EC2 instance potentially oversized — average CPU below 10% for 7 days
- Severity
- Low
- Service
- EC2
- Check ID
- EC2_OVERSIZED
What this check finds
An instance with less than 10% average CPU utilization over 7 days may be over-provisioned. Rightsizing to a smaller instance type or Graviton-based type can reduce compute costs by 20–50% without impacting workload performance.
Passing looks like: EC2 instances right-sized.
How to fix it
Review instance metrics in CloudWatch and consider rightsizing.
AWS CLI
Stop the instance first, then change its type:
aws ec2 modify-instance-attribute --instance-id INSTANCE_ID --instance-type VALUE
Names in capitals are placeholders for your own resource. Review a command before you run it.
AWS console
EC2 → Instances → select → Actions → Instance settings → Change instance type.
Compliance
This is a cost check. It flags spend that buys nothing, which no compliance framework asks about, so it is not mapped to a control.
Checked on every scan
KloudLytics runs this check each time it scans a connected AWS account, through a read-only role, and lists every affected resource with its region. On Pro and Business a fix is written for the specific resource rather than the general case above. The exact access it needs
More EC2 checks
- HighAccount does not block public sharing of EBS snapshots
- HighAMI is publicly shared
- HighEBS snapshot is public
- HighEC2 instance CPU spiked abnormally — possible compromise or runaway process
- HighEC2 instance has an IAM role with admin privileges
- MediumAccount default for instance metadata does not require IMDSv2
- MediumEBS default encryption is not enabled for this region
- MediumEBS volume is not encrypted at rest