Cost Explorer
The Cost Explorer gives you a detailed, interactive view of your AWS spending. Group costs by service, account, region, or tag to understand exactly where your money is going.
[SCREENSHOT: cost-explorer.png -- Cost explorer with grouping and filters applied]
Grouping dimensions
Break down your costs using any of these dimensions:
| Dimension | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Service | Spend per AWS service (EC2, RDS, S3, Lambda, etc.) |
| Account | Spend per AWS account (useful for multi-account organisations) |
| Region | Spend per AWS region |
| Tag | Spend per tag key:value pair (e.g. Environment:dev vs Environment:prod) |
You can combine dimensions to create more specific views — for example, grouping by Service then Account to see which accounts are driving EC2 costs.
Date range and granularity
| Control | Options |
|---|---|
| Date range | Last 7 days, last 30 days, this month, last month, last 3 months, last 6 months, last 12 months, custom range |
| Granularity | Daily or Monthly |
Use daily granularity for short ranges (7–30 days) to spot day-to-day fluctuations. Switch to monthly for longer ranges to see trends without noise.
Filters
Narrow your view with filters:
| Filter | Description |
|---|---|
| Connection | Include only specific AWS accounts |
| Service | Include only specific AWS services |
| Region | Include only specific AWS regions |
| Tag | Include only resources with specific tags |
Filters can be combined. For example, filter by Connection: Production and Service: EC2 to see only EC2 spend in your production account.
Reading the chart
The Cost Explorer displays costs as a stacked bar chart (grouped view) or a line chart (single dimension). Hover over any data point to see the exact amount.
Below the chart, a summary table shows:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Group | The dimension value (e.g. service name, account ID) |
| Total | Total spend for the selected period |
| Average | Average daily or monthly spend |
| Trend | Percentage change compared to the previous period |
Export and download
Click Export to download the current view as a CSV file. The export includes all data points visible in the chart and table, respecting your current filters and grouping.
Common use cases
| Use case | How to set it up |
|---|---|
| Which service costs the most? | Group by Service, last 30 days, monthly granularity |
| Are dev costs growing? | Filter by tag Environment:dev, last 3 months, monthly granularity |
| Which region is most expensive? | Group by Region, this month |
| Cost per team | Group by tag Team, last month (requires consistent team tagging) |
| Spot a cost spike | No grouping, last 7 days, daily granularity — look for outlier bars |
Tips for effective cost analysis
- Tag consistently — Cost Explorer is most powerful when resources are tagged with meaningful dimensions like
Environment,Team, andProject - Compare periods — Use the trend column to spot month-over-month changes
- Drill down — Start broad (group by Service), then narrow (filter to the top service, group by Account) to find the root cause of unexpected spend
- Set up alerts — If you spot a pattern worth monitoring, configure Cost Anomaly Detection to alert you automatically