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AWS Billing And Cost Management

AWSOfficialPublished by AWS

  • Skill
  • Tool integration
  • Cloud and DevOps
  • Apache-2.0
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From the author

Analyze AWS costs, find savings, manage budgets, evaluate Savings Plans and Reserved Instances, right-size EC2/Lambda/RDS/EBS with Compute Optimizer, look up service pricing, query CUR with Athena, detect cost anomalies, scope costs to billing views, and monitor Free Tier usage. Triggers on: AWS bill, cost analysis, reduce spend, savings plan, reserved instance, right-size, budget alert, cost optimization, pricing, free tier, cost anomaly, CUR, cost audit, billing view, billing view ARN.
— the description by AWS

AutoGineer summary

Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author

This skill provides a structured approach to managing AWS expenditures by leveraging native cost management services. It includes workflows for identifying cost drivers, auditing resource utilization, and implementing savings strategies through commitment-based discounts and right-sizing recommendations. The skill emphasizes data-driven decision-making, requiring users to perform calculations via scripts to ensure accuracy and to verify current dates before executing queries to avoid stale data analysis.

What it does

  • Analyzes AWS cost trends and identifies top spending drivers.
  • Provides workflows for right-sizing EC2, Lambda, RDS, and EBS resources.
  • Evaluates Savings Plans and Reserved Instance coverage and utilization.
  • Configures budget alerts and monitors Free Tier usage.
  • Queries detailed billing data using CUR and Athena.
  • Detects cost anomalies and scopes analysis to specific billing views.

When to use it

  • When you need to perform a comprehensive monthly cost audit.
  • When investigating unexpected spikes in your AWS bill.
  • When evaluating whether to purchase or renew Savings Plans or Reserved Instances.
  • When identifying idle or underutilized resources to reduce waste.
  • When setting up automated budget alerts for specific teams or projects.

Advantages

  • Reduces human error by mandating script-based calculations for all cost data.
  • Prevents stale data analysis by enforcing date verification.
  • Consolidates complex AWS cost management workflows into a single reference.
  • Supports granular cost scoping using Billing View ARNs.
  • Provides clear, actionable steps for both immediate and long-term cost optimization.

Usage examples

“What are my top AWS cost drivers for the last month?”
The agent will execute a cost-and-usage query grouped by service, filter out credits/refunds, and present a table of the highest spending services.
“Are there any idle resources I can delete to save money?”
The agent will scan for unattached EBS volumes and idle Elastic IPs, providing a list of resources that can be safely removed.
“Should I purchase a Savings Plan?”
The agent will analyze your current usage patterns and commitment coverage to provide a data-backed recommendation on potential savings.
“Set up a monthly budget alert for my production environment.”
The agent will create a budget with specified thresholds and notification subscribers, scoped to your production billing view.

Install

  1. Download the skill as a ZIP:

    https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/aws/aws-billing-and-cost-management/download
  2. Unzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:

    mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip aws-billing-and-cost-management.zip -d .agents/skills

Documentation by AWS

Billing and Cost Management

Overview

Analyze, optimize, and manage AWS costs. This skill encodes domain expertise from AWS's cost management products — gotchas, correct API usage patterns, and optimization workflows that models frequently get wrong.

Usage

Use this skill when:

  • Analyzing AWS spending, cost trends, or cost breakdowns

  • Setting up or managing budget alerts

  • Evaluating Savings Plans or Reserved Instance purchases

  • Right-sizing EC2, Lambda, RDS, or EBS resources

  • Looking up AWS service pricing

  • Running cost audits or investigating cost spikes

  • Querying CUR data with Athena

  • Scoping cost analysis to a specific billing view

  • Checking Free Tier usage

Core Concepts

  • Cost Explorer — query cost/usage data by service, account, tag, or time range

  • Budgets — set spending thresholds with alerts; supports billing view scoping

  • Billing Views — scope cost data to a subset of billing (custom view, billing group, or primary)

  • Compute Optimizer — right-sizing recommendations for EC2, Lambda, EBS, RDS

  • Cost Optimization Hub — aggregated savings recommendations across services

  • Savings Plans / Reserved Instances — commitment-based discounts

  • CUR 2.0 — detailed line-item billing data queryable via Athena

Recommended setup: Use the AWS MCP server for sandboxed execution, audit logging, and enterprise controls. See: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-mcp/

Without AWS MCP: All commands use standard AWS CLI syntax and work with any agent that has CLI access.

Critical Rule: Always Check the Current Date

Before making ANY Cost Explorer, Budgets, or Savings Plans API call, you MUST determine the current date. Use a tool to get the current date and time — do NOT assume or guess the year. LLMs frequently default to dates from their training data instead of the actual current date, producing analyses of stale data that appear correct but are completely wrong.

Critical Rule: Deterministic Calculations

You MUST NEVER perform numerical calculations (sums, averages, percentages, comparisons, counts, min/max) by reasoning in your response. LLM arithmetic is unreliable and produces wrong answers on cost data.

You MUST ALWAYS use a script or calculator tool for any math on data returned from API calls. Write a Python script that performs the calculation and prints the result. If the AWS MCP server's run_script tool is available, use it. Otherwise, run the script locally.

Read references/deterministic-calculations.md for patterns and examples.

Decision Guide

QuestionToolReference
What am I spending? Where are costs going up?Cost Explorerreferences/cost-explorer.md
How much does a service cost?Price List APIreferences/pricing-lookup.md
Where can I save money? (start here)Cost Optimization Hubreferences/cost-optimization-hub.md
Should I buy Savings Plans?CE SP Recommendationsreferences/savings-plans.md
Should I buy Reserved Instances?CE RI Recommendationsreferences/reserved-instances.md
Deep-dive on a specific EC2/Lambda/EBS/RDS rec?Compute Optimizerreferences/ec2-rightsizing.md, references/lambda-optimization.md, references/rds-optimization.md, references/ebs-optimization.md
How do I set up budget alerts?Budgetsreferences/budgets.md
What's causing a cost spike?Cost Anomaly Detectionreferences/cost-explorer.md
Am I within Free Tier?Free Tier APIreferences/free-tier.md
How do I reduce my bill?Cost Audit workflowreferences/cost-audit.md
How do I query detailed billing data?CUR 2.0 + Athenareferences/cur-athena.md
How do I optimize specific services?Per-service patternsreferences/service-optimization.md
How do I scope costs to a billing view?Billing ViewsSee Billing Views below

Common Tasks

Analyze costs by service
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=2026-03-01,End=2026-04-01 \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metrics UnblendedCost \
  --group-by Type=DIMENSION,Key=SERVICE

Default to UnblendedCost. Exclude Credits/Refunds with --filter '{"Not":{"Dimensions":{"Key":"RECORD_TYPE","Values":["Credit","Refund"]}}}'. End date is exclusive.

Run a cost audit

Read references/cost-audit.md for the full 7-step workflow: top cost drivers → month-over-month comparison → optimization recommendations → idle resources → commitment coverage → per-service quick wins → report.

Get right-sizing recommendations

Compute Optimizer requires opt-in first: aws compute-optimizer update-enrollment-status --status Active. Then read references/ec2-rightsizing.md for EC2 or the relevant resource-specific reference.

Look up service pricing

Read references/pricing-lookup.md for service codes and attribute filters. Common trap: Price List API service codes differ from Cost Explorer service names.

Billing Views

A billing view scopes cost and usage data to a specific slice of an account's billing (e.g., a billing group, custom view, or the default primary view). When the user wants to analyze costs through a particular billing view, add --billing-view-arn to supported API calls.

Discover available billing views
aws billing list-billing-views \
  --billing-view-types PRIMARY CUSTOM BILLING_GROUP

Requires billing:ListBillingViews permission.

Use a billing view with Cost Explorer
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=2026-03-01,End=2026-04-01 \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metrics UnblendedCost \
  --group-by Type=DIMENSION,Key=SERVICE \
  --billing-view-arn arn:aws:billing::ACCOUNT_ID:billingview/BILLING_VIEW_ID
Create a budget scoped to a billing view

In the --budget JSON, include the BillingViewArn field:

aws budgets create-budget --account-id ACCOUNT_ID \
  --budget '{
    "BudgetName": "TeamX-Monthly",
    "BudgetLimit": {"Amount": "1000", "Unit": "USD"},
    "TimeUnit": "MONTHLY",
    "BudgetType": "COST",
    "BillingViewArn": "arn:aws:billing::ACCOUNT_ID:billingview/BILLING_VIEW_ID"
  }'
API support for --billing-view-arn
Supports --billing-view-arnDoes NOT support it
ce get-cost-and-usagece get-reservation-coverage
ce get-cost-and-usage-with-resourcesce get-reservation-utilization
ce get-cost-forecastce get-savings-plans-coverage
ce get-usage-forecastce get-savings-plans-utilization
ce get-dimension-values
ce get-tags
ce get-cost-comparison-drivers
budgets create-budget (in budget JSON)

Troubleshooting

ErrorCauseFix
ValidationException on Cost ExplorerWrong dimension key (e.g., CHARGE_TYPE instead of RECORD_TYPE)Use RECORD_TYPE for charge type filtering
Empty results with filterFilter value doesn't match exactlyCall GetDimensionValues first to get valid values
AccessDeniedException on hourly dataHourly granularity not enabledEnable in Cost Explorer preferences
Account not registered on Compute OptimizerNot opted inRun update-enrollment-status --status Active
Budgets API fails outside us-east-1Budgets requires us-east-1Set --region us-east-1
Cost Explorer Total empty with GroupByBy design — totals excluded when groupingMake separate call without GroupBy, or sum grouped results using a script
AccessDeniedException on list-billing-viewsMissing permissionUser needs billing:ListBillingViews permissions
ValidationException with --billing-view-arnAPI doesn't support billing views, or malformed ARNCheck the API support table above; ARN format is arn:aws:billing::ACCOUNT_ID:billingview/VIEW_ID
Budget shows UNHEALTHY health statusBilling view access revoked or view deletedCheck HealthStatus.StatusReason in describe-budget output; ensure billing:GetBillingViewData is granted

Additional Resources

Files

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Requirements and compatibility

Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta

“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.

Needs: Needs an MCP server, Needs a command-line tool

Security

No issues found by our static scan· No issues found

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Attribution and licence

Published by
AWS
Publisher
AWS (Official)
Source
aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws · skills/core-skills/aws-billing-and-cost-management · commit 0a218f8
Licence
Apache License 2.0 (redistribution allowed)
  • LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE)
  • NOTICE (added by AutoGineer from NOTICE)
  • ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
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