💰 What is AWS Cost Explorer?
AWS Cost Explorer is a free tool provided by AWS that allows you to:
- Visualize your AWS usage and spending
- Analyze costs by service, account, region, or tag
- Forecast future costs
- Identify opportunities to save money
-
✅ Think of it as your cost dashboard and budgeting assistant in the AWS Console.
📊 Key Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Usage Reports | View detailed cost breakdown by service, account, usage type, etc. |
| Filtering & Grouping | Filter by region, tag, linked account, service, etc. |
| Cost Forecasting | Predict costs for the upcoming months using trends |
| Reserved Instance (RI) Reports | Analyze RI usage and coverage |
| Savings Plans Reports | Track utilization and potential savings |
| Linked Accounts Support | See cost breakdowns by linked accounts in an AWS Organization |
| Daily & Monthly Granularity | Choose between detailed daily or summarized monthly views |
🛠️ Example Use Cases
| Goal | How Cost Explorer Helps |
|---|---|
| Track S3 and EC2 usage costs | Group by service and filter by region |
| Detect sudden cost spikes | Set up alerts or daily report filters |
| Forecast next month’s AWS bill | Use the forecasting tool |
| Allocate costs by department/project | Use cost allocation tags |
| Check underutilized Reserved Instances | View RI coverage and usage reports |
📍 How to Access
- Go to AWS Console → Billing → Cost Explorer
- Click “Launch Cost Explorer”
- Choose views like:
- Monthly costs by service
- Daily usage by region
- EC2 costs by instance type
💸 Pricing
| Feature | Pricing |
|---|---|
| Cost Explorer Core | ✅ Free |
| RI/Savings Plan Reports | ✅ Free |
| Detailed usage reports | ✅ Free |
💡 AWS Budgets (related tool) allows cost alerting, but may charge for advanced usage.
🧠 Related Tools
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| AWS Budgets | Set cost or usage limits with email/SNS alerts |
| Cost Anomaly Detection | Detect and alert on abnormal spending |
| Trusted Advisor | Cost optimization recommendations |
| Billing Dashboard | Overall cost summary |
📈 Visualization Options
- You can group and visualize costs by:
-
Service
-
Region
-
Usage type
-
Linked account
-
Tags (like
Project=CertifiKation)
-
And display as:
- Line graphs
- Bar charts
- Pie charts
✅ Summary
| Category | AWS Cost Explorer |
|---|---|
| Visualize Costs | ✅ Yes |
| Forecasting | ✅ Yes |
| Service Breakdown | ✅ Yes |
| Daily Granularity | ✅ Yes |
| Tag-Based Filtering | ✅ Yes (if enabled) |
| Cost Optimization | ❌ Use Trusted Advisor or Budgets |