# State change events for Amazon EC2 instances
<a name="monitoring-instance-state-changes"></a>

Amazon EC2 sends an `EC2 Instance State-change Notification` event to Amazon EventBridge when the state of an instance changes.

The following is example data for this event. In this example, the instance entered the `pending` state.

```
{
   "id":"7bf73129-1428-4cd3-a780-95db273d1602",
   "detail-type":"EC2 Instance State-change Notification",
   "source":"aws.ec2",
   "account":"123456789012",
   "time":"2021-11-11T21:29:54Z",
   "region":"us-east-1",
   "resources":[
      "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:123456789012:instance/i-1234567890abcdef0"
   ],
   "detail":{
      "instance-id":"i-1234567890abcdef0",
      "state":"pending"
   }
}
```

The possible values for `state` are:
+ `pending`
+ `running`
+ `stopping`
+ `stopped`
+ `shutting-down`
+ `terminated`

When you launch or start an instance, it enters the `pending` state and then the `running` state. When you stop an instance, it enters the `stopping` state and then the `stopped` state. When you terminate an instance, it enters the `shutting-down` state and then the `terminated` state. For more information, see [Amazon EC2 instance state changes](ec2-instance-lifecycle.md).