---
title: "Power off and start a node"
description: "Turn a node off without deleting it, then start it running again whenever you need it."
content_type: "how-to"
product: "node"
platform: "MyAccount"
url: "/myaccount/node/how-to/power-off-and-start-a-node/"
topic: ["power-and-lifecycle"]
relationships: {"requires":["/myaccount/node/how-to/create-a-node/"]}
---

# Power off and start a node

Powering off a node shuts it down while leaving its plan, storage, IPs, and configuration in place.
Start it again whenever you need it. Do this when you want to pause a node.

Open the node's **Actions** menu and click **Power Off**. It is available only while the node is
**Running**. The confirmation dialog asks you to check a box acknowledging the risk of data loss
or corruption before you can confirm. Anything the node was writing to disk does not get a clean
shutdown. The node moves to **Powered off**.

You keep paying for a powered off node until you delete it, the same as for a running one. What it buys you is a fast restart: a powered off node
keeps its resources reserved instead of releasing them.

## Start a node

Open the node's **Actions** menu and click **Start**. Start is available from **Powered off** for
every series. The confirmation dialog is titled **Start Node** (**Start Firewall** for a
[FortiGate node](/myaccount/node/faq/#what-are-spot-nodes-and-fortigate-firewall-nodes)). The node moves
back to **Running**.

E1-series nodes have a second way to pause them, **Stop**, which frees their resources instead of
reserving them. That is why starting a stopped node takes longer than starting one you powered
off. See [Stop a node](/myaccount/node/how-to/stop-a-node/).

A greyed-out **Power Off** or **Start** usually means the node is locked or busy; [Troubleshooting node actions and lifecycle](/myaccount/node/troubleshooting/actions-and-lifecycle/)
lists every cause. To power off or
start a node through the API instead of the portal, see the [node-action
operation](/api/myaccount/operations/node-action/) in the API reference.