diff --git a/aws/resource_aws_emr_cluster.go b/aws/resource_aws_emr_cluster.go
index 2cec704bee29..f5048e71ef70 100644
--- a/aws/resource_aws_emr_cluster.go
+++ b/aws/resource_aws_emr_cluster.go
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/helper/resource"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/helper/schema"
 	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/helper/structure"
+	"github.com/hashicorp/terraform/helper/validation"
 )
 
 func resourceAwsEMRCluster() *schema.Resource {
@@ -236,6 +237,16 @@ func resourceAwsEMRCluster() *schema.Resource {
 				ForceNew: true,
 				Required: true,
 			},
+			"scale_down_behavior": {
+				Type:     schema.TypeString,
+				ForceNew: true,
+				Optional: true,
+				Computed: true,
+				ValidateFunc: validation.StringInSlice([]string{
+					emr.ScaleDownBehaviorTerminateAtInstanceHour,
+					emr.ScaleDownBehaviorTerminateAtTaskCompletion,
+				}, false),
+			},
 			"security_configuration": {
 				Type:     schema.TypeString,
 				ForceNew: true,
@@ -363,10 +374,15 @@ func resourceAwsEMRClusterCreate(d *schema.ResourceData, meta interface{}) error
 	if v, ok := d.GetOk("log_uri"); ok {
 		params.LogUri = aws.String(v.(string))
 	}
+
 	if v, ok := d.GetOk("autoscaling_role"); ok {
 		params.AutoScalingRole = aws.String(v.(string))
 	}
 
+	if v, ok := d.GetOk("scale_down_behavior"); ok {
+		params.ScaleDownBehavior = aws.String(v.(string))
+	}
+
 	if v, ok := d.GetOk("security_configuration"); ok {
 		params.SecurityConfiguration = aws.String(v.(string))
 	}
@@ -486,6 +502,7 @@ func resourceAwsEMRClusterRead(d *schema.ResourceData, meta interface{}) error {
 	}
 
 	d.Set("name", cluster.Name)
+
 	d.Set("service_role", cluster.ServiceRole)
 	d.Set("security_configuration", cluster.SecurityConfiguration)
 	d.Set("autoscaling_role", cluster.AutoScalingRole)
@@ -495,6 +512,7 @@ func resourceAwsEMRClusterRead(d *schema.ResourceData, meta interface{}) error {
 	d.Set("visible_to_all_users", cluster.VisibleToAllUsers)
 	d.Set("tags", tagsToMapEMR(cluster.Tags))
 	d.Set("ebs_root_volume_size", cluster.EbsRootVolumeSize)
+	d.Set("scale_down_behavior", cluster.ScaleDownBehavior)
 
 	if cluster.CustomAmiId != nil {
 		d.Set("custom_ami_id", cluster.CustomAmiId)
diff --git a/aws/resource_aws_emr_cluster_test.go b/aws/resource_aws_emr_cluster_test.go
index 96fcc31f881a..17cacac70342 100644
--- a/aws/resource_aws_emr_cluster_test.go
+++ b/aws/resource_aws_emr_cluster_test.go
@@ -24,7 +24,10 @@ func TestAccAWSEMRCluster_basic(t *testing.T) {
 		Steps: []resource.TestStep{
 			{
 				Config: testAccAWSEmrClusterConfig(r),
-				Check:  testAccCheckAWSEmrClusterExists("aws_emr_cluster.tf-test-cluster", &cluster),
+				Check: resource.ComposeTestCheckFunc(
+					testAccCheckAWSEmrClusterExists("aws_emr_cluster.tf-test-cluster", &cluster),
+					resource.TestCheckResourceAttr("aws_emr_cluster.tf-test-cluster", "scale_down_behavior", "TERMINATE_AT_TASK_COMPLETION"),
+				),
 			},
 		},
 	})
@@ -707,6 +710,8 @@ resource "aws_emr_cluster" "tf-test-cluster" {
   keep_job_flow_alive_when_no_steps = true
   termination_protection = false
 
+  scale_down_behavior = "TERMINATE_AT_TASK_COMPLETION"
+
   bootstrap_action {
     path = "s3://elasticmapreduce/bootstrap-actions/run-if"
     name = "runif"
diff --git a/website/docs/r/emr_cluster.html.markdown b/website/docs/r/emr_cluster.html.markdown
index 146464e4b515..1da1ee8f1949 100644
--- a/website/docs/r/emr_cluster.html.markdown
+++ b/website/docs/r/emr_cluster.html.markdown
@@ -112,6 +112,7 @@ The following arguments are supported:
 * `name` - (Required) The name of the job flow
 * `release_label` - (Required) The release label for the Amazon EMR release
 * `master_instance_type` - (Optional) The EC2 instance type of the master node. Exactly one of `master_instance_type` and `instance_group` must be specified.
+* `scale_down_behavior` - (Optional) The way that individual Amazon EC2 instances terminate when an automatic scale-in activity occurs or an `instance group` is resized. 
 * `service_role` - (Required) IAM role that will be assumed by the Amazon EMR service to access AWS resources
 * `security_configuration` - (Optional) The security configuration name to attach to the EMR cluster. Only valid for EMR clusters with `release_label` 4.8.0 or greater
 * `core_instance_type` - (Optional) The EC2 instance type of the slave nodes. Cannot be specified if `instance_groups` is set