Question: Will I be charged for an inactive DynamoDB table?

Answer

Yes. An inactive DynamoDB table can still cost money for storage, backups and provisioned capacity. An on-demand table with no read or write requests has no request charges, but its stored data and enabled paid features remain billable.

In provisioned mode, you pay for allocated read and write capacity on both the table and its GSIs even when unused, subject to applicable free-tier allowances. Auto scaling can reduce capacity toward its configured minimum; it does not pause billing or reduce provisioned capacity to zero.

Check these sources of idle cost:

• Table and index storage, including each global-table replica.
• Provisioned capacity and any reserved-capacity or Savings Plan commitments.
• Point-in-time recovery and retained on-demand backups.
• Separate resources such as DAX nodes or other pipeline components.

Switching to on-demand may suit sporadic traffic, but compare actual usage and commitments first. Standard's storage allowance can cover a small idle table; Standard-IA has different rates and no free storage allowance.

Deleting a table does not automatically delete its retained backups or external resources. Use Cost Explorer to identify the billed usage type before changing the application. The pricing calculator and capacity-mode comparison help estimate the alternatives.

Source: DynamoDB pricing.