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Stopping, starting, or restarting a VM

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Updated at July 31, 2026
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Stopping

The Stop command shuts down a VM. Once a VM is shut down, its status changes to Stopped. While the VM is stopped, you will not be charged for it. Disk usage is billed separately, regardless of the VM's state.

You can restart a VM at any time to continue using it. All your data and changes will be saved.

Certain VM parameters can only be modified when the VM is stopped.

To stop a VM:

  1. In the management console, select the folder this VM belongs to.
  2. Navigate to Compute Cloud.
  3. To stop a single VM, select the VM, click , and select Stop.
  4. In the window that opens, click Stop.

To stop multiple VMs, select the VMs from the list, click Stop at the bottom of the screen, and then, in the window that opens, click Stop.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud CLI yet, install and initialize it.

The folder used by default is the one specified when creating the CLI profile. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can also specify a different folder for any command using --folder-name or --folder-id. If you access a resource by its name, the search will be limited to the default folder. If you access a resource by its ID, the search will be global, i.e., through all folders based on access permissions.

  1. See the description of the CLI command for stopping a VM:

    yc compute instance stop --help

  2. Get a list of all VMs in the default folder:

    yc compute instance list

    Result:

    +----------------------+-----------------+---------------+---------+----------------------+
|          ID          |       NAME      |    ZONE ID    | STATUS  |     DESCRIPTION      |
+----------------------+-----------------+---------------+---------+----------------------+
| fhm0b28lgfp4******** | first-instance  | ru-central1-a | RUNNING | my first vm via CLI  |
| fhm9gk85nj7g******** | second-instance | ru-central1-a | RUNNING | my second vm via CLI |
+----------------------+-----------------+---------------+---------+----------------------+

  3. Select ID or NAME of the VM, e.g., first-instance.

  4. Stop the VM:

    yc compute instance stop first-instance

Use the stop REST API method for the Instance resource or the InstanceService/Stop gRPC API call.

When a VM stops, the hypervisor sends a shutdown signal to the VM operating system. The OS has 30 seconds to gracefully terminate all running processes to avoid data loss. After this time elapses, the VM will be forcibly terminated.

Starting

The Start command starts a previously stopped VM. Once the VM is started, its status changes to Running, and the operating system starts loading. From this point on, you start paying for using the VM.

To start a VM:

  1. In the management console, select the folder this VM belongs to.
  2. Navigate to Compute Cloud.
  3. To start a single VM, select the VM, click , and select Start.
  4. In the window that opens, click Start.

To start multiple VMs, select the VMs from the list, click Start at the bottom of the screen, and then, in the window that opens, click Start.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud CLI yet, install and initialize it.

The folder used by default is the one specified when creating the CLI profile. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can also specify a different folder for any command using --folder-name or --folder-id. If you access a resource by its name, the search will be limited to the default folder. If you access a resource by its ID, the search will be global, i.e., through all folders based on access permissions.

  1. See the description of the CLI command for starting a VM:

    yc compute instance start --help

  2. Get a list of all VMs in the default folder:

    yc compute instance list

    Result:

    +----------------------+-----------------+---------------+---------+----------------------+
|          ID          |       NAME      |    ZONE ID    | STATUS  |     DESCRIPTION      |
+----------------------+-----------------+---------------+---------+----------------------+
| fhm0b28lgfp4******** | first-instance  | ru-central1-a | RUNNING | my first vm via CLI  |
| fhm9gk85nj7g******** | second-instance | ru-central1-a | RUNNING | my second vm via CLI |
+----------------------+-----------------+---------------+---------+----------------------+

  3. Select ID or NAME of the VM, e.g., first-instance.

  4. Run the VM:

    yc compute instance start first-instance

Use the start REST API method for the Instance resource or the InstanceService/Start gRPC API call.

Restarting

The Restart command restarts a VM.

To restart a VM:

  1. In the management console, select the folder this VM belongs to.
  2. Navigate to Compute Cloud.
  3. To restart a single VM, select the VM, click , and select Restart.
  4. In the window that opens, click Restart.

To restart multiple VMs, select the VMs from the list, click Restart at the bottom of the screen, and then, in the window that opens, click Restart.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud CLI yet, install and initialize it.

The folder used by default is the one specified when creating the CLI profile. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can also specify a different folder for any command using --folder-name or --folder-id. If you access a resource by its name, the search will be limited to the default folder. If you access a resource by its ID, the search will be global, i.e., through all folders based on access permissions.

  1. See the description of the CLI command for restarting a VM:

    yc compute instance restart --help

  2. Get a list of all VMs in the default folder:

    yc compute instance list

    Result:

    +----------------------+-----------------+---------------+---------+----------------------+
|          ID          |       NAME      |    ZONE ID    | STATUS  |     DESCRIPTION      |
+----------------------+-----------------+---------------+---------+----------------------+
| fhm0b28lgfp4******** | first-instance  | ru-central1-a | RUNNING | my first vm via CLI  |
| fhm9gk85nj7g******** | second-instance | ru-central1-a | RUNNING | my second vm via CLI |
+----------------------+-----------------+---------------+---------+----------------------+

  3. Select ID or NAME of the VM, e.g., first-instance.

  4. Restart the VM:

    yc compute instance restart first-instance

Use the restart REST API method for the Instance resource or the InstanceService/Restart gRPC API call.

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