Terminate Amazon EC2 instances

You can delete your instance when you no longer need it. This is referred to as terminating your instance. As soon as the state of an instance changes to shutting-down or terminated, you stop incurring charges for that instance.

You can't connect to or start an instance after you've terminated it. However, you can launch new instances using the same AMI.

If you'd rather stop or hibernate your instance, see Stop and start Amazon EC2 instances or Hibernate your Amazon EC2 instance. For more information, see Differences between instance states.

Terminate an instance with a graceful OS shutdown

You can terminate an instance using the default terminate method, which includes an attempt at a graceful OS shutdown. For more information, see Methods for terminating an instance.

Console

To terminate an instance using the default terminate method

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

2. In the navigation pane, choose Instances.

3. Select the instance, and choose Instance state, Terminate (delete) instance.

4. Choose Terminate (delete) when prompted for confirmation.

5. After you terminate an instance, it remains visible for a short while, with a state of terminated.

   If termination fails or if a terminated instance is visible for more than a few hours, see Terminated instance still displayed.

AWS CLI

To terminate an instance using the default terminate method

Use the terminate-instances command.

aws ec2 terminate-instances --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0

PowerShell

To terminate an instance using the default terminate method

Use the Remove-EC2Instance cmdlet.

Remove-EC2Instance -InstanceId i-1234567890abcdef0

Terminate an instance and bypass the graceful OS shutdown

You can bypass the graceful OS shutdown when terminating an instance. For more information, see Methods for terminating an instance.

Console

To terminate an instance and bypass the graceful OS shutdown

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

2. In the navigation pane, choose Instances.

3. Select the instance, and choose Instance state, Terminate (delete) instance.

4. Under Skip OS shutdown, select the Skip OS shutdown checkbox. If you don't see this option in the console, it's not yet available in the console in the current Region. You can, however, access this feature using the AWS CLI or SDK, or try another Region in the console.

5. Choose Terminate (delete).

6. After you terminate an instance, it remains visible for a short while, with a state of terminated.

   If termination fails or if a terminated instance is visible for more than a few hours, see Terminated instance still displayed.

AWS CLI

To terminate an instance and bypass the graceful OS shutdown

Use the terminate-instances command with --skip-os-shutdown..

aws ec2 terminate-instances \
    --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0 \
    --skip-os-shutdown

PowerShell

To terminate an instance and bypass the graceful OS shutdown

Use the Remove-EC2Instance cmdlet with -SkipOsShutdown $true..

Remove-EC2Instance `
    -InstanceId i-1234567890abcdef0 `
    -SkipOsShutdown $true

Troubleshoot instance termination

The requester must have permission to call ec2:TerminateInstances. For more information, see Example policies to work with instances.

If you terminate your instance and another instance starts, most likely you have configured automatic scaling through a feature like EC2 Fleet or Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling. For more information, see Instances automatically launched or terminated.

You can't terminate an instance if termination protection is turned on. For more information, see termination protection.

If your instance is in the shutting-down state for longer than usual, it should be cleaned up (terminated) by automated processes within the Amazon EC2 service. For more information, see Delayed instance termination.