# `[scaling]` section
<a name="scaling-section"></a>

**Topics**
+ [`scaledown_idletime`](#scaledown-idletime)

Specifies settings that define how the compute nodes scale.

The format is `[scaling scaling-name]`. *scaling-name* must start with a letter, contain no more than 30 characters, and only contain letters, numbers, hyphens (-), and underscores (\$1).

```
[scaling custom]
scaledown_idletime = 10
```

## `scaledown_idletime`
<a name="scaledown-idletime"></a>

**(Optional)** Specifies the amount of time in minutes without a job, after which the compute node terminates.

This parameter isn't used if `awsbatch` is the scheduler.

The default value is `10`.

```
scaledown_idletime = 10
```

[Update policy: The compute fleet must be stopped for this setting to be changed for an update.](using-pcluster-update.md#update-policy-compute-fleet)