Close an Amazon Web Services account - Amazon Account Management
What you need to know before closing your accountHow to close your accountWhat to expect after you close your account
Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

Close an Amazon Web Services account

If you no longer need your Amazon Web Services account, you can close it at any time by following the instructions in this section. After you've closed it, you can reopen it within 90 days from the day you closed the account. The timespan between the day you closed the account and when Amazon permanently closes the account is referred to as the post-closure period.

What you need to know before closing your account

Before closing your Amazon Web Services account, you should consider the following:

  • Closing your account will serve as your notice of termination of the Amazon Customer Agreement for this account.

  • You don't need to delete resources in your Amazon Web Services account before closing it. However, we recommend you back up any resources or data that you want to keep. For instructions about how to back up a particular resource, see the appropriate Amazon documentation for that service.

  • You can reopen your account during the post-closure period. Charges for the services that remained in your account will restart if you reopen it. You also remain responsible for any unpaid invoices and outstanding Reserved Instances and Savings Plans.

  • You remain responsible for all outstanding fees and charges for the services consumed before account closure. You will receive an Amazon bill the following month after closing your account. For example, if you closed your account on January 15, you will receive a bill at the beginning of February for usage incurred from January 1 through January 15. You will continue receiving invoices for Reserved Instances and Savings Plans after closing your account until they expire.

  • You will no longer be able to access Amazon services that were previously available in your account. However, you can sign-in and access a closed Amazon Web Services account during the post-closure period only to view past billing information, access account settings, or contact Amazon Web Services Support.

  • You can't use the same email address that was registered to your Amazon Web Services account at the time of its closure as the primary email of another Amazon Web Services account. If you want to use the same email address for a different Amazon Web Services account, we recommend updating it before closure. See Update the Amazon Web Services account name, email address, or password for the root user for instructions on updating your email address.

  • If you've enabled multi-factor authentication (MFA) on your Amazon Web Services account root user, or configured an MFA device on an IAM user, MFA isn't removed automatically when you close the account. If you choose to leave MFA turned on during the 90 days post-closure period, keep the MFA device active until the post-closure period has expired in case you need to access the account during that time. Note, the hardware TOTP token devices cannot be associated with another user after the permanent closure of your account. If you would like to use the hardware TOTP token with another user later, you have the option to deactivate the hardware MFA device before closing the account. MFA devices for IAM users must be deleted by the account administrator.

Additional considerations for member accounts

  • When you close a member account, that account isn't removed from the organization until after the post-closure period. During the post-closure period, a closed member account still counts toward your quota of accounts in the organization. To avoid having the account count against the quota, see Remove a member account from your organization before closing it.

  • You can only close 10% of member accounts within a rolling 30 day period. This quota is not bound by a calendar month, but starts when you close an account. Within 30 days of that initial account closure, you can't exceed the 10% account closure limit. The minimum account closure is 10 and the maximum account closure is 1000, even if 10% of accounts exceeds 1000. For more information about Organizations quotas, see Quotas for Amazon Organizations.

  • If you use Amazon Control Tower, you need to unmanage the member account before you attempt to close the account. See Unmanage a member account in the Amazon Control Tower User Guide.

Service specific considerations

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How to close your account

You can close your Amazon Web Services account using the following procedure. Note, that there is different guidance provided in each tab depending on the type of account [standalone, member, management, and Amazon GovCloud (US)] you want to close.

If you experience any issues during the process of closing your account, see Troubleshooting issues with Amazon Web Services account closure.

Standalone account

A standalone account is an individually managed account that is not part of Amazon Organizations.

To close a standalone account from the Accounts page

  1. Sign in as a user or role that has the required minimum permissions of portal:ModifyAccount in the Amazon Web Services account that you want to close.

  2. On the navigation bar in the upper-right corner, choose your account name or number, and then choose Account.

  3. On the Account page, scroll to the bottom of the page to the Close account section. Read and ensure that you understand the account closure process.

  4. Choose the Close account button to initiate the account closure process.

  5. Within a few minutes, you should receive an email confirmation that your account has been closed.

Note

This task isn't supported in the Amazon CLI or by an API operation from one of the Amazon SDKs. You can perform this task only by using the Amazon Web Services Management Console.

Member account

A member account is an Amazon Web Services account that is part of Amazon Organizations.

To close a member account from the Amazon Organizations console

  1. Sign in to the Amazon Organizations console.

  2. On the Amazon Web Services accounts page, find and choose the name of the member account you want to close. You can navigate the OU hierarchy, or look at a flat list of accounts without the OU structure.

  3. Choose Close next to the account name at the top of the page. Organizations in Consolidated billing mode won't be able to see the Close button in the console. To close an account in consolidated billing mode, you will need to follow the steps in the Standalone account tab.

  4. Select each check box to acknowledge all required account closure statements.

  5. Enter the member account ID and then choose Close account.

To close a member account from the Accounts page

Optionally, you can close an Amazon member account directly from the Accounts page in the Amazon Web Services Management Console. For step-by-step guidance, follow the instructions in the Standalone account tab.

To close a member account using Amazon CLI and SDKs

For instructions on how to close a member account using the Amazon CLI and SDKs, see Closing a member account in your organization in the Amazon Organizations User Guide.

Management account

A management account is an Amazon Web Services account that acts as the parent or root account for Amazon Organizations.

Note

You cannot close a management account directly from the Amazon Organizations console.

To close a management account from the Accounts page

  1. Sign in as a user or role that has the required minimum permissions of portal:ModifyAccount in the management account that you want to close.

  2. Verify that there are no active member accounts remaining in your organization. To do this, go to the Amazon Organizations console, and make sure that all member accounts are showing Suspended next to their account names. If you have a member account that is still active, you will need to follow the account closure guidance provided in the Member account tab before you can move to the next step.

  3. On the navigation bar in the upper-right corner, choose your account name or number, and then choose Account.

  4. On the Account page, scroll to the bottom of the page to the Close account section. Read and ensure that you understand the account closure process.

  5. Choose the Close account button to initiate the account closure process.

  6. Within a few minutes, you should receive an email confirmation that your account has been closed.

Note

This task isn't supported in the Amazon CLI or by an API operation from one of the Amazon SDKs. You can perform this task only by using the Amazon Web Services Management Console.

Amazon GovCloud (US) account

An Amazon GovCloud (US) account is always linked to a single standard Amazon Web Services account for billing and payment purposes.

To close an Amazon GovCloud (US) account

If you have an Amazon Web Services account that is linked to a Amazon GovCloud (US) account, you need to close the standard account before you close the Amazon GovCloud (US) account. For more details, including how to back-up data and avoid unintended Amazon GovCloud (US) charges, see Closing an Amazon GovCloud (US) account in the Amazon GovCloud (US) User Guide.

What to expect after you close your account

Immediately after you close your account, the following will occur:

  • You will receive an email confirming the account closure to the root user’s email address. If you don’t receive this email within a few hours, see Troubleshooting issues with Amazon Web Services account closure.

  • Any member account that you close will display a SUSPENDED label next to its account name in the Amazon Organizations console.

  • If you have granted permissions to access services in your Amazon Web Services account to other accounts, any access requests made from those accounts should fail after account closure. If you reopen your Amazon Web Services account, other Amazon Web Services accounts can again access your account's Amazon services and resources if you granted the necessary permissions to them.

Post-closure period

The post-closure period refers to the length of time between the day you closed your account and when Amazon permanently closes your Amazon Web Services account. The post-closure period is 90 days. During the post-closure period, you can access your content and Amazon services only by reopening your account. After the post-closure period, Amazon permanently closes your Amazon Web Services account, and you can no longer reopen it. Amazon will also delete any content and resources in your account. After an account has been permanently closed, its Amazon Web Services account ID can never be reused.

Reopening your Amazon Web Services account

Your account will permanently close in 90 days, after which you will not be able to reopen your account and Amazon will delete the content remaining in your account. To reopen your account before it is permanently closed, (1) you must contact Amazon Web Services Support as soon as possible, and (2) we must receive full payment of any outstanding balance, including providing required information as specified on the invoice, within 60 days from the date of account closure.