# Unused EBS Fast Snapshot Restore | Cloud Efficiency Hub Canonical: https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/unused-ebs-fast-snapshot-restore EBS fast snapshot restore (FSR) lets volumes created from a snapshot deliver their full provisioned performance immediately, without first-read... By: PointFive Updated: 2026-09-28 [Cloud Efficiency Hub](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub) The short version EBS fast snapshot restore (FSR) lets volumes created from a snapshot deliver their full provisioned performance immediately, without first-read initialization latency. PointFive Research Cloud cost research at PointFive AWS service [AWS EBS](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/aws-ebs) Category [Storage](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/service-category/storage) Reference CER-0398 Type Idle or Unused Resource ## Explanation Why the waste happens and who it affects. It is enabled per snapshot and per Availability Zone, and each snapshot and AZ pair is billed for every minute it stays enabled, whether or not any volume is ever restored from it. The charge is separate from, and in addition to, normal snapshot storage. FSR is typically turned on for a specific need, such as a golden AMI pipeline, an autoscaling launch path, a disaster recovery drill, or a large migration, and then left on after the need has passed. It is easy to miss because it is a snapshot attribute rather than a running resource. Two behaviors make it persist: FSR is not disabled when a Data Lifecycle Manager policy that enabled it is deleted or disabled, and the cost scales with the number of AZs, so enabling it across every AZ in a Region multiplies the charge. ## Billing model The pricing dimensions that drive this cost. FSR is billed in Data Services Unit-Hours (DSU-hours), one per snapshot per Availability Zone where it is enabled. Snapshot and AZ pair Each snapshot enabled for FSR in one Availability Zone is billed separately; the same snapshot in three AZs is billed three times DSU-hour The FSR billing unit, billed per minute with a one-hour minimum for as long as FSR stays enabled; AWS lists $0.75 per DSU-hour in US East (N. Virginia) Billing stops on disable Charges continue until FSR is disabled for the snapshot in that AZ, or the snapshot is deleted Shared snapshots When you enable FSR on a snapshot shared with you, your account is billed, not the snapshot owner ## How to detect 6 checks to find it in your estate. - Run describe-fast-snapshot-restores with the filter state=enabled in each Region to list every snapshot and AZ pair with FSR on, along with its EnabledTime - For each pair, run describe-volumes with the filter fast-restored=true and compare the volumes' SnapshotId, AvailabilityZone, and CreateTime to see whether any volume has been restored from it recently - Check the CloudWatch metric FastSnapshotRestoreCreditsBalance (dimensions SnapshotId and AvailabilityZone); a balance that sits at FastSnapshotRestoreCreditsBucketSize for weeks means no volumes are consuming credits - Compare the AZs where FSR is enabled with the AZs your launch templates, Auto Scaling groups, or recovery runbooks actually use - Review Data Lifecycle Manager policies that enable FSR, and snapshots whose policy was deleted or disabled, since those snapshots stay FSR-enabled until disabled manually - Use Cost Explorer or the Cost and Usage Report to find fast snapshot restore charges and attribute them to snapshot IDs ## How to fix 5 ways to remove the waste. - Disable FSR with disable-fast-snapshot-restores (or the snapshot's Manage fast snapshot restore action in the EC2 console) for snapshot and AZ pairs that no longer serve a launch or recovery path - Limit FSR to the AZs where volumes are actually created from the snapshot instead of enabling it in every AZ - In Data Lifecycle Manager schedules, set the FSR period (age-based retention) or the maximum number of FSR-enabled snapshots (count-based retention) so older snapshots drop out of FSR automatically - Before deleting or disabling a Data Lifecycle Manager policy that enabled FSR, disable FSR on the snapshots it created, because deleting the policy does not do this - Where predictable initialization time is enough, consider an EBS Provisioned Rate for Volume Initialization (100 to 300 MiB/s), which is charged once per volume created, per GiB of snapshot data, rather than per hour per AZ; or manually initialize restored volumes by reading all blocks ## Documentation Vendor references for pricing and configuration. - [Amazon EBS fast snapshot restore docs.aws.amazon.com](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ebs/latest/userguide/ebs-fast-snapshot-restore.html) - [Check the fast snapshot restore state for an Amazon EBS snapshot docs.aws.amazon.com](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ebs/latest/userguide/view-fsr-enabled-snapshots.html) - [Amazon CloudWatch metrics for Amazon EBS docs.aws.amazon.com](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ebs/latest/userguide/using_cloudwatch_ebs.html) - [Create Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager custom policy for EBS snapshots docs.aws.amazon.com](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ebs/latest/userguide/snapshot-ami-policy.html) - [Amazon EBS pricing aws.amazon.com](https://aws.amazon.com/ebs/pricing/) ## Related inefficiencies [Browse the library](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub) - AWS EBS CER-0013 ### [Unaccessed EBS Snapshot](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/unaccessed-ebs-snapshot) Snapshots are retained long after they've served their purpose. Snapshots may have been created for backups, migrations, or disaster recovery plans but were never deleted - even after the related workload or volume was decommissioned. Over... Storage - AWS EBS CER-0051 ### [Unused EBS Volume Attached to a Stopped EC2 Instance](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/unused-ebs-volume-attached-to-a-stopped-ec2-instance) An EC2 instance is stopped but still has one or more attached EBS volumes. Although the compute resource is not generating charges while stopped, the attached volumes continue to incur full storage and performance-related costs. These... Storage - AWS EBS CER-0066 ### [Inactive and Detached EBS Volume](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/inactive-and-detached-ebs-volume) EBS volumes frequently remain detached after EC2 instances are terminated, replaced, or reconfigured. Some may be intentionally retained for reattachment or backup purposes, but many persist unintentionally due to the lack of automated... Storage --- Source: the public page above. Product screenshots and illustrative interfaces are examples, not live customer data.