Master the ECR Lifecycle: Automating Image Cleanup

📰 Dev.to · iapilgrim

Learn to automate image cleanup in AWS ECR using lifecycle policies to reduce storage costs and improve efficiency

intermediate Published 23 Mar 2026
Action Steps
  1. Create a lifecycle policy in AWS ECR to define image retention rules
  2. Configure the policy to keep only the last 10 images
  3. Set up a rule to delete untagged images immediately
  4. Apply the policy to your ECR repository
  5. Monitor and adjust the policy as needed to ensure optimal image cleanup
Who Needs to Know This

DevOps teams and cloud engineers can benefit from this knowledge to optimize their CI/CD pipelines and reduce AWS costs

Key Insight

💡 Lifecycle policies in AWS ECR can help reduce storage costs by automatically cleaning up unused images

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Automate image cleanup in AWS ECR with lifecycle policies to reduce storage costs and improve efficiency #AWS #ECR #DevOps

Key Takeaways

Learn to automate image cleanup in AWS ECR using lifecycle policies to reduce storage costs and improve efficiency

Full Article

Title: Master the ECR Lifecycle: Automating Image Cleanup

URL Source: https://dev.to/pilgrim2go/master-the-ecr-lifecycle-automating-image-cleanup-oh4

Published Time: 2026-03-23T11:29:23Z

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Posted on Mar 23

# Master the ECR Lifecycle: Automating Image Cleanup

[#aws](https://dev.to/t/aws)[#ecr](https://dev.to/t/ecr)[#cleanup](https://dev.to/t/cleanup)

## [](https://dev.to/pilgrim2go/master-the-ecr-lifecycle-automating-image-cleanup-oh4#why-lifecycle-policies) Why Lifecycle Policies?

Every time your CI/CD pipeline runs `docker push`, you're adding roughly 200MB–1GB of data to your AWS bill. Without a policy, that data sits there forever. Lifecycle policies allow you to define rules like:

* "Keep only the last 10 images."
* "Delete anything older than 14 days."
* "Expire untagged images immediately."

## [](https://dev.to/pilgrim2go/master-the-ecr-lifecycle-automating-image-cleanup-oh4#the-perfect-policy-for-devstaging) The "Perfect" Policy for Dev/Staging

For most teams, the best balance between "safety" and "savings" is a two-rule policy.

### [](https://dev.to/pilgrim2go/master-the-ecr-lifecycle-automating-image-cleanup-oh4#1-the-untagged-rule-p
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