diff --git a/.cirrus.yml b/.cirrus.yml
index ae660394b4..1cf21416ee 100644
--- a/.cirrus.yml
+++ b/.cirrus.yml
@@ -99,6 +99,8 @@ build_vm_images_task:
         # Version of packer to use
         PACKER_VER: "1.3.1"
 
+    # VMs created by packer are not cleaned up by cirrus
+    auto_cancellation: $CI != "true"
 
     gce_instance:
         image_name: "image-builder-image"  # Simply CentOS 7 + packer dependencies