your steady-state load. An instance at 80%+ CPU has no margin for spikes, GC pauses, or contention — and the next size up is usually only 30-50% more expensive.
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