How to Not Get Burnt by AWS Bills
Tags: aws, beginners, billing
Published: 2022-10-10 13:37:37

---
title: How to Not Get Burnt by AWS Bills
published: true
description: Here is a quick rundown on how to use Billing Alerts in AWS to prevent unexpectedly large bills.
tags: aws, beginner, billing
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[_Originally published to dakotalewallen.me_](https://dakotalewallen.me/blog/how-to-not-get-burnt-by-aws-bills)
Billing in AWS can feel intimidating. Rightfully so given that it is a pay-as-you-use model. Trading the guarantees of a contract for agility. Because of this, there are plenty of stories of people getting a bill that far exceeds what you were expecting. So here's what you can do to avoid being another one of those stories.

In the AWS console, navigate to the billing dashboard  
![Billing dashboard link](http://cms.dakotalewallen.me:1337/uploads/Screen_Shot_2022_10_09_at_2_03_15_PM_14587c3e3a.png)

Then you will want to go to the _Budgets_ dashboard  
![Budgets dashboard link](http://cms.dakotalewallen.me:1337/uploads/Screen_Shot_2022_10_09_at_2_04_12_PM_ba0df9fa77.png)

From here you'll want to click on _Create Budget_ and fill out the form like so to get started. You'll need an email and an ideal dollar amount you would like to alert against.  
![Create Budget Button](http://cms.dakotalewallen.me:1337/uploads/Screen_Shot_2022_10_09_at_2_06_54_PM_4464bab7b2.png)
![Budget form](http://cms.dakotalewallen.me:1337/uploads/Screen_Shot_2022_10_09_at_2_08_15_PM_84bf737606.png)

After you've created your budget. Click into it and go to the upper right hand corner where you will see an _Alerts_ section. Click on _View all Alerts_. Here's where the magic happens.  
![Alerts area](http://cms.dakotalewallen.me:1337/uploads/Screen_Shot_2022_10_09_at_2_10_19_PM_b3b3b79dd3.png)

By default this will provide you with three alerts.
1.) Actual cost > 85%
2.) Actual cost > 100%
3.) Forecasted cost > 100%

You can think of cost like a bucket associated with your account. As you use services within AWS they will pour cost into the accounts bucket. 
*Actual Cost* means that your bucket has been filled up to a certain point
*Forecasted Cost* means that based on the rate of cost coming in, we expect you to incur X this month.

Both are super important. But for the case of monitoring against spend, you typically will want to alert against *Forecasted* costs not actual. That way you can use it as a predictive measure rather than a reactive one.

So the first three alerts provide you some lead in up to your point. But not much past that. To set that up you will need to click on the _Edit Alerts_ button. Once on that page scroll to the very bottom and you'll see a _Add alert threshold_ button.  
![Add threshold button](http://cms.dakotalewallen.me:1337/uploads/Screen_Shot_2022_10_09_at_2_18_14_PM_ca5a9dca04.png)

You will be greeted with an empty threshold form. You should enter a percentage greater than 100, and set the trigger to _Forecasted_. This way you will be alerted once the account spend is set to exceed a certain amount _past_ what you predicted. Finally you'll supply an email for the alert to.    
![completed threshold form](http://cms.dakotalewallen.me:1337/uploads/Screen_Shot_2022_10_09_at_2_20_26_PM_2bf40d380a.png)

You now have configured billing alerts for your account that will lead up to a set amount. As well as a relative amount past that.

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Best of luck and hope this helps.

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