Hmm got it. I think if it's only spin-up time, then it gets more complicated. You need to know that the stopped instance is for this autoscaler, and these instances will need to be manually cleared by users (or they'll continue to pay storage for them, and it's not clear from the autoscaler app that you will be doing that). Do you still think that adding this complexity has merits? What I'm afraid of is hidden costs of stopped instances (Plus, the autoscaler will need internal bookeeping to see which stopped machines are available for him, and to make sure they are aligned with its configuration)