# Idle Timestream Database -- No Queries

> Timestream keeps billing for stored data (memory store and magnetic store by tier) long after ingest and queries stop. ZopNight calls a database idle when account-level metered bytes stay under 1 MiB across a fully-covered 30-day window, and prices the finding at the database's full standing monthly cost.

Source: https://zop.dev/integrations/aws/recommendations/idle-timestream-database-no-queries
Updated: 2026-08-19

---

## Storage is the bill that outlives the workload

A Timestream deployment that stopped ingesting months ago has scaled its write and query
charges to zero by itself, but the data it accumulated keeps billing by stored gigabyte in
[the memory and magnetic tiers](https://aws.amazon.com/timestream/pricing/) indefinitely. Abandoned time-series databases are therefore a
pure storage annuity paid for nothing, and deletion recovers the whole standing cost, which
is exactly how the recommendation prices it: the aggregator's measured monthly cost, never a
flat guess.

## A coarse signal, deliberately acknowledged

AWS publishes no per-database query-count metric. None of Timestream's activity counters
[carry a database dimension](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/timestream/latest/developerguide/metrics-dimensions.html); they aggregate at the account/region level with only an
operation dimension. So the rule reads the account-level CumulativeBytesMetered series,
which rises with both ingest and queries, and a below-floor reading means the *entire
regional footprint* is quiet, not one database among busy ones. The finding is honest at
that grain: it fires when nothing in the account is using Timestream at all.

## Floors and coverage instead of zeros and hope

Exact-zero gating under-fires, because a dormant account still emits trickle metered bytes
from stray metadata scans. The rule uses a 1 MiB floor on the window peak (orders of
magnitude below any real workload) and demands a full 30 days of actual harvested data
before deciding, stricter than the usual 7-day bar because the follow-up action is a
destructive delete. Missing metrics, thin coverage, or an unpriced database each abstain.

## Run the same measurement

```bash
aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics \
  --namespace AWS/Timestream --metric-name CumulativeBytesMetered \
  --start-time "$(date -u -v-30d +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" \
  --end-time "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" \
  --period 86400 --statistics Sum
```

## Plan an exit, not just a cleanup

Amazon Timestream for LiveAnalytics is closed to new customers as of mid-2025, so an
abandoned database here is doubly worth acting on: export anything with archival value,
delete tables to stop storage charges, then the database. Point any surviving
time-series need at Timestream for InfluxDB or another store rather than back at a product
in wind-down.