AWS Cost Explorer is a powerful cost management tool provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that enables you to analyze and understand your AWS spending patterns. It provides valuable insights into your AWS cost and usage data, helping you optimize your cloud resources and control your expenses.
You can explore your usage and costs using the main graph, the Cost Explorer cost and usage reports, or the Cost Explorer RI (Reserved Instances) reports. You can view data for up to the last 12 months, forecast how much you are likely to spend for the next 12 months, and get recommendations for what Reserved Instances to purchase. You can use Cost Explorer to identify areas that need further inquiry and see trends that you can use to understand your costs. You can view your costs and usage using the Cost Explorer user interface free of charge. In addition, Cost Explorer provides preconfigured views that display at-a-glance information about your cost trends and give you a head start on customizing views that suit your needs.
You can also access your data programmatically using the Cost Explorer API. Each paginated API request incurs a charge of $0.01.
When you first sign up for Cost Explorer, AWS prepares the data about your costs for the current month and the last 12 months, and then calculates the forecast for the next 12 months. The current month’s data is available for viewing in about 24 hours. The rest of your data takes a few days longer. Cost Explorer refreshes your cost data at least once every 24 hours. However, this depends on your upstream data from your billing applications, and some data might be updated later than 24 hours. After you sign up, Cost Explorer can display up to 12 months of historical data (if you have that much), the current month, and the forecasted costs for the next 12 months. The first time that you use Cost Explorer, Cost Explorer walks you through the main parts of the console with an explanation for each section.
Cost Explorer uses the same dataset that is used to generate the AWS Cost and Usage Reports and the detailed billing reports. For a comprehensive review of the data, you can download it into a comma-separated value (CSV) file.
You can enable Cost Explorer for your account using this procedure on the Billing and Cost Management console. You can’t enable Cost Explorer using the API.
After you enable Cost Explorer, AWS prepares the data about your costs for the current month and the last 12 months, and then calculates the forecast for the next 12 months. The current month’s data is available for viewing in about 24 hours. The rest of your data takes a few days longer. Cost Explorer updates your cost data at least once every 24 hours.
You can’t disable Cost Explorer after you enable it.
Enable Cost Explorer Using These Steps
1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console.
2. Open the AWS Cost Explorer service from the services menu or by searching for it.
3. In the Cost Explorer dashboard, you’ll find various options and filters to customize your cost analysis.
4. Start by selecting the desired time range for your cost and usage data, such as daily, monthly, or custom dates.
5. Use the different cost and usage filters to segment and analyze your spending. For example, you can filter by AWS service, region, instance type, or tag.
AWS Cost Explorer provides pre-built reports like “Costs by Service” or “Daily Spend,” or you can create your custom reports based on your specific needs. You can visualize your data using graphs and charts, which make it easier to understand your cost trends and identify areas for optimization.
Additionally, you can utilize forecasting features to estimate your future costs based on historical data and make informed decisions about your AWS budget. Cost Explorer also allows you to save and export your reports for further analysis or sharing with stakeholders.
Cost Explorer can help you gain valuable insights into your spending patterns, identify cost-saving opportunities, and optimize your resource allocation to maximize your cloud strategy efficiency and minimize unnecessary expenses. So it helps to have it as a handy tool in your AWS toolbox.
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