Certopolis

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

AWS Pricing Calculator vs Cost Explorer vs Budgets

AWS Pricing Calculator estimates the cost of services before you use them. AWS Cost Explorer shows and forecasts what you have actually spent. AWS Budgets alerts you when actual or forecasted cost or usage passes a threshold you set, and a CloudWatch billing alarm can alert when estimated charges pass an amount.

Before you build: AWS Pricing Calculator

AWS Pricing Calculator is a free web tool for estimating the cost of AWS services. You don't need an AWS account or any cloud experience to use it. You pick services and settings, and it shows the upfront, monthly and annual costs, including the upfront cost of a chosen payment option.

An estimate does not include taxes. If a price in the calculator differs from the service's pricing page, AWS uses the pricing page price. You can save an estimate as a link or export it as CSV or PDF.

After you spend: AWS Cost Explorer

Cost Explorer shows your costs and usage in graphs and reports. It covers up to the last 13 months, forecasts the next 18 months, and recommends Reserved Instances to buy.

Using Cost Explorer in the console is free. Requests through the Cost Explorer API are charged per request. Once you enable Cost Explorer, you cannot turn it off.

Alerts: AWS Budgets and CloudWatch billing alarms

AWS Budgets tracks cost, usage, and Reserved Instance or Savings Plans utilization and coverage. It can alert by email or Amazon SNS when actual or forecasted spend passes your threshold, and can run actions such as applying an IAM policy that stops new resources being created. Budget data updates up to three times a day.

Amazon CloudWatch can also alert on charges. After you turn on billing alerts, you create an alarm on the EstimatedCharges metric in the US East (N. Virginia) Region. It fires when current charges pass your threshold. Unlike Budgets, it does not use forecasts.

Neither tool stops charges instantly. There is a delay between using a resource and it appearing on the bill, so costs can pass the threshold before the alert arrives.

Where the exam catches people

  • Believing Pricing Calculator shows what you spent last month: it estimates planned usage, and Cost Explorer shows actual spend.
  • Believing a Pricing Calculator estimate includes tax or is a guaranteed price: it excludes taxes and the service pricing pages take priority.
  • Believing everything in Cost Explorer is free: the console is free, but each Cost Explorer API request is charged.
  • Believing Cost Explorer sends an alert when spend passes a limit: alerts come from AWS Budgets or a CloudWatch billing alarm.
  • Believing you can disable Cost Explorer after enabling it: AWS says you can't.

Written from Amazon Web Services's documentation

Try 3 questions on this

Pick an answer to see why each option is right or wrong.

  1. Which of the following does an estimate created in AWS Pricing Calculator include? (Select TWO.)

    Right. In the game that’s Renown for your Billing, Pricing, and Support building.

    Not that one: A,D is right. In the game your Billing, Pricing, and Support building would lose a little Renown, and this question would come back later.

    Written from docs.aws.amazon.com/pricing-calculator/latest/userguide/what-is-pricing-calculator.html

  2. Which of the following can alert a company when its AWS charges exceed a set amount? (Select TWO.)

    Right. In the game that’s Renown for your Billing, Pricing, and Support building.

    Not that one: B,E is right. In the game your Billing, Pricing, and Support building would lose a little Renown, and this question would come back later.

    Written from docs.aws.amazon.com/cost-management/latest/userguide/budgets-managing-costs.html

  3. Which of the following incurs a charge when a company uses AWS Cost Explorer?

    Right. In the game that’s Renown for your Billing, Pricing, and Support building.

    Not that one: D is right. In the game your Billing, Pricing, and Support building would lose a little Renown, and this question would come back later.

    Written from docs.aws.amazon.com/cost-management/latest/userguide/ce-what-is.html