MCPInstall

aws-billing-and-cost-management

by aws OfficialDevOps & Cloud

Analyze AWS costs, find savings, manage budgets, evaluate Savings Plans and Reserved Instances, right-size EC2/Lambda/RDS/EBS with Compute Optimizer, look up service pricing, query CUR with Athena, detect cost anomalies, scope costs to billing views, and monitor Free Tier usage. Triggers on: AWS bill, cost analysis, reduce spend, savings plan, reserved instance, right-size, budget alert, cost optimization, pricing, free tier, cost anomaly, CUR, cost audit, billing view, billing view ARN.

Installs
9K
Last 24h
+61
Trending rank
#2912
Security
Pass

Install

Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.

npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill aws-billing-and-cost-management
  1. 01

    Install

    Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.

  2. 02

    Describe the task

    Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads aws-billing-and-cost-management automatically when relevant.

  3. 03

    Review the result

    The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.

Security audits

Independent scans of the skill's instructions and bundled files.

Gen Agent Trust Hub PassSAFE ·This skill provides comprehensive instructions for analyzing and optimizing AWS costs. It incorporates security-conscious patterns, such as recommending sandboxed execution via the AWS MCP server and requiring deterministic Python scripts for all mathematical calculations to ensure data integrity and accuracy.
Socket PassNo alerts
Snyk PassLOW ·Risk: LOW · No issues

SKILL.md

The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.

Billing and Cost Management

Overview

Analyze, optimize, and manage AWS costs. This skill encodes domain expertise from AWS's cost management products — gotchas, correct API usage patterns, and optimization workflows that models frequently get wrong.

Usage

Use this skill when:

  • Analyzing AWS spending, cost trends, or cost breakdowns
  • Setting up or managing budget alerts
  • Evaluating Savings Plans or Reserved Instance purchases
  • Right-sizing EC2, Lambda, RDS, or EBS resources
  • Looking up AWS service pricing
  • Running cost audits or investigating cost spikes
  • Querying CUR data with Athena
  • Scoping cost analysis to a specific billing view
  • Checking Free Tier usage

Core Concepts

  • Cost Explorer — query cost/usage data by service, account, tag, or time range
  • Budgets — set spending thresholds with alerts; supports billing view scoping
  • Billing Views — scope cost data to a subset of billing (custom view, billing group, or primary)
  • Compute Optimizer — right-sizing recommendations for EC2, Lambda, EBS, RDS
  • Cost Optimization Hub — aggregated savings recommendations across services
  • Savings Plans / Reserved Instances — commitment-based discounts
  • CUR 2.0 — detailed line-item billing data queryable via Athena

Recommended setup: Use the AWS MCP server for sandboxed execution, audit logging, and enterprise controls. See: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-mcp/

Without AWS MCP: All commands use standard AWS CLI syntax and work with any agent that has CLI access.

Critical Rule: Always Check the Current Date

Before making ANY Cost Explorer, Budgets, or Savings Plans API call, you MUST determine the current date. Use a tool to get the current date and time — do NOT assume or guess the year. LLMs frequently default to dates from their training data instead of the actual current date, producing analyses of stale data that appear correct but are completely wrong.

Critical Rule: Deterministic Calculations

You MUST NEVER perform numerical calculations (sums, averages, percentages, comparisons, counts, min/max) by reasoning in your response. LLM arithmetic is unreliable and produces wrong answers on cost data.

You MUST ALWAYS use a script or calculator tool for any math on data returned from API calls. Write a Python script that performs the calculation and prints the result. If the AWS MCP server's run_script tool is available, use it. Otherwise, run the script locally.

Read references/deterministic-calculations.md for patterns and examples.

Decision Guide

QuestionToolReference
What am I spending? Where are costs going up?Cost Explorerreferences/cost-explorer.md
How much does a service cost?Price List APIreferences/pricing-lookup.md
Where can I save money? (start here)Cost Optimization Hubreferences/cost-optimization-hub.md
Should I buy Savings Plans?CE SP Recommendationsreferences/savings-plans.md
Should I buy Reserved Instances?CE RI Recommendationsreferences/reserved-instances.md
Deep-dive on a specific EC2/Lambda/EBS/RDS rec?Compute Optimizerreferences/ec2-rightsizing.md, references/lambda-optimization.md, references/rds-optimization.md, references/ebs-optimization.md
How do I set up budget alerts?Budgetsreferences/budgets.md
What's causing a cost spike?Cost Anomaly Detectionreferences/cost-explorer.md
Am I within Free Tier?Free Tier APIreferences/free-tier.md
How do I reduce my bill?Cost Audit workflowreferences/cost-audit.md
How do I query detailed billing data?CUR 2.0 + Athenareferences/cur-athena.md
How do I optimize specific services?Per-service patternsreferences/service-optimization.md
How do I scope costs to a billing view?Billing ViewsSee Billing Views below

Common Tasks

Analyze costs by service

aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=2026-03-01,End=2026-04-01 \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metrics UnblendedCost \
  --group-by Type=DIMENSION,Key=SERVICE

Default to UnblendedCost. Exclude Credits/Refunds with --filter '{"Not":{"Dimensions":{"Key":"RECORD_TYPE","Values":["Credit","Refund"]}}}'. End date is exclusive.

Run a cost audit

Read references/cost-audit.md for the full 7-step workflow: top cost drivers → month-over-month comparison → optimization recommendations → idle resources → commitment coverage → per-service quick wins → report.

Get right-sizing recommendations

Compute Optimizer requires opt-in first: aws compute-optimizer update-enrollment-status --status Active. Then read references/ec2-rightsizing.md for EC2 or the relevant resource-specific reference.

Look up service pricing

Read references/pricing-lookup.md for service codes and attribute filters. Common trap: Price List API service codes differ from Cost Explorer service names.

Billing Views

A billing view scopes cost and usage data to a specific slice of an account's billing (e.g., a billing group, custom view, or the default primary view). When the user wants to analyze costs through a particular billing view, add --billing-view-arn to supported API calls.

Discover available billing views

aws billing list-billing-views \
  --billing-view-types PRIMARY CUSTOM BILLING_GROUP

Requires billing:ListBillingViews permission.

Use a billing view with Cost Explorer

aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=2026-03-01,End=2026-04-01 \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metrics UnblendedCost \
  --group-by Type=DIMENSION,Key=SERVICE \
  --billing-view-arn arn:aws:billing::ACCOUNT_ID:billingview/BILLING_VIEW_ID

Create a budget scoped to a billing view

In the --budget JSON, include the BillingViewArn field:

aws budgets create-budget --account-id ACCOUNT_ID \
  --budget '{
    "BudgetName": "TeamX-Monthly",
    "BudgetLimit": {"Amount": "1000", "Unit": "USD"},
    "TimeUnit": "MONTHLY",
    "BudgetType": "COST",
    "BillingViewArn": "arn:aws:billing::ACCOUNT_ID:billingview/BILLING_VIEW_ID"
  }'

API support for --billing-view-arn

Supports --billing-view-arnDoes NOT support it
ce get-cost-and-usagece get-reservation-coverage
ce get-cost-and-usage-with-resourcesce get-reservation-utilization
ce get-cost-forecastce get-savings-plans-coverage
ce get-usage-forecastce get-savings-plans-utilization
ce get-dimension-values
ce get-tags
ce get-cost-comparison-drivers
budgets create-budget (in budget JSON)

Troubleshooting

ErrorCauseFix
ValidationException on Cost ExplorerWrong dimension key (e.g., CHARGE_TYPE instead of RECORD_TYPE)Use RECORD_TYPE for charge type filtering
Empty results with filterFilter value doesn't match exactlyCall GetDimensionValues first to get valid values
AccessDeniedException on hourly dataHourly granularity not enabledEnable in Cost Explorer preferences
Account not registered on Compute OptimizerNot opted inRun update-enrollment-status --status Active
Budgets API fails outside us-east-1Budgets requires us-east-1Set --region us-east-1
Cost Explorer Total empty with GroupByBy design — totals excluded when groupingMake separate call without GroupBy, or sum grouped results using a script
AccessDeniedException on list-billing-viewsMissing permissionUser needs billing:ListBillingViews permissions
ValidationException with --billing-view-arnAPI doesn't support billing views, or malformed ARNCheck the API support table above; ARN format is arn:aws:billing::ACCOUNT_ID:billingview/VIEW_ID
Budget shows UNHEALTHY health statusBilling view access revoked or view deletedCheck HealthStatus.StatusReason in describe-budget output; ensure billing:GetBillingViewData is granted

Additional Resources

FAQ

What does the aws-billing-and-cost-management skill do?

Analyze AWS costs, find savings, manage budgets, evaluate Savings Plans and Reserved Instances, right-size EC2/Lambda/RDS/EBS with Compute Optimizer, look up service pricing, query CUR with Athena, detect cost anomalies, scope costs to billing views, and monitor Free Tier usage. Triggers on: AWS bill, cost analysis, reduce spend, savings plan, reserved instance, right-size, budget alert, cost optimization, pricing, free tier, cost anomaly, CUR, cost audit, billing view, billing view ARN.

How do I install aws-billing-and-cost-management?

Run npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill aws-billing-and-cost-management in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/aws-billing-and-cost-management/ (personal) or .claude/skills/aws-billing-and-cost-management/ (project).

Which AI agents can use aws-billing-and-cost-management?

Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.

Is aws-billing-and-cost-management safe to install?

Security partners have reviewed it: Gen Agent Trust Hub passed; Socket passed; Snyk passed. As with any skill, read the SKILL.md and bundled scripts before installing.

Who maintains aws-billing-and-cost-management?

It is published by aws in aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws, and it is an official skill from the maker of the technology it covers. It has 9,043 recorded installs.

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