Why is the burst balance for my Amazon EBS volume low?

Resolution

Amazon EBS volume types that use burst performance, such as gp2, st1, and sc1, have a baseline performance that is based on volume size. If your workload drives I/O traffic to one of these volume types beyond the volume type's baseline performance, then burst credit is spent. If your workload continues to drive I/O traffic beyond the baseline performance, then your burst credit runs low. If your burst credit reaches zero, then these volume types are throttled at their baseline input/output operations per second (IOPS) performance or throughput. Volumes start to earn burst credits again only after the workload stops or after the activity of the volume is below the volume type's baseline performance.

Note: gp3 volume type doesn't use burst performance.

Related information

gp2 volume performance (gp2 volume type)

Throughput Optimized HDD volumes (st1 volume type)

Cold HDD volumes (sc1 volume type)