Stop Idle VM Instance

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Prerequisite: To use this check, you must set up a GCP Recommender connection.

CloudZero has identified Google Compute Engine VM instances that appear to be idle and have not been actively used over recent days. These idle VMs continue to incur compute charges even when not performing meaningful work, making them prime candidates for cost optimization.

Google's Idle VM Recommender analyzes instance activity patterns over 1 to 14 days, including CPU utilization, network traffic, and disk I/O, to identify VMs that can be safely stopped. Stopping idle instances can significantly reduce your compute bill while preserving the instance configuration for future use.

Recommendations

• Verify the VM is truly idle - Review the instance's actual usage patterns, scheduled jobs, and application dependencies to confirm it's safe to stop
• Check for critical workloads - Ensure the VM isn't running background processes, cron jobs, monitoring agents, or serving as a jump host
• Consider stopped VM costs - Note that stopped VMs still incur charges for attached persistent disks and reserved IP addresses
• Test in non-production first - Validate the impact of stopping VMs in dev/test environments before applying to production
• Create a snapshot or backup - For added safety, create a snapshot before stopping instances that may need recovery
• Coordinate with teams - Confirm with service owners and stakeholders, especially for shared or production resources
• Plan restart procedures - Document how to restart the VM and verify services come back online properly

Note: Stopping a VM preserves its configuration, attached disks, and metadata, making it easy to restart when needed. For VMs that will never be used again, consider deletion instead to eliminate all associated costs. For more details, refer to Google's documentation on viewing and applying idle VM recommendations.