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AWS Billing and Cost Management
What it is
AWS Billing and Cost Management helps customers manage AWS billing, invoices, spending analysis, budgets, and forecasts. The Bills page provides downloadable invoices and detailed monthly billing data. Cost Explorer visualizes cost and usage over time, supports filters and groupings such as account and service, and projects future costs and usage from historical and current patterns.
AWS Budgets can alert users when spending or usage thresholds are reached or are forecast to be exceeded. It can also track Reservations and Savings Plans utilization and coverage. Cost Anomaly Detection uses machine learning to identify unusual spending and possible causes, with alerts available through SNS or email individually or in daily or weekly summaries. Cost Categories organizes data into customer-defined groups and can be used with Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, and the Cost and Usage Report.
The service is listed as free, though some features have usage-based charges. Primary billing view Cost Explorer API requests cost $0.01 each; custom billing view requests cost $0.01 per source. Hourly Cost Explorer data has a 14-day lookback and applies to specified service and EC2 resource-level data. AWS launched in 2006.
For and against
For
- Downloadable invoices and monthly billing details.
- Cost Explorer forecasts future costs and usage.
- Budgets can alert on thresholds and forecasts.
- Cost Anomaly Detection offers email or SNS alerts.
- Cost Categories works with three AWS cost tools.
Against
- Some features have usage-based charges.
- Primary billing view API requests cost $0.01 each.
- Custom billing view API requests cost $0.01 per source.
- Hourly granularity has a 14-day lookback.
The verdict
AWS Billing and Cost Management brings invoice access, analysis, budgeting, and cost categorization together for AWS spending. Although listed as free, API requests and some hourly data have separate charges.
Who it suits
It suits AWS customers who need to review invoices, analyze costs, set budget alerts, or plan spending. AWS describes its cost-management solutions as serving organizations from cloud-native businesses to those starting cloud migration.
Plans and prices
AWS Cost Explorer API
Access the Cost Explorer query engine programmatically
Read 20 Sep 2026 · aws.amazon.com
AWS Cost Explorer hourly granularity
14-day lookback
Read 20 Sep 2026 · aws.amazon.com
AWS Billing and Cost Management
Some features have usage-based charges; Cost Explorer API requests and hourly granularity are charged separately
Read 4 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
On the record
- Anomaly detection
- Cost Anomaly Detection uses machine learning to detect anomalous spending and root causes, with alerts available individually or in daily or weekly summaries through SNS or email.aws.amazon.com · read 4 Oct 2026
- API pricing
- Each Cost Explorer API request using a primary billing view costs $0.01; requests using custom billing views cost $0.01 per source.aws.amazon.com · read 4 Oct 2026
- Billing
- The Bills page lets customers download invoices and view detailed monthly billing data.docs.aws.amazon.com · read 4 Oct 2026
- Budget charges
- Budget monitoring and notifications are free; the first two action-enabled budgets per month are free, and each later action-enabled budget costs $0.10 daily.aws.amazon.com · read 4 Oct 2026
- Budgets
- AWS Budgets can alert users when cost or usage thresholds are exceeded or forecast to be exceeded, and can track Reservations and Savings Plans utilization and coverage.aws.amazon.com · read 4 Oct 2026
- Compliance
- AWS lists certifications and attestations including ISO 27001 and SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3, and says customers remain responsible for applicable compliance laws and regulations.aws.amazon.com · read 4 Oct 2026
- Cost allocation
- Cost Categories maps cost and usage data into customer-defined categories using dimensions including account, tag, service, charge type, and other cost categories.aws.amazon.com · read 4 Oct 2026
- Cost analysis
- Cost Explorer visualizes AWS cost and usage over time and lets users filter and group data by dimensions such as member account and service.aws.amazon.com · read 4 Oct 2026
- Forecasting
- Cost Explorer projects future costs and usage from historical and current cost and usage patterns.aws.amazon.com · read 4 Oct 2026
- Hourly data limit
- Cost Explorer hourly granularity looks back over 14 days and applies to cost and usage data for all services without resource details and to EC2 resource-level data.aws.amazon.com · read 4 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Cost Categories can be used with AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets, and AWS Cost and Usage Report.aws.amazon.com · read 4 Oct 2026
- Intended audience
- AWS describes its cost management solutions as serving organizations from those born in the cloud to those beginning their cloud migration journey.aws.amazon.com · read 4 Oct 2026
- Maker history
- Amazon Web Services says it launched in 2006.aws.amazon.com · read 4 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- AWS Billing and Cost Management provides features to set up billing, retrieve and pay invoices, and analyze, organize, plan, and optimize costs.docs.aws.amazon.com · read 4 Oct 2026
