AWS cost controls basics

Topic: Cloud aws core

Control AWS spend with budgets, alerts, and tags. Set a budget and get alerts at thresholds. Use tags for allocation and cleanup. Use when you want to avoid surprise bills or allocate cost.

Intent: How-to

Quick answer

  • Create budget in Billing. Set amount and period. Add alert at 80 and 100 percent. Email or SNS.
  • Tag resources with project, env, owner. Use cost allocation tags for reports. Untagged resources show in reports for cleanup.
  • Use Cost Explorer to analyze. Set reservation or savings plan for committed use. Review and delete unused resources.

Prerequisites

Steps

  1. Budget and alerts

    Billing Budgets. Create budget. Set amount. Alerts at 80 and 100 percent. Add email or SNS.

  2. Tags

    Tag EC2, EBS, S3, etc with project and owner. Enable cost allocation tags. Use in Cost Explorer.

  3. Review and optimize

    Cost Explorer by service and tag. Delete unused volumes and IPs. Consider reserved instances or savings plans.

Summary

Set budgets and alerts. Tag for allocation. Review and optimize spend.

Prerequisites

Steps

Step 1: Budget and alerts

Billing Budgets. Create budget. Alerts at 80 and 100 percent.

Step 2: Tags

Tag resources. Enable cost allocation tags. Use in Cost Explorer.

Step 3: Review and optimize

Cost Explorer. Delete unused resources. Consider reserved or savings plans.

Verification

  • Budget and alerts active. Tags applied. Cost visible in Cost Explorer.

Troubleshooting

No alerts — Check SNS or email. High cost — Review by service and tag; delete unused.

Next steps

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