FAQs

Q: How are AWS services priced?

AWS offers you a pay-as-you-go approach for pricing for the vast majority of our cloud services. With AWS you pay only for the individual services you need, for as long as you use them, and without requiring long-term contracts or complex licensing. AWS pricing is similar to how you pay for utilities like water and electricity. You only pay for the services you consume, and once you stop using them, there are no additional costs or termination fees. Learn more about AWS pricing.

Q: How does AWS billing work?

AWS Billing and Cost Management measures your usage of AWS services and calculates your charges. At the end of each month, or when you make a one-time purchase (e.g., an upfront Savings Plan or a Snow family device), AWS issues you an invoice for the charges you’ve accrued. By default, AWS will automatically charge the credit card you have on file. For larger organizations, you can consolidate your charges across multiple AWS accounts using AWS Organizations, and configure invoicing, tax, purchase order, and payment methods to match your organization’s procurement processes.

Q: How can I use the Bills page to understand my AWS charges?

The AWS Bills page provides details to help you understand how the charges on your invoice were calculated. You can view your charges by service, AWS Region, or member account, and view pricing and usage details to understand how each line item was calculated. You charge data is organized into tabs to provide views of charges by service, charges by account, taxes, and savings. You can also download invoices and supplemental documents for accounts payable, compliance, or tax purposes. The Bills page provides a “cash” view of your charges – it reflects the actual amount that you pay to AWS each month, inclusive of discounts, credits, refunds, and taxes. In contrast, services like Cost Explorer allow you to view an amortized view of your costs, in which upfront charges such as upfront Savings Plans are spread or “amortized” over the term of the commitment (one year or three years). To learn more, see Exploring your data using Cost Explorer.

Q: How do I enable CSV download of my monthly charges?

To enable CSV download of your monthly charges, navigate to the Billing Preferences page in the Billing console. In the Detailed Billing Reports section, check the box to turn on the detailed billing reports. Click Configure to choose an existing S3 bucket to have these reports delivered to, or create a new S3 bucket. Click Save Preferences. Once you’ve enabled the reports, you can download these CSV files for any future billing periods.

Q:Can I have invoices emailed to me?

Yes. To receive a PDF version of your invoice, enable this option on the Billing Preferences page.