What is a vCPU?
Short answer
A virtual CPU is one hardware thread (half of a physical core with hyper-threading) that the hypervisor schedules for your server. On shared plans that thread is time-sliced with other customers.
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In more detail
Two '2 vCPU' plans can differ by a factor of two in real throughput depending on CPU generation, clock speed and how heavily the host oversubscribes. Steal time in top or htop shows how much CPU your neighbours are taking.