Sell Reserved Instances for Amazon EC2 in the Reserved Instance Marketplace - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
Restrictions and limitationsRegister as a sellerBank account for disbursementTax informationPrice your Reserved InstancesList your Reserved InstancesReserved Instance listing statesLifecycle of a listingAfter your Reserved Instance is soldGetting paidInformation shared with the buyer

Sell Reserved Instances for Amazon EC2 in the Reserved Instance Marketplace

The Amazon EC2 Reserved Instance Marketplace is a platform that facilitates the sale of unused Standard Reserved Instances from AWS customers and third-party sellers. These Reserved Instances can vary in term lengths and pricing options. You might want to sell your Reserved Instances when you no longer need them, such as when you move your instances to a new AWS Region, change to a different instance type, finish projects before the Reserved Instance term expires, your business needs change, or you have excess capacity.

As soon as you list your Reserved Instances in the Reserved Instance Marketplace, they are available for potential buyers to find. All Reserved Instances are grouped according to the duration of the term remaining and the hourly price.

To fulfill a buyer's request to purchase a third-party seller’s Reserved Instance via the Reserved Instance Marketplace, AWS first sells the Reserved Instance with the lowest upfront price in the specified grouping. Then, AWS sells the Reserved Instance with the next lowest price, until the buyer's entire order is fulfilled. AWS then processes the transactions and transfers ownership of the Reserved Instances to the buyer.

You own your Reserved Instance until it's sold. After the sale, you've given up the capacity reservation and the discounted recurring fees. If you continue to use your instance, AWS charges you the On-Demand price starting from the time that your Reserved Instance was sold.

If you want to sell your unused Reserved Instances on the Reserved Instance Marketplace, you must meet certain eligibility criteria.

For information about buying Reserved Instances on the Reserved Instance Marketplace, see Buy from the Reserved Instance Marketplace.

Restrictions and limitations

Before you can sell your unused reservations, you must register as a seller in the Reserved Instance Marketplace. For information, see Register as a seller.

The following limitations and restrictions apply when selling Reserved Instances:

  • Only Amazon EC2 Standard regional and zonal Reserved Instances can be sold in the Reserved Instance Marketplace.

  • Amazon EC2 Convertible Reserved Instances can't be sold in the Reserved Instance Marketplace.

  • Reserved Instances for other AWS services, such as Amazon RDS and Amazon ElastiCache, cannot be sold in the Reserved Instance Marketplace.

  • There must be at least one month remaining in the term of the Standard Reserved Instance.

  • You can't sell a Standard Reserved Instance in a Region that is disabled by default.

  • The minimum price allowed in the Reserved Instance Marketplace is $0.00.

  • You can sell No Upfront, Partial Upfront, or All Upfront Reserved Instances in the Reserved Instance Marketplace as long as they have been active in your account for at least 30 days. Additionally, if there is an upfront payment on a Reserved Instance, it can only be sold after AWS has received the upfront payment.

  • You can't sell a Reserved Instance in the Reserved Instance Marketplace if you purchased it using a volume discount.

  • You cannot modify your listing in the Reserved Instance Marketplace directly. However, you can change your listing by first canceling it and then creating another listing with new parameters. For information, see Price your Reserved Instances. You can also modify your Reserved Instances before listing them. For information, see Modify Reserved Instances.

  • AWS charges a service fee of 12 percent of the total upfront price of each Standard Reserved Instance you sell in the Reserved Instance Marketplace. The upfront price is the price the seller is charging for the Standard Reserved Instance.

  • When you register as a seller, the bank you specify must have a US address. For more information, see Additional seller requirements for paid products in the AWS Marketplace Seller Guide.

  • Amazon Web Services India Private Limited (AWS India) customers can't sell Reserved Instances in the Reserved Instance Marketplace even if they have a US bank account. For more information, see What are the differences between AWS accounts and AWS India accounts?

Register as a seller

Note

Only the AWS account root user can register an account as a seller.

To sell in the Reserved Instance Marketplace, you must first register as a seller. During registration, you provide the following information:

  • Bank information—AWS must have your bank information in order to disburse funds collected when you sell your reservations. The bank you specify must have a US address. For more information, see Bank account for disbursement.

  • Tax information—All sellers are required to complete a tax information interview to determine any necessary tax reporting obligations. For more information, see Tax information.

After AWS receives your completed seller registration, you receive an email confirming your registration and informing you that you can get started selling in the Reserved Instance Marketplace.

Bank account for disbursement

AWS must have your bank information in order to disburse funds collected when you sell your Reserved Instance. The bank you specify must have a US address. For more information, see Additional seller requirements for paid products in the AWS Marketplace Seller Guide.

To register a default bank account for disbursements

  1. Open the Reserved Instance Marketplace Seller Registration page and sign in using your AWS credentials.

  2. On the Manage Bank Account page, provide the following information about the bank through to receive payment:

    • Bank account holder name

    • Routing number

    • Account number

    • Bank account type

    Note

    If you are using a corporate bank account, you are prompted to send the information about the bank account via fax (1-206-765-3424).

After registration, the bank account provided is set as the default, pending verification with the bank. It can take up to two weeks to verify a new bank account, during which time you can't receive disbursements. For an established account, it usually takes about two days for disbursements to complete.

To change the default bank account for disbursement

  1. On the Reserved Instance Marketplace Seller Registration page, sign in with the account that you used when you registered.

  2. On the Manage Bank Account page, add a new bank account or modify the default bank account as needed.

Tax information

Your sale of Reserved Instances might be subject to a transaction-based tax, such as sales tax or value-added tax. You should check with your business's tax, legal, finance, or accounting department to determine if transaction-based taxes are applicable. You are responsible for collecting and sending the transaction-based taxes to the appropriate tax authority.

As part of the seller registration process, you must complete a tax interview in the Seller Registration Portal. The interview collects your tax information and populates an IRS form W-9, W-8BEN, or W-8BEN-E, which is used to determine any necessary tax reporting obligations.

The tax information you enter as part of the tax interview might differ depending on whether you operate as an individual or business, and whether you or your business are a US or non-US person or entity. As you fill out the tax interview, keep in mind the following:

  • Information provided by AWS, including the information in this topic, does not constitute tax, legal, or other professional advice. To find out how the IRS reporting requirements might affect your business, or if you have other questions, contact your tax, legal, or other professional advisor.

  • To fulfill the IRS reporting requirements as efficiently as possible, answer all questions and enter all information requested during the interview.

  • Check your answers. Avoid misspellings or entering incorrect tax identification numbers. They can result in an invalidated tax form.

Based on your tax interview responses and IRS reporting thresholds, Amazon might file Form 1099-K. Amazon mails a copy of your Form 1099-K on or before January 31 in the year following the year that your tax account reaches the threshold levels. For example, if your account reaches the threshold in 2018, your Form 1099-K is mailed on or before January 31, 2019.

For more information about IRS requirements and Form 1099-K, see the IRS website.

Price your Reserved Instances

When setting the price for your Reserved Instances, consider the following:

  • Upfront price – The upfront price is the only price that you can specify for the Reserved Instance that you're selling. The upfront price is the one-time price that the buyer pays when they purchase a Reserved Instance.

    Because the value of Reserved Instances decreases over time, by default, AWS can set prices to decrease in equal increments month over month. However, you can set different upfront prices based on when your reservation sells. For example, if your Reserved Instance has nine months of its term remaining, you can specify the amount that you would accept if a customer were to purchase that Reserved Instance with nine months remaining. You could set another price with five months remaining, and yet another price with one month remaining.

    The minimum allowed price in the Reserved Instance Marketplace is $0.00.

  • Limits – The following limits for selling Reserved Instances apply to the lifetime of your AWS account. They are not annual limits.

    • You can sell up to $50,000 in Reserved Instances.

    • You can sell up to 5,000 Reserved Instances.

    These limits typically can't be increased, but will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis if requested. To request a limit increase, complete the Service limit increase form. For Limit type, choose EC2 Reserved Instance Sales.

  • Can't modify – You cannot modify your listing directly. However, you can change your listing by first canceling it and then creating another listing with new parameters.

  • Can cancel – You can cancel your listing at any time, as long as it's in the active state. You cannot cancel the listing if it's already matched or being processed for a sale. If some of the instances in your listing are matched and you cancel the listing, only the remaining unmatched instances are removed from the listing.

List your Reserved Instances

As a registered seller, you can choose to sell one or more of your Reserved Instances. You can choose to sell all of them in one listing or in portions. In addition, you can list Reserved Instances with any configuration of instance type, platform, and scope.

The console determines a suggested price. It checks for offerings that match your Reserved Instance and matches the one with the lowest price. Otherwise, it calculates a suggested price based on the cost of the Reserved Instance for its remaining time. If the calculated value is less than $1.01, the suggested price is $1.01.

If you cancel your listing and a portion of that listing has already been sold, the cancellation is not effective on the portion that has been sold. Only the unsold portion of the listing is no longer available in the Reserved Instance Marketplace.

To list a Reserved Instance in the Reserved Instance Marketplace using the AWS Management Console

  1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Reserved Instances.

  3. Select the Reserved Instances to list, and choose Actions, Sell Reserved Instances.

  4. On the Configure Your Reserved Instance Listing page, set the number of instances to sell and the upfront price for the remaining term in the relevant columns. See how the value of your reservation changes over the remainder of the term by selecting the arrow next to the Months Remaining column.

  5. If you are an advanced user and you want to customize the pricing, you can enter different values for the subsequent months. To return to the default linear price drop, choose Reset.

  6. Choose Continue when you are finished configuring your listing.

  7. Confirm the details of your listing, on the Confirm Your Reserved Instance Listing page and if you're satisfied, choose List Reserved Instance.

To view your listings in the console

  1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Reserved Instances.

  3. Select the Reserved Instance that you've listed and choose the My Listings tab near the bottom of the page.

To manage Reserved Instances in the Reserved Instance Marketplace using the AWS CLI

  1. Get a list of your Reserved Instances by using the describe-reserved-instances command.

  2. Note the ID of the Reserved Instance you want to list and call create-reserved-instances-listing. You must specify the ID of the Reserved Instance, the number of instances, and the pricing schedule.

  3. To view your listing, use the describe-reserved-instances-listings command.

  4. To cancel your listing, use the cancel-reserved-instances-listings command.

Reserved Instance listing states

Listing State on the My Listings tab of the Reserved Instances page displays the current status of your listings:

The information displayed by Listing State is about the status of your listing in the Reserved Instance Marketplace. It is different from the status information that is displayed by the State column in the Reserved Instances page. This State information is about your reservation.

  • active—The listing is available for purchase.

  • canceled—The listing is canceled and isn't available for purchase in the Reserved Instance Marketplace.

  • closed—The Reserved Instance is not listed. A Reserved Instance might be closed because the sale of the listing was completed.

Lifecycle of a listing

When all the instances in your listing are matched and sold, the My Listings tab shows that the Total instance count matches the count listed under Sold. Also, there are no Available instances left for your listing, and its Status is closed.

When only a portion of your listing is sold, AWS retires the Reserved Instances in the listing and creates the number of Reserved Instances equal to the Reserved Instances remaining in the count. So, the listing ID and the listing that it represents, which now has fewer reservations for sale, is still active.

Any future sales of Reserved Instances in this listing are processed this way. When all the Reserved Instances in the listing are sold, AWS marks the listing as closed.

For example, you create a listing Reserved Instances listing ID 5ec28771-05ff-4b9b-aa31-9e57dexample with a listing count of 5.

The My Listings tab in the Reserved Instance console page displays the listing this way:

Reserved Instance listing ID 5ec28771-05ff-4b9b-aa31-9e57dexample

  • Total reservation count = 5

  • Sold = 0

  • Available = 5

  • Status = active

A buyer purchases two of the reservations, which leaves a count of three reservations still available for sale. Because of this partial sale, AWS creates a new reservation with a count of three to represent the remaining reservations that are still for sale.

This is how your listing looks in the My Listings tab:

Reserved Instance listing ID 5ec28771-05ff-4b9b-aa31-9e57dexample

  • Total reservation count = 5

  • Sold = 2

  • Available = 3

  • Status = active

If you cancel your listing and a portion of that listing has already sold, the cancelation is not effective on the portion that has been sold. Only the unsold portion of the listing is no longer available in the Reserved Instance Marketplace.

After your Reserved Instance is sold

When your Reserved Instance is sold, AWS sends you an email notification. Each day that there is any kind of activity, you receive one email notification capturing all the activities of the day. Activities can include when you create or sell a listing, or when AWS sends funds to your account.

To track the status of a Reserved Instance listing in the console

  1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

  2. In the navigation page, choose Reserved Instances.

  3. Choose the My Listings tab.

    The My Listings tab contains the Listing State value. It also contains information about the term, listing price, and a breakdown of how many instances in the listing are available, pending, sold, and canceled.

You can also use the describe-reserved-instances-listings command with the appropriate filter to obtain information about your listings.

Getting paid

As soon as AWS receives funds from the buyer, a message is sent to the registered owner account email for the sold Reserved Instance.

AWS sends an Automated Clearing House (ACH) wire transfer to your specified bank account. Typically, this transfer occurs between one to three days after your Reserved Instance has been sold. Disbursements take place once a day. You will receive an email with a disbursement report after the funds are released. Keep in mind that you can't receive disbursements until AWS receives verification from your bank. This can take up to two weeks.

The Reserved Instance that you sold continues to appear when you describe your Reserved Instances.

You receive a cash disbursement for your Reserved Instances through a wire transfer directly into your bank account. AWS charges a service fee of 12 percent of the total upfront price of each Reserved Instance you sell in the Reserved Instance Marketplace.

Information shared with the buyer

When you sell in the Reserved Instance Marketplace, AWS shares your company’s legal name on the buyer’s statement in accordance with US regulations. In addition, if the buyer calls AWS Support because the buyer needs to contact you for an invoice or for some other tax-related reason, AWS might need to provide the buyer with your email address so that the buyer can contact you directly.

For similar reasons, the buyer's ZIP code and country information are provided to the seller in the disbursement report. As a seller, you might need this information to accompany any necessary transaction taxes that you remit to the government (such as sales tax and value-added tax).

AWS cannot offer tax advice, but if your tax specialist determines that you need specific additional information, contact AWS Support.