EC2 waste check
Idle EC2
idle_ec2
What it finds
Idle EC2: one of the EC2 checks in the compute optimization group. Checks in this group look for: compute capacity that is idle, stopped but still holding paid attachments, oversized for its load, or on an older generation.
Why it costs money
Compute is billed for the time it is provisioned, not for the work it does, so capacity nobody uses keeps billing.
How it is detected
Hourly CPU < 5% average for 14 days, with no sustained or heavy peaks; ASG, EKS, Beanstalk, EMR, Spot Fleet and EC2 Fleet instances excluded
Detection confidence: MEDIUM. This is the criterion from our public docs. It runs in a local scan with your own read-only credentials.
Run it yourself
Nothing leaves your machine. The local scan has no telemetry.