How to disable Amazon EC2 charging?

Question

I currently try to implement amazon ec2 and I read that after one year they charge you. I used google app engine before(using java) and there is the feature that you can enable/disable charging. I just want to try the free ec2 instance, so here are my questions:

• Does Amazon EC2 AUTOMATICALLY charge you after one year?
• How to disable the automatically charging function?

Answer 1

I ended up closing my account by visiting the account page

At the bottom of the page you will find "close account"

Answer 2

It is currently not possible to disable charging. You might need to go over the free tier (for example if you setup a production environment, you might not want it to be killed automatically by amazon). Google App engine is a bit different because it is free if you have zero http requests, so it will just stop serving your app.

If you delete your credit card on your account, amazon will still charge it if there is an unpaid balance.

Amazon will not remind you that you will go over your free tier, so I would recommend to put a little reminder in one year on your calendar in one year to not forget to shutdown your server.