How do I remove active resources that I no longer need in my AWS account?

Resolution

Check for active resources

Complete the following steps:

1. Open the AWS Billing and Cost Management console.
2. In the navigation pane, choose Bills.
3. On the Charges by service tab, expand each service to identify the AWS Regions where services incur charges. You must remove the resources in those Regions.
   Note: If you use the consolidated billing feature in AWS Organizations, then the Charges by account tab lists totals for all accounts.
4. In the Billing period: dropdown list, choose a previous month to view its charges. Note the services that have active resources for the current and previous billing periods.

Note: The Billing and Cost Management console takes about 24 hours to update usage and charge information for active resources. For more information, see Understanding unexpected charges and Why did I receive a bill after I closed my AWS account?

Use the AWS Management Console to remove resources

Note: AWS doesn't require you to delete your resources before you close your account.

To remove active resources for any AWS service, complete the following steps:

1. Open the AWS Management Console.
2. In the Search bar, enter the name of the service that contains the resources that you want to remove.
3. On the service console, select the resource that you want to delete, and then choose Delete.
   Note: Be sure to check each Region where you allocated resources.

Remove resources in deactivated Regions

Resources in Regions that you deactivated continue to incur charges.

To remove resources in deactivated Regions, complete the following steps:

1. Reactivate the Region.
   Note: If you use AWS Organizations, then reactivate the Region in your organization's management account.
2. On the AWS Management Console, search for the service that contains the resources.
3. On the service console, select the active resources, and then choose Delete.
4. Deactivate the Region.

Delete Amazon EC2 resources

To delete active Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) resources, see How do I delete or terminate my Amazon EC2 resources?

For information about Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) storage charges for your EC2 instances, see Why am I charged for Amazon EBS when all my instances are stopped?

Delete Amazon EBS snapshots

Amazon EBS snapshots continue to incur charges independently of volumes. After you delete volumes, you must also delete associated snapshots to stop charges.

Note: If other snapshots reference a deleted snapshot's data, then storage costs might not decrease because the referenced data remains.

Release Elastic IP addresses

Even if an Elastic IP address isn't associated with a resource, it continues to incur charges. To stop charges, release all Elastic IP addresses.

For more information, see Why am I being billed for Elastic IP addresses when my Amazon EC2 instances are terminated?

Delete Amazon S3 objects and buckets

To delete Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) objects and buckets that you created, see How do I delete Amazon S3 objects and buckets?

Note: Before you delete the objects in the bucket, you must deactivate server access logging. Otherwise, logs might be immediately written to your bucket after you delete your bucket's objects.

To delete an S3 bucket that AWS Elastic Beanstalk created, see Deleting the Elastic Beanstalk Amazon S3 bucket.

Note: If you delete a bucket that Elastic Beanstalk created, then existing applications in the corresponding Region might not accurately function.

Delete Amazon RDS resources

To delete Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) resources, see Deleting a database (DB) instance or Deleting a DB snapshot for Amazon RDS.

After you delete an Amazon RDS DB instance, retained automated backups continue to incur charges. To stop charges, you must also delete retained automated backups.

Note: Retained automated backups are separate from DB snapshots. You must delete both.

Delete Amazon Lightsail resources

To delete your active Amazon Lightsail resources, see How do I shut down my Amazon Lightsail resources?

Terminate Amazon EMR clusters

To terminate an Amazon EMR cluster, see How do I terminate an Amazon EMR cluster?

Delete Amazon ECS services

To remove an Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) service, see Deleting an Amazon ECS service using the console.

Delete NAT gateways in Amazon VPC

To delete a NAT gateway in Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC), see How do I delete a NAT gateway in Amazon VPC?

Remove resources for other AWS services

To remove resources for other services, see the AWS Documentation for that service.

Note: It's a best practice to delete your active AWS Directory Service directories before you close your account. For more information, see How do I delete an AWS Directory Service directory?

Charges for subscriptions

After you close or suspend your account, the following subscriptions continue to incur charges.

Reserved Instances

If you have the following Reserved Instances (RIs) with monthly charges, then AWS bills you for the subscriptions until the plan term ends:

• Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances
• Amazon RDS Reserved Instances
• Amazon Redshift Reserved Instances
• Amazon ElastiCache Reserved Cache Nodes

AWS can't cancel an RI before the subscription term ends. However, you can sell Amazon EC2 RIs in the Reserve Instances Marketplace. For more information about the marketplace, see Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances Marketplace.

Savings Plans

If you signed up for a Savings Plan, then AWS charges you for the committed hourly amount until the plan term ends, regardless of usage.

AWS Marketplace subscriptions

Before you close your account, cancel all active AWS Marketplace subscriptions.

Note: After you close your account, subscription charges continue during the 90-day post-closure period and until the subscription terms expire.

Related information

Close an AWS account

AWS Free Tier