Cloud Financial Management
AWS Cost Explorer
A tool for visualizing, filtering, and analyzing historical AWS cost and usage, with forecasting for supported future periods.
Key points
- Cost Explorer helps identify trends and cost drivers after usage occurs.
- Filters and groupings can analyze services, accounts, tags, and other dimensions.
- Forecasts use historical information; they are not the same as a proposed-architecture estimate.
Best-known use cases
- Investigate why last month's bill changed.
- Analyze cost trends and forecast based on usage history.
What candidates often confuse it with
- Cost Explorer analyzes actual spend; Pricing Calculator estimates a planned workload.
- Budgets monitors defined thresholds and alerts.
Key Cloud Practitioner takeaway
Historical cost analysis and trend-based forecasting point to Cost Explorer.
Related services
- AWS Pricing Calculator
- AWS Budgets
- AWS Cost and Usage Reports
Relevant exam tasks
- D4.2