diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/pause_teardown-45c9d60ffa889f7f.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/pause_teardown-45c9d60ffa889f7f.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a540c7d458
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/pause_teardown-45c9d60ffa889f7f.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+---
+features:
+  - |
+    Pause teardown
+    When pause_teardown flag in tempest.conf is set to True a pdb breakpoint
+    is added to tearDown and tearDownClass methods in test.py.
+    This allows to pause cleaning resources process, so that used resources
+    can be examined. Closer examination of used resources may lead to faster
+    debugging.
diff --git a/tempest/config.py b/tempest/config.py
index fbe0a1b336..fdf6f0a5fd 100644
--- a/tempest/config.py
+++ b/tempest/config.py
@@ -1070,6 +1070,15 @@ DefaultGroup = [
                                  "prefix to ideintify resources which are "
                                  "created by Tempest and no projects set "
                                  "this option on OpenStack dev community."),
+    cfg.BoolOpt('pause_teardown',
+                default=False,
+                help="""Whether to pause a test in global teardown.
+
+The best use case is investigating used resources of one test.
+A test can be run as follows:
+ $ ostestr --pdb TEST_ID
+or
+ $ python -m testtools.run TEST_ID"""),
 ]
 
 _opts = [
diff --git a/tempest/test.py b/tempest/test.py
index f07c071d4f..a81b5d7e0d 100644
--- a/tempest/test.py
+++ b/tempest/test.py
@@ -247,6 +247,9 @@ class BaseTestCase(testtools.testcase.WithAttributes,
 
     @classmethod
     def tearDownClass(cls):
+        # insert pdb breakpoint when pause_teardown is enabled
+        if CONF.pause_teardown:
+            cls.insert_pdb_breakpoint()
         at_exit_set.discard(cls)
         # It should never be overridden by descendants
         if hasattr(super(BaseTestCase, cls), 'tearDownClass'):
@@ -283,6 +286,22 @@ class BaseTestCase(testtools.testcase.WithAttributes,
             finally:
                 del trace  # to avoid circular refs
 
+    def tearDown(self):
+        super(BaseTestCase, self).tearDown()
+        # insert pdb breakpoint when pause_teardown is enabled
+        if CONF.pause_teardown:
+            BaseTestCase.insert_pdb_breakpoint()
+
+    @classmethod
+    def insert_pdb_breakpoint(cls):
+        """Add pdb breakpoint.
+
+        This can help in debugging process, cleaning of resources is
+        paused, so they can be examined.
+        """
+        import pdb
+        pdb.set_trace()
+
     @classmethod
     def skip_checks(cls):
         """Class level skip checks.