Stop an AWS EC2 Instance

In AWS, an EC2 instance can be in various states, including running, stopped, or terminated. Stopping an EC2 instance essentially means shutting it down, similar to turning off a computer. When an instance is stopped, it is not running, and therefore, you are not billed for instance usage. However, you are still billed for any EBS storage associated with the instance. The advantage of stopping, instead of terminating, is that you can start the instance again at any time. This capability is useful for scenarios where you want to temporarily halt operations without losing the instance configuration or data. It's essential to understand that stopping an instance will lead to the loss of the ephemeral storage content (Instance Store), but data on EBS volumes will remain intact.