# Export a VM from an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) using VM Import/Export
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Exporting a VM file based on an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) is useful when you want to deploy a new, standardized instance in your virtualization environment. You can export most AMIs to Citrix Xen, Microsoft Hyper-V, or VMware vSphere.

When you export an image, you are charged the standard Amazon S3 rates for the bucket where the exported VM is stored. In addition, there might be a small charge for the temporary use of an Amazon EBS snapshot. For more information about Amazon S3 pricing, see [Amazon Simple Storage Service Pricing](http://www.amazonaws.cn/s3/pricing/).

**Topics**
+ [Prerequisites for exporting an image from Amazon EC2](prerequisites-image-export.md)
+ [Considerations for image export](limits-image-export.md)
+ [Start an export image task](start-image-export.md)
+ [Monitor an export image task](monitor-image-export.md)
+ [Cancel an export image task](cancel-image-export.md)