This topic describes the instance families of ApsaraDB RDS. ApsaraDB RDS supports the shared instance family, general-purpose instance family, and dedicated instance family.
Instance families
Instance family | Description | Use scenario |
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Shared instance family |
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General-purpose instance family |
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You do not require high stability for your databases. |
Dedicated instance family |
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Your databases are used as core systems in sectors such as finance, e-commerce, public services, and large-sized or medium-sized Internet services. |

Instance types
For more information about the supported instance types and their specifications, such as the number of cores, memory capacity, storage capacity, maximum number of connections, and input/output operations per second (IOPS), see Primary ApsaraDB RDS instance types.Pricing
For more information about the prices of different instance types, visit the ApsaraDB RDS buy page.
Instance family change
You can change the instance type of your RDS instance to an instance type that belongs to a different instance family based on your business requirements.
For more information about how to change the instance type of your RDS instance, see the following topics:
FAQ
It seems that general-purpose instances outperform dedicated instances that have the same CPU and memory specifications. Why should I choose the dedicated instance family?
A dedicated RDS instance enjoys dedicated CPU and memory resources, whereas a general-purpose RDS instance enjoys only dedicated memory resources. Therefore, the dedicated instance offers more reliable performance in actual practice. For more information, see Instance families.