How do I troubleshoot InsufficientInstanceCapacity errors when starting or launching an EC2 instance?

Resolution

If AWS doesn't currently have enough available On-Demand capacity to complete your request, then you receive the following InsufficientInstanceCapacity error:

"An error occurred (InsufficientInstanceCapacity) when calling the RunInstances operation (reached max retries: 4). We currently do not have sufficient capacity in the Availability Zone you requested."

Troubleshoot common issues

• Wait a few minutes and then submit your request again.
• Submit a new request with a reduced number of instances.
• If you're launching an instance, submit a new request without specifying an Availability Zone.
• If you're launching an instance, submit a new request using a different instance type. You can resize at a later stage, if needed.
• Launching instances into a cluster placement group might cause an insufficient capacity error. For more information, see Working with placement groups.

For more information, see Insufficient instance capacity.

Move the instance

If the preceding troubleshooting steps don't resolve the problem, then you can move the instance to another VPC or to another subnet and Availability Zone.

Avoid insufficient capacity errors on critical machines

Consider creating On-Demand Capacity Reservations in advance. To use an On-Demand Capacity Reservation, do the following:

1. Create the Capacity Reservation in an Availability Zone.
2. Launch critical instances into your Capacity Reservation. You can view real-time Capacity Reservation usage, and launch instances into it as needed.

Note: The request to create a Capacity Reservation might fail for the following reasons:

• There isn't enough capacity to fulfill the request.
• You exceeded your On-Demand Instance quota.

For more information, see Work with Capacity Reservations.

Related information

Why am I unable to start or launch my EC2 instance?