EC2 instance is stopped — attached EBS volumes still billed
- Severity
- Medium
- Service
- EC2
- Check ID
- EC2_STOPPED_INSTANCE
What this check finds
A stopped EC2 instance does not incur compute charges, but its attached EBS volumes continue to accrue storage costs. Long-running stopped instances often represent abandoned workloads where the instance and its volumes should be terminated and deleted.
Passing looks like: No lingering stopped EC2 instances.
How to fix it
If the instance is no longer needed, create an AMI snapshot for recovery, then terminate it: aws ec2 terminate-instances --instance-ids INSTANCE_ID. If the instance should remain available, this finding can be suppressed.
AWS console
EC2 → Instances → select instance → Instance state → Terminate.
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