# Inactive Application Load Balancer (ALB)

Canonical: https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/inactive-application-load-balancer-alb

[Cloud Efficiency Hub](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub) 

# Inactive Application Load Balancer (ALB)

## Explanation

Application Load Balancers that no longer serve active workloads may persist after application migrations, architecture changes, or testing activities. When no incoming requests are processed through the ALB, it continues to generate baseline hourly and LCU charges. Identifying and decommissioning unused ALBs helps reduce networking expenses without impacting operational environments.

## Relevant Billing Model

Application Load Balancers are billed per hour of operation and per Load Balancer Capacity Unit (LCU) used. Charges continue to accrue even if the load balancer is not actively handling requests. Maintaining idle ALBs results in unnecessary ongoing costs without delivering operational value.

## Detection

- Identify Application Load Balancers with no active HTTP/HTTPS requests or minimal LCU consumption over a representative time period

- Confirm there are no listener rules, target groups, or backend services depending on the load balancer

- Review application dependencies, DNS records, and security group configurations to validate safe removal

- Check tagging and metadata to determine whether the ALB was associated with a temporary, testing, or deprecated environment

- Validate findings with application owners or infrastructure teams before deletion

## Remediation

If confirmed to be inactive, delete the load balancer through the AWS Console, CLI, or API to stop further billing. Where possible, document the reason for decommissioning and update tagging or inventory systems to prevent reaccumulation of unused resources.

## Relevant Documentation

- [Application Load Balancer Documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/application/introduction.html/%22)

- [Elastic Load Balancing Pricing](https://aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/pricing//)

[Submit Feedback](https://hub.pointfive.co/inefficiencies/inactive-application-load-balancer-alb)

## At a glance

Reference

CER-0003

Cloud provider

AWS

Service

AWS ELB

Category

[Networking](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/service-category/networking)

Inefficiency type

Unused Resource

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Source: the public page above. Product screenshots and illustrative interfaces are examples, not live customer data.