AWS Cost Explorer is the analysis tool in the AWS Billing and Cost Management console, and AWS Budgets is its threshold tool: the first shows what AWS has cost and is forecast to cost, the second warns when cost or usage crosses a limit you set. For many teams this console is the first view of the AWS bill. The number it shows depends on three things, though: the account you look through, the cost measure you pick, and what was switched on and tagged beforehand. Knowing those three settings is what lets you read its figures correctly and see when a cost report needs a different data source.
How it works
Cost Explorer shows the current month and up to the previous 13 months at daily and monthly granularity, plus a forecast for the next 18 months. AWS refreshes the data at least once every 24 hours; it runs to the previous day and, according to AWS, comes from the same dataset as the Cost and Usage Report. The interface is free of charge, every amount is in US dollars and once Cost Explorer is enabled it cannot be disabled.
The management account of an AWS organisation can switch on more data in the Cost Management preferences: up to 38 months of history at monthly granularity, hourly data for all services, and resource-level data, daily for chosen services or hourly for EC2 instances. Hourly and resource-level data cover only the past 14 days. A changed setting can take up to 48 hours to show in Cost Explorer.
Every view can be grouped by one dimension, such as service, account, Region, usage type, tag or cost category, and filtered by several. A view can be saved as a report and downloaded as CSV. Which cost measure Cost Explorer shows is set under Advanced options:
| Cost measure | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Unblended | The cost of usage at the rate charged, discounts as separate line items |
| Amortized | Upfront and monthly fees for reservations and Savings Plans spread across the period |
| Blended | Average rates across the consolidated billing family |
| Net unblended | Unblended after all discounts |
| Net amortized | Amortized, including discounts |
Without amortisation, a Reserved Instance fee shows as a spike on the day it is charged. Amortized cost spreads it over the days on which the commitment is used.
The Cost Explorer API returns the same data programmatically. Unlike the interface, it is billed: AWS charges for every paginated request.
AWS Budgets tracks cost and usage against budgets you define and alerts when costs cross a threshold you set; how budgets are built is the subject of the chapter Budgets, forecasts and finance. Cost Anomaly Detection sends an alert automatically when AWS detects a cost anomaly.
Two mechanisms carry allocation. Cost allocation tags turn tags into a dimension in Cost Explorer, but only once they are activated, and only the management account and standalone accounts see the tag manager that activates them. A tag can take up to 24 hours to appear in the console. Cost categories map costs to teams, applications or environments through rules and can distribute shared costs with split charge rules.
The Bills page shows the invoice: charges by service and, in the management account, by account, plus invoices, savings and taxes by service. An open month carries the status Pending and shows estimated charges; a closed one shows Issued. Payments lists outstanding balances and payment history. The full line-item data comes from Data Exports as a recurring export, for example as CUR 2.0 or FOCUS 1.2, the choice weighed in AWS CUR 2.0 or FOCUS 1.2. What that data holds is the subject of the chapter Billing data and standards.
What it means for your cost
Cost Explorer answers what AWS costs from the point of view of the account looking at it. The management account sees every cost in the organisation. A member account sees only its own costs, and only for as long as the management account grants that access, which it can do for all member accounts or for none. What a team sees in its own account is therefore a slice: costs that land centrally, such as a commitment or a shared network account, are missing from it.
The console sees only AWS. Other clouds, SaaS invoices, and the revenue or user numbers that unit economics needs are not in it. Without the opt-in, history ends after 13 months; with it, after 38 months at monthly resolution, and resource-level data covers 14 days. Anything neither tagged nor mapped to a cost category can only be shown as untagged.
Its strength is the quick question: which service went up, in which Region, and since when. For the monthly invoice the Bills page is the reference; for analysis across several sources, the export is.
Where it goes wrong
- A member account taken for the whole picture. A team sees flat costs in its account while the invoice rises. The cause is shared cost in central accounts that a member account cannot see.
- Unblended and amortized mixed up. One report shows a spike on the first of the month and another does not, and both are called "the cost". One is unblended, the other amortized. Whoever allocates cost to teams picks one measure and keeps it.
- The API as a data source for scripts. A dashboard or script polls the Cost Explorer API at short intervals, although the data changes at most daily. Every paginated request is billed and shows up as its own line on the invoice.
- Tags that count only later. A new tag is set on resources but never activated as a cost allocation tag, and the cost stays unallocated in Cost Explorer. Activation sits with the management account, not with the team.
- The console as the basis for joins. CSV downloads from Cost Explorer are merged with other sources in a spreadsheet. The downloads are aggregated and depend on the cost measure, filters and data cut; a join that can be reproduced needs the export.
Example
AWS publishes these Cost Explorer prices in US dollars (read on 2026-10-15). The interface costs nothing. Each paginated request to the Cost Explorer API costs USD 0.01 for the primary billing view. For a custom billing view AWS charges USD 0.01 per source, so USD 0.05 per request for a view combining five sources. Hourly granularity costs USD 0.00000033 per usage record per day, which AWS states as USD 0.01 per 1,000 usage records a month, charged on the hourly records held for the past 14 days.
Sources
Read on 2026-10-15. AWS overview of Billing and Cost Management, Cost Explorer, controlling access to Cost Explorer, configuring multi-year and granular data, cost measures under Advanced options, Cost Explorer pricing, cost allocation tags, the Bills page.