# Regional and zonal Reserved Instances (scope)
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When you purchase a Reserved Instance, you determine the scope of the Reserved Instance. The scope is either regional or zonal. 
+ **Regional**: When you purchase a Reserved Instance for a Region, it's referred to as a *regional* Reserved Instance.
+ **Zonal**: When you purchase a Reserved Instance for a specific Availability Zone, it's referred to as a *zonal* Reserved Instance.

The scope does not affect the price. You pay the same price for a regional or zonal Reserved Instance. For more information about Reserved Instance pricing, see [Key variables that determine Reserved Instance pricing](ec2-reserved-instances.md#ri-key-pricing-variables) and [Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances Pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/reserved-instances/pricing/).

For more information about how to specify the scope of a Reserved Instance, see [RI Attributes](https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/reserved-instances/#riattributes), specifically the **Availability Zone** bullet.

## Differences between regional and zonal Reserved Instances
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The following table highlights some key differences between regional Reserved Instances and zonal Reserved Instances:


|  | Regional Reserved Instances | Zonal Reserved Instances | 
| --- | --- | --- | 
|  Ability to reserve capacity  |  A regional Reserved Instance does *not* reserve capacity.  |  A zonal Reserved Instance reserves capacity in the specified Availability Zone.  | 
|  Availability Zone flexibility  |  The Reserved Instance discount applies to instance usage in any Availability Zone in the specified Region.  |  No Availability Zone flexibility—the Reserved Instance discount applies to instance usage in the specified Availability Zone only.  | 
|  Instance size flexibility  |  The Reserved Instance discount applies to instance usage within the instance family, regardless of size. Only supported on Amazon Linux/Unix Reserved Instances with default tenancy. For more information, see [Instance size flexibility determined by normalization factor](apply_ri.md#ri-normalization-factor). |  No instance size flexibility—the Reserved Instance discount applies to instance usage for the specified instance type and size only.  | 
|  Queuing a purchase  |  You can queue purchases for regional Reserved Instances.  |  You can't queue purchases for zonal Reserved Instances.  | 

For more information and examples, see [How Reserved Instance discounts are applied](apply_ri.md).