What Are the Rules for Selling EC2 Reserved Instances?

Selling Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances on the Reserved Instance Marketplace allows organizations to recoup costs from unused cloud capacity, provided they meet specific AWS criteria. To qualify as a seller, you must hold Standard Reserved Instances that have been active for at least 30 days, possess at least one month of remaining term, and have a fully paid upfront balance if applicable. Additionally, sellers must register with a valid United States bank account and navigate several marketplace limitations, including a 12 percent service fee, pricing constraints, and restrictions on Convertible Reserved Instances, GovCloud deployments, and discount-purchased reservations.

Seller Account Eligibility Requirements

Before listing any capacity on the Reserved Instance Marketplace, your AWS account must be registered as a seller. The primary requirement for seller registration is having a valid bank account located in the United States. AWS disburses all proceeds from Reserved Instance sales exclusively via Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfers to US-based financial institutions. If your organization does not have a US bank account, you cannot register as a seller or receive payouts from the marketplace.

Furthermore, once your cumulative sales exceed $20,000 USD or 200 transactions within a calendar year, AWS requires you to complete and submit tax information via the AWS Management Console. If you are a US person or entity, you will typically complete a Form W-9; non-US entities with a US bank account may need to provide a Form W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E.

Reserved Instance Qualification Criteria

Not every EC2 reservation can be listed for sale. For a specific Reserved Instance to be eligible for the marketplace, it must satisfy all of the following conditions:

  • Instance Class: Only Standard Reserved Instances can be sold. Convertible Reserved Instances are strictly prohibited from being listed on the marketplace.
  • Holding Period: You must have owned the Reserved Instance for a minimum of 30 days. For example, if you purchase a reservation or modify an existing reservation (such as splitting it or changing its Availability Zone), the 30-day timer resets from the date of purchase or modification.
  • Remaining Term: The reservation must have at least one full month of remaining duration on its contract term.
  • Payment Status: If the Reserved Instance was purchased using the All Upfront or Partial Upfront payment option, the initial upfront payment must be completely received and processed by AWS before the instance can be listed.
  • Region Availability: The Reserved Instance must reside in a standard commercial AWS Region. Reservations purchased in AWS GovCloud (US) or AWS China Regions cannot be sold.

Marketplace Limitations and Restrictions

Even when your account and instances meet the baseline eligibility requirements, several operational and financial limitations govern how sales work on the EC2 Reserved Instance Marketplace:

  • No Volume Discounts: Any Reserved Instance originally purchased with a volume discount (such as enterprise-negotiated discounts or tiered volume pricing) cannot be sold on the marketplace.
  • Service Fee: AWS charges a service fee equal to 12 percent of the total upfront price you set for the Standard Reserved Instance. If your upfront listing price is \(P\), your net payout \(N\) after the marketplace fee is calculated as \(N = P - 0.12P = 0.88P\). If you sell a No Upfront Reserved Instance, your upfront price is $0, meaning there is no service fee charged.
  • Pricing Boundaries: For All Upfront and Partial Upfront reservations, you can set your upfront listing price anywhere from $0 up to a maximum cap determined by AWS (typically based on the intrinsic remaining value of the reservation). However, you cannot modify the recurring hourly usage rate; the buyer simply assumes the exact recurring hourly rate defined in your original contract.
  • Billing Term Rounding: When a third-party buyer purchases your Reserved Instance, the remaining term is rounded down to the nearest whole month for the buyer. For instance, if you sell a reservation with 8 months and 20 days remaining, the buyer receives an 8-month term, though you retain usage rights only up until the exact moment the sale is finalized.
  • Unit Sales Only: While you must list an entire Reserved Instance ID, buyers can choose to purchase a subset of the instances within that reservation. If a partial purchase occurs, AWS automatically splits your reservation into two: one transferred to the buyer, and one remaining in your account on the marketplace.
  • Capacity Reservations: Only standard EC2 instance reservations are supported. Dedicated Host Reservations and On-Demand Capacity Reservations cannot be sold on the marketplace.