In Azure, it’s common for public IP addresses to be created as part of virtual machine or load balancer configurations. When those resources are deleted or reconfigured, the IP address may remain in the environment unassigned. While Basic SKUs are free when idle, Standard SKUs incur ongoing hourly charges, even if the address is not in use.Unassigned Standard public IPs provide no functional value but continue to generate cost, especially in environments with high churn or inconsistent cleanup practices.

When EC2 instances, Lambda functions, or containerized workloads access AWS-managed services without VPC Endpoints, that traffic exits the VPC through a NAT Gateway or Internet Gateway. This introduces unnecessary egress charges and NAT processing costs, especially for data-intensive or high-frequency workloads.

VPC Interface Endpoints are commonly deployed to meet network security or compliance requirements by enabling private access to AWS services. However, these endpoints often remain provisioned even after the original use case is deprecated. In some cases, the applications have been decommissioned; in others, traffic routing has changed and the endpoint is no longer used. Since interface endpoints generate hourly charges whether or not they are used, identifying and removing inactive ones can eliminate unnecessary costs.