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E-MapReduce:Scale in a cluster

Last Updated:Mar 26, 2026

When task or gateway nodes in your E-MapReduce (EMR) cluster sit idle, scale in the cluster to reduce compute costs.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure that:

Limitations

Task nodes

To scale in task nodes, the cluster must meet all of the following requirements:

RequirementValue
EMR versionV5.X later than V5.6.0, or V3.X later than V3.2.0
Cluster stateRunning
Billing method of the task node groupPay-As-You-Go or Preemptible Instance

Gateway nodes

To scale in gateway nodes, the cluster must meet all of the following requirements:

RequirementValue
EMR versionV5.X later than V5.10.1
Cluster stateRunning
Billing method of the gateway node groupPay-As-You-Go

Hadoop clusters

For Hadoop clusters, you cannot scale in a node group that was created on the Auto Scaling tab. See Configure auto scaling (only for Hadoop clusters).

Scale in a task or gateway node group

  1. Log on to the EMR console. In the left-side navigation pane, click EMR on ECS.

  2. In the top navigation bar, select the region where your cluster resides and select a resource group.

  3. On the EMR on ECS page, find your cluster and click Nodes in the Actions column.

  4. On the Nodes tab, click Scale In in the Actions column of the node group you want to reduce.

  5. In the Scale In dialog box, adjust the Reserved Quantity field — click the downward arrow or type a number directly.

  6. Click OK.

Other ways to scale in

MethodReference
APIDecreaseNodes

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