Cloud cost management is critical for any organization using Amazon Web Services (AWS).
And let’s be honest — nobody likes end-of-the-month billing surprises. 😅

On September 14th, I gave a talk at Community Day Argentina where I shared some of my favorite and most practical tips for keeping AWS costs under control — whether you're working in test environments or managing production workloads.

Here’s a roundup of my top strategies — I call them Ysa Tips — to help you forecast, track, and optimize your cloud spending.

🚦 1. Data transfer between services = hidden costs?
Many people assume that moving data between AWS services is free. It's not always the case.
Transfers between availability zones or regions (EC2, S3, RDS) can generate unexpected costs.

💻 Ysa Tip #1:
Monitor your data transfer costs and design architectures that reduce movement across AZs or regions.

🎯 2. Use reservations and Savings Plans
If you have predictable workloads, EC2 Reserved Instances or Savings Plans can cut your bill dramatically compared to on-demand pricing.

💻 Ysa Tip #2:
Identify which services you can reserve in advance and make the most of the discounts AWS offers.

🧩 3. Don’t ignore secondary services
Services like CloudWatch, AWS Config, or even Support Plans often go unnoticed — until the bill arrives.
They’re crucial for monitoring and security, so they should always be part of your estimates.

💻 Ysa Tip #3:
Include these “supporting actors” in your budget planning. They add up!

📜 4. Mind the licenses
Databases or operating systems on EC2 may come with extra license fees.
These hidden costs can spike your bill if you’re not paying attention.

💻 Ysa Tip #4:
Review all the third-party licensing requirements and include them in your total budget.

🌍 5. **Region choice = cost difference
**Not all AWS regions have the same pricing. Some are cheaper due to demand or operating costs.

💻 Ysa Tip #5:
Balance cost vs. latency. Choose a region close to your users but also cost-effective.

📊 6. Enable Multi-Year & Granular Data in Cost Explorer
The more data you have, the better you can spot trends and anomalies.

💻 Ysa Tip #6:
-Multi-Year Data helps you see long-term trends.
-Granular Data lets you drill down by hour and detect cost spikes.
🤔 How to enable it:
Go to AWS Console → Billing → Enable in Preferences.

🧾 7. Use the Payer Account + Saved Reports
In multi-account setups (via AWS Organizations), only the Payer Account sees the full picture.
💻 Ysa Tip #7:
Access Cost Explorer from the Payer Account, and save useful reports to monitor key KPIs easily.

📈 8. Set up a Monthly Forecast Report
If a test or dev account is expected to cost $0, you need to keep an eye on it.
💻 Ysa Tip #8:
Create a monthly usage report with forecast in Cost Explorer.
This lets you catch any unexpected charges early.

🚫 9. Use Zero Spend Budgets
For accounts where absolutely no charges should occur, this is a life-saver.
💻 Ysa Tip #9:
Set a $0 Budget in AWS Budgets.
Get alerts via email/SMS the second a cost is incurred.

⏱️ 10. Automate server shutdowns during off-hours
Why pay for EC2 instances that sit idle overnight?
💻 Ysa Tip #10:
Use Lambda + CloudWatch Events to stop non-prod EC2 instances on weekends or after business hours.

💥 11. Use aws-nuke for clean test environments
Don’t leave resources lying around. It adds up fast.

💻 Ysa Tip #11:
Use aws-nuke to wipe out all resources from a test account.
Perfect for avoiding leftover EC2s, RDS, S3 buckets, etc.
aws-nuke -c config.yml --profile your-profile

✅ Final Thoughts
Managing costs on AWS doesn’t have to be overwhelming — but you do need a proactive strategy.

From data transfer to reservations, region selection, and billing tools, there are dozens of small decisions that make a big impact on your final bill.

My advice? Take advantage of all the free AWS tools available for cost monitoring, and keep refining your practices as your cloud usage evolves.

If you found this helpful, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me for more cloud FinOps content 💼☁️💡