Status: ✅ done (in depth) · Domain 4 (12%) · Visual page: Billing & Pricing. The smallest domain and the easiest points — concrete recall, not concepts. Bank all of it. Whole domain = 4 pillars: how you're charged · tools to see/control cost · billing across accounts · support plans.
Utility model (like electricity): pay for what you draw, better rates if you commit. Three pricing principles: - Pay as you go — only for what you use, no big upfront, no long contracts required. - Save when you commit — Reserved Instances / Savings Plans → big discount for 1–3 yr commitment. - Pay less as AWS grows — economies of scale + tiered/volume discounts → more usage, lower per-unit price.
Three cost drivers (what you actually pay for): Compute · Storage · Data transfer.
Gotcha: data IN is generally free; data OUT to the internet costs; same-Region transfer usually free/cheap. "What's expensive?" → moving data out.
| Tool | When | Job |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Calculator | Before | Estimate an architecture's cost before building (planning). |
| AWS Budgets | Watching | Set spend/usage limits, get alerts when you cross / are forecast to cross. Proactive. |
| Cost Explorer | After | Visualize & analyze past/current spend, trends, forecast. "Where did money go?" |
| Cost & Usage Report (CUR) | Raw | Most detailed line-item/hourly billing data, exported to S3 for deep analysis. |
Analogy: Calculator = the quote before the job · Budgets = the smoke alarm · Cost Explorer = your bank statement review · CUR = the itemized receipt. Cost allocation tags — tag resources (
team:marketing) to break spend down by team/project/env in Cost Explorer/CUR.
AWS Organizations = centrally manage many AWS accounts. Billing superpower = Consolidated Billing: - One bill for all accounts (one payer account). - Combined usage → bigger volume discounts, pooled and shared across accounts. - Easier tracking + central governance (SCPs, more of a security topic).
Trigger: "one bill for multiple accounts" / "share volume discounts" → Organizations + Consolidated Billing.
Learn what each tier unlocks (that's how questions are phrased), not exact prices. | Plan | ~Price | Unlocks (tested bits) | |---|---|---| | Basic | Free | Docs, forums, 24/7 account/billing customer service, core Trusted Advisor checks, Health Dashboard. No tech support. | | Developer | ~$29/mo | Email support, business hours, 1 contact. Experimenting/dev. | | Business | ~$100/mo | 24/7 phone/chat/email with engineers, full Trusted Advisor, unlimited contacts, 3rd-party software support. Min for production. | | Enterprise On-Ramp | ~$5,500/mo | Pool of TAMs, <30 min business-critical response, cost-optimization workshops. | | Enterprise | ~$15,000/mo | Designated TAM, <15 min business-critical response, Concierge, Incident Detection & Response, Well-Architected reviews. |
Triggers: "free/just starting" → Basic · "24/7 phone" or "full Trusted Advisor" → Business (production minimum) · "designated TAM / <15 min" → Enterprise · "pool of TAMs" → On-Ramp.
Automated best-practice checks in 5 categories: Cost Optimization (find idle/underused resources), Security, Fault Tolerance, Performance, Service Limits. Basic/Developer = core checks only; Business+ = all checks.