AWS Budgets
Budgets and cost alerts
Set budgets for cost, usage, or Savings Plans/Reserved Instance coverage, send alerts via email/SNS when actual or forecasted amounts exceed a threshold, and optionally run automated actions (apply policies, stop instances).
- Cost$ Low
- Difficulty●●●●●
- Costs money when idle?No
- Serverless
- In examsCLF · SAA · SOA
Think of it asLike setting a credit card limit with a text message that warns you when spending gets close to it.
When to use it
✓ Use it when
You want early warning before your bill exceeds plan — you should turn this on right away for every account.
✗ Avoid it when
Need detailed analysis of why you're spending money → Cost Explorer; detect unusual costs with ML → Cost Anomaly Detection.
Common uses
- Email alert when forecasted cost exceeds the monthly budget
- Tag-based budgets for each project
- Automatically apply SCP/IAM policies when a threshold is exceeded
What does it cost?
- Pricing model: A certain number of budgets are free; action-enabled budgets beyond the free amount are billed per day, and budget reports are billed per delivery.
⚠️ Cost traps
Budgets only alert; they do not block spending unless you configure actions.
Related services
SAA-C03 study guide
Budgets is covered in these study modules: