{"id":467932,"date":"2022-06-27T04:48:08","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T01:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/debugging-your-aws-bill-with-cost-explorer-and-billing-tags\/"},"modified":"2022-06-27T04:48:08","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T01:48:08","slug":"debugging-your-aws-bill-with-cost-explorer-and-billing-tags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/debugging-your-aws-bill-with-cost-explorer-and-billing-tags\/","title":{"rendered":"#Debugging Your AWS Bill With Cost Explorer and Billing Tags"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2ffb9222037\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2ffb9222037\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/debugging-your-aws-bill-with-cost-explorer-and-billing-tags\/#%E2%80%9CDebugging_Your_AWS_Bill_With_Cost_Explorer_and_Billing_Tags%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Debugging Your AWS Bill With Cost Explorer and Billing Tags&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/debugging-your-aws-bill-with-cost-explorer-and-billing-tags\/#What_Is_Cost_Explorer\" >What Is Cost Explorer?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/debugging-your-aws-bill-with-cost-explorer-and-billing-tags\/#Using_The_Cost_Explorer\" >Using The Cost Explorer<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/debugging-your-aws-bill-with-cost-explorer-and-billing-tags\/#Using_Tags\" >Using Tags<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CDebugging_Your_AWS_Bill_With_Cost_Explorer_and_Billing_Tags%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Debugging Your AWS Bill With Cost Explorer and Billing Tags&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"type:primaryImage alignnone size-full wp-image-5269\" data-pagespeed-no-defer=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/csit\/2020\/06\/e601b806.png?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"AWS Logo\" width=\"700\" height=\"300\"\/><\/p>\n<p>AWS\u2019s billing is notoriously complicated, and misconfigurations in your network can lead to excess\u00a0data or resource use that can pile up unnoticed. AWS provides many solutions for debugging your bill before it hits your wallet.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_Is_Cost_Explorer\"><\/span>What Is Cost Explorer?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>AWS provides a lot of services related to billing, but the most useful is the Cost Explorer. While the main billing home page provides a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a> overview of your bill, Cost Explorer allows you to drill down into exactly what you\u2019re paying for.<\/p>\n<p>Each penny spent in AWS is associated with a lot of data. This can help to locate unnecessary spending, which can give you some actionable insights on what you need to change in your cloud network.<\/p>\n<p>For example, a common problem using too much data, as AWS has very high data costs. You could\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudsavvyit.com\/?p=15811\">take steps to alleviate the problem<\/a>, or even consider moving the problematic service to another cloud provider. Another issue might be high numbers of requests to backend services like S3\u2014you could consider implementing more frontend caching to reduce this.<\/p>\n<p>Cost Explorer is free, but you can <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/aws.amazon.com\/aws-cost-management\/aws-cost-explorer\/pricing\/?tag=hotoge-20\">enable \u201chourly granularity\u201d if you want to pay for it<\/a>. This costs a few cents per resource tracked.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Using_The_Cost_Explorer\"><\/span>Using The Cost Explorer<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Cost Explorer is available from the account dropdown, under \u201cBilling Dashboard\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15921\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/csit\/2022\/03\/2df8471f.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"\" width=\"470\" height=\"398\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>On the sidebar, you\u2019ll see the Cost Explorer. Open it up, and you\u2019ll see a graph of your bill over time, as well as multiple ways to filter it.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15922\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/csit\/2022\/03\/dc58bcc6.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1726\" height=\"761\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>At the top, you\u2019ll see the grouping options\u2014you\u2019ll probably want to set this to something such as \u201cUsage Type\u201d or \u201cAPI Operation,\u201d which will show you what you\u2019re actually paying for. For example, this graph is largely S3 operations, and it\u2019s split between various costs such as data transfer out, PutObject requests, and GetObject requests.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15923\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/csit\/2022\/03\/f8dcb719.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1234\" height=\"437\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>In March here is when I switched a problematic bucket to Digital Ocean, which charges a lot less for data transfer costs. I could have also implemented more client-side caching if I wanted to stay on S3. The high DataTransfer-Out cost dis<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>eared, leaving only the PutObject requests, which are headed for a different archival bucket that will remain on S3, though it seems reducing the rate of requests could bring the bill down even further.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re using lots of different services, the filters on the side will help you narrow down the issues. You can filter costs by name, as well as by region, availability zone, instance and usage type, and even multiple accounts.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15924\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/csit\/2022\/03\/0aa8d2db.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"\" width=\"555\" height=\"347\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Using_Tags\"><\/span>Using Tags<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>One of the most useful filtering options you have are\u00a0<em>tags.\u00a0<\/em>Tags are an AWS feature that applies across every single service. Nearly every object in AWS can be assigned key-value pairs that are used for organization.<\/p>\n<p>These can be used for lots of things, but a major one is cost-tracking based on different factors. For example, perhaps you have a lot of applications running in the same cloud, using the same kkinds of resources. Giving them different tags can easily split up the costs in the Cost Explorer.<\/p>\n<p>Tags are quite simple to use. They can be set programmatically when launching services with the AWS API or CloudFormation, but if you want to manually set them, you\u2019ll usually find a settings panel for them somewhere in the settings for each service. For example, S3 has them on the bucket settings page under \u201cProperties.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15925\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/csit\/2022\/03\/3421ec35.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"\" width=\"892\" height=\"470\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Once set, you\u2019ll be able to sort Cost Explorer by tag, but unless you have hourly granularity turned on, it will take a while before the next round of billing goes through.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n setTimeout(function(){\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s) } (window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n   fbq('init', '335401813750447');\n   fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  },3000);\n<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/devops\/debugging-your-aws-bill-with-cost-explorer-and-billing-tags\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Debugging Your AWS Bill With Cost Explorer and Billing Tags&#8221; AWS\u2019s billing is notoriously complicated, and misconfigurations in your network can lead to excess\u00a0data or resource use that can pile up unnoticed. AWS provides many solutions for debugging your bill before it hits your wallet. What Is Cost Explorer? AWS provides a lot of services&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":467933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/csit\/2020\/06\/e601b806.png?height=200p&trim=2,2,2,2","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}