There are four different ways you can stop a compute instance:
Note
The only state where an instance will not be incurring compute charges is
when it has been SHELVED.
Shelve will prompt the operating system to shut down gracefully, power
off the virtual machine, preserve the disk and deallocate the compute
resources (CPU and RAM) from our compute nodes. Instances in this state
are not charged for, as their compute aspect is not operational. We only
charge for the disks (for example: root disk or additional volumes connected
to it), as we still need to retain the data while the instance is powered
off. When re-started it may be allocated to a different compute node.
Shut off will prompt the operating system to shut down gracefully, power
off the virtual machine, but preserve the compute resources (CPU and RAM)
allocated on a compute node. Instances in this state are still charged as if
they were running. When re-started it will continue to be hosted on the same
compute node.
Pause will store the memory state of the compute instance in memory and
then freeze the virtual machine. Instances in this state are still charged as
if they were running. When re-started it will resume its operation exactly
where it was, except if the physical compute node was restarted (for example:
a power failure) and its memory content lost.
Suspend will store the memory state of the compute instance on disk and
then shut down the virtual machine. Instances in this state are still charged
as if they were running. When re-started it will resume its operation exactly
where it was, but will take longer to start because it needs to read its
memory state from disk.