APS2-UnifiedStudio:VolumeUsage.gp3 charges being taken everyday. How to resolve ?

Hi there,

I'm sorry to hear about these unexpected charges.

Our Support team is always here to assist. I've passed along your concerns internally.

— Aimee K.

same issue for me too

Same here, very annoying. Raised several support tickets.... crickets

Hi Alok,

This is a common issue with SageMaker Unified Studio. The usage type APS2-UnifiedStudio:VolumeUsage.gp3 tells us that an EBS gp3 volume provisioned by Unified Studio in the ap-southeast-2 (Sydney) region is still active. Here's why this happens and how to resolve it:

Why the Charges Persist

When you create a SageMaker Unified Studio domain, EBS (gp3) and/or EFS volumes are provisioned in the background for your notebooks and spaces. Deleting the domain does NOT automatically delete these storage volumes — the EFS volume is detached but retained as a backup, and EBS volumes associated with spaces persist unless the spaces are explicitly deleted first (AWS Docs: Delete a Domain).

Additionally, these volumes are managed by the SageMaker service, which is why they don't appear under the standard EC2 > EBS Volumes console view or in CloudShell EC2 commands.

Steps to Find and Delete the Orphaned Volumes

Step 1: Check the AWS Billing Console for the Resource ID

Go to AWS Billing Console → Bills → Expand the "SageMaker" or "EC2" line items for the ap-southeast-2 region. The line item for APS2-UnifiedStudio:VolumeUsage.gp3 should show the resource ID (e.g., vol-YOUR_VOLUME_ID). Alternatively, enable the AWS Cost and Usage Report (CUR) which includes a lineItem/ResourceId column with the exact volume ID.

Step 2: Search for Unattached EBS Volumes via CLI

Run these commands in ap-southeast-2 specifically:

aws ec2 describe-volumes --region ap-southeast-2 --filters Name=status,Values=available --query "Volumes[*].{ID:VolumeId,Size:Size,Type:VolumeType,Created:CreateTime,Tags:Tags}" --output table

This lists all unattached (orphaned) EBS volumes. Look for gp3 volumes that match the timeframe when you created the Unified Studio domain.

Step 3: Also Check EFS File Systems

aws efs describe-file-systems --region ap-southeast-2 --query "FileSystems[*].{ID:FileSystemId,Size:SizeInBytes.Value,Created:CreationTime,Name:Name,Tags:Tags}" --output table

Look for file systems tagged with SageMaker-related tags (e.g., ManagedByAmazonSageMakerResource).

Step 4: Delete the Orphaned Resources

Once identified:

• Delete EBS volume: aws ec2 delete-volume --volume-id vol-YOUR_VOLUME_ID --region ap-southeast-2
• Delete EFS file system: aws efs delete-file-system --file-system-id fs-YOUR_EFS_ID --region ap-southeast-2

(You may need to delete EFS mount targets first: aws efs describe-mount-targets --file-system-id fs-YOUR_EFS_ID --region ap-southeast-2 then aws efs delete-mount-target --mount-target-id fsmt-YOUR_MOUNT_TARGET_ID --region ap-southeast-2)

If You Still Can't Find the Volumes

Open a Billing Support case (free for all AWS accounts — no support plan required):

1. Go to AWS Support Center
2. Choose Account and billing as the case type
3. Mention the specific usage type APS2-UnifiedStudio:VolumeUsage.gp3 and ask the support team to identify the resource ID and help remove it

The support team has visibility into service-managed resources that may not surface in the standard console.

Prevention Tip

When cleaning up SageMaker Studio / Unified Studio resources, always follow this order:

1. Stop all running applications
2. Delete all spaces (this removes the EBS volumes)
3. Delete all user profiles
4. Then delete the domain
5. Finally, manually check for and delete any remaining EFS volumes

References:

• Stop and delete Studio resources
• Delete a SageMaker domain
• Delete a Unified Studio domain
• Controlling costs by deleting unused EBS volumes

Hope this helps resolve the charges!