---
title: "Stop, start, and restart a VM"
description: "Stop a TIR Virtual Machine to end its compute billing, start it again, restart it, or withdraw a VM that is waiting for capacity."
content_type: "how-to"
product: "tir-vm"
platform: "TIR"
url: "/tir/tir-vm/how-to/stop-start-and-restart-a-vm/"
topic: ["power-and-lifecycle"]
---

# Stop, start, and restart a VM

Stop an hourly TIR Virtual Machine when you are done with it for now. Its compute charge ends, and its disk
and files wait for you. Start it again to use the same disk and files, or restart it to reboot it
in one step. A VM that is waiting for capacity has its own way out, **Revoke Request**.

## Before you begin

- A VM in a TIR project. See [Create a VM](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/create-a-vm/).
- Permission to update VMs in the project. See [TIR Access Control](/tir/tir-iam/).
- To start a VM on a prepaid account, credit for the plan in your balance.

Each action is in the **Actions** menu of the VM's row in **Manage VMs**. On the VM's details page,
**Start** and **Stop** are at the top, and **Restart VM** is under **More Actions**. Which actions
you can take depends on the VM's status, its plan, and your role.

| Action         | Offered when the VM is                                      | Takes about |
| -------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | ----------- |
| **Stop VM**    | **Running**, **Waiting**, **Pending**, or in **Error**      | 15 seconds  |
| **Start VM**   | **Stopped**, and shown while **Stopping**                   | 45 seconds  |
| **Restart VM** | Any status except **Stopped**, **Stopping**, or **Pending** | 50 seconds  |

The disk keeps its files across a stop, a start, and a restart.

## Stop a VM

You can stop an hourly VM or a VM on a private cluster. A VM on a committed plan runs for its whole
term, so you can restart it but not stop it.

1. On the list, open **Actions** on the VM's row and choose **Stop VM**. On the details page, select
   **Stop**.
2. Read the warnings, tick the box that reads "I understand and want to stop the VM" followed by the
   VM's name, and select **Stop**.

The VM goes from **Stopping** to **Stopped**. The plan charge of an hourly VM ends when it stops.
The disk above 30 GB is still billed until you delete the VM.

When the VM starts again, a floating public IP can come back as a different address. To keep
the same address, [attach a reserved IP](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/attach-a-reserved-ip-to-a-vm/) before you
stop the VM.

## Start a VM

1. Once the VM shows **Stopped**, open **Actions** on its row and choose **Start VM**, or select
   **Start** on its details page.
2. Confirm with **Start**.

The VM is back in about 45 seconds and turns **Running**. The plan charge of an hourly VM starts
again when the VM is ready, and your startup scripts run again, because they run on every boot.

A start needs free capacity for the plan. If the plan is short of capacity, see [Inventory temporarily
unavailable](/tir/tir-vm/troubleshooting/tir-vm/#inventory-temporarily-unavailable-please-try-again-after-some-time).

## Restart a VM

A restart interrupts everything running on the VM, so save your work first. The disk keeps its
files. Restart a VM to apply a change that needs one, such as a change to a startup script.

1. Open **Actions** on the VM's row, or **More Actions** on its details page, and choose **Restart VM**.
2. Confirm with **Restart**.

The VM is back in about 50 seconds. The time an
hourly VM is down during a restart is not billed.

## Withdraw a VM that is waiting for capacity

A VM that shows **Pending** is waiting for compute capacity, and it starts by itself as soon as
capacity frees up. To give up the wait, open **Actions** on its row in **Manage VMs**, choose
**Revoke Request**, and select **Revoke**. A VM that has yet to run is deleted. A VM that has run before is stopped,
and you can start it later or delete it.

## See the new status

After a stop, the VM's status is **Stopped**; after a start or a restart, it is **Running**. A
failed action reports "Unable to start VM", "Unable to stop VM", or "Unable to restart VM", or the
reason TIR gives. For what to do next, see
[Troubleshooting TIR Virtual
Machines](/tir/tir-vm/troubleshooting/tir-vm/#notebook-is-already-started-or-notebook-is-already-stopped).

To sign in to a VM that is running again, see [Connect to a VM over
SSH](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/connect-to-a-vm-over-ssh/). To end the VM's own charges,
see [Delete a VM](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/delete-a-vm/).