Exploring your data using Cost Explorer
On the Cost Explorer dashboard, Cost Explorer shows your estimated costs for the month to date, your forecasted costs for the month, a graph of your daily costs, your five top cost trends, and a list of reports that you recently viewed.
All costs reflect your usage up to the previous day. For example, if today is December 2, the data includes your usage through December 1.
Note
In the current billing period, the data depends on your upstream data from your billing applications, and some data might be updated later than 24 hours.
Navigating Cost Explorer
You can use the icons in the left pane to do the following:
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Go to the main Cost Explorer dashboard
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See a list of the default Cost Explorer reports
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See a list of your saved reports
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See information about your reservations
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See your reservation recommendations
Your Cost Explorer costs
At the top of the Cost Explorer page are the Month-to-date costs and Forecasted month end costs. The Month-to-date costs shows how much you're estimated to have incurred in charges so far this month and compares it to this time last month. The Forecasted month end costs shows how much Cost Explorer estimates that you will owe at the end of the month and compares your estimated costs to your actual costs of the previous month. The Month-to-date costs and the Forecasted month end costs don't include refunds.
The costs for Cost Explorer are only shown in US dollars.
Your Cost Explorer trends
In the this month trends section,
Cost Explorer shows your top cost trends. For example, your costs related to a specific
service have gone up, or your costs from a specific type of RI have gone up. To see all
of your costs trends, choose View all trends in the upper-right
corner of the trend section.
To understand a trend in more depth, choose it. You're taken to a Cost Explorer chart that shows the costs that went into calculating that trend.
Your daily unblended costs
In the center of the Cost Explorer dashboard, Cost Explorer shows a graph of your current unblended daily costs. You can access the filters and parameters used to create the graph by choosing Explore costs in the upper-right corner. That takes you to the Cost Explorer report page, enabling you to access the default Cost Explorer reports and modify the parameters used to create the chart. The Cost Explorer reports offer additional functionality such as downloading your data as a CSV file and saving your specific parameters as a report. For more information, see Understanding your costs using Cost Explorer reports. Your daily unblended costs don't include refunds.
Your monthly unblended costs
Monthly granularity
You can view your unblended costs at the monthly granularity and see the discounts applied to your monthly bill. When forecasting costs, discounts are included by default. To view your unblended costs, open the Cost Explorer page and choose Cost Explorer from the navigation pane. Discounts appear as the RI Volume Discount in the chart. The discount amount aligns with the discount amount shown in your Billing and Cost Management console.
To see the details in your Billing and Cost Management console
Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the AWS Billing and Cost Management console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/costmanagement/
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In the navigation pane, choose Bills.
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To display the discount, select the arrow next to Total Discounts, under Credits, Total Discounts and Tax Invoices.
Monthly gross charges
You can view your gross monthly charges by excluding the RI Volume Discount.
To exclude RI volume discounts in your monthly view
Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the AWS Cost Management console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/cost-management/home
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In the left pane, choose Cost Explorer.
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Choose Cost & Usage.
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On the Filters pane, choose Charge Type.
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Select RI Volume Discount.
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To open a dropdown, select Include only and choose Exclude only.
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Select Apply filters.
Your net unblended costs
This enables you to see your net costs after all applicable discounts are calculated. You should still exclude any manual adjustment such as refunds and credits as a best practice. RI Volume Discounts are no longer visible because these are post-discount amounts.
Your recent Cost Explorer reports
At the bottom of the Cost Explorer dashboard is a list of reports that you have accessed recently, when you accessed them, and a link back to the report. This enables you to switch between reports or remember the reports that you find most useful.
For more information about Cost Explorer reports, see Understanding your costs using Cost Explorer reports.
Your amortized costs
This enables you to see the cost of your AWS commitments, such as Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances or Savings Plans, spread across the usage of the selection period. AWS estimates your amortized costs by combining the unblended upfront and recurring reservation fees, and calculates the effective rate over the period of time that the upfront or recurring fee applies. In the daily view, Cost Explorer shows the unused portion of your commitment fees at the first of the month or the date of purchase.
Your net amortized costs
This enables you to see the cost of your AWS commitments, such as Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances or Savings Plans, after discounts with the additional logic that shows how the actual cost applies over time. Since Savings Plans and Reserved Instances usually have upfront or recurring monthly fees associated with them, the net amortized cost dataset reveals the true cost by showing how post-discount fees amortize over the period of time that the upfront or recurring fee applies.
