Billing and Cost Management Home FAQs

Q: What is the AWS Billing and Cost Management Console Home?

The Billing and Cost Management Console Home is an entry point to Cloud Financial Management on AWS. With the Billing and Cost Management Console Home, you can gain insights including spending trends (along dimensions including service, member account, and AWS Region), whether any cost anomalies or budget overruns require attention, and what the most impactful savings opportunities are, all in one place. The Console Home helps you prioritize your next steps by providing tailored recommendations ranging from best practices like using AWS Budgets for cost control to advanced techniques like queuing a Savings Plans purchase to cover an upcoming expiration. After selecting your next step, you will be guided to take action in the appropriate console page.

Q: How does AWS Billing and Cost Management Console Home work?

AWS Billing and Cost Management Console Home displays data from multiple Billing and Cost Management features including Cost Explorer, Budgets, Cost Anomaly Detection, Cost Categories, and Cost Optimization Hub. The Billing and Cost Management Console Home provides a collection of insights and recommendations from this suite of tools. When you want to dive deeper or take action, the console home helps you seamlessly transition to those tools with deep links that preserve your context.

Q: How do I get started with AWS Billing and Cost Management Console Home?

Access Billing and Cost Management by logging into the AWS management console and navigating to Billing and Cost Management. When you visit the Billing and Cost Management console for the first time, AWS will begin processing the detailed cost and usage data that powers the Billing and Cost Management Console Home, Cost Explorer, and Cost Anomaly Detection, and opt you into these features automatically and at no cost. This detailed cost and usage data may take up to 24 hours to become available. Additional features of the Billing and Cost Management Console Home may require setup. For example, you can create Cost Categories to allocate your costs across teams, then view your cost allocation coverage on the Billing and Cost Management Console Home. If you are an account administrator, you can manage who has access to the Billing and Cost Management Console Home data and features using fine-grained Identity and Access Management policies.

Q: What recommended actions does the Console Home display? 

The Console Home displays recommended actions that help you save money and improve your Cloud Financial Management practices. Recommended actions include reviewing budgets that have been exceeded or any cost anomalies AWS has identified, taking advantage of multiple types of savings opportunities, and implementing best practices such as setting up billing alternate contacts. To learn more, see user guide page for recommended actions.