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AWS Billing

Overview​

The AWS Billing server provides comprehensive cost management and optimization capabilities for AWS accounts, enabling you to track spending, analyze cost trends, detect anomalies, and identify optimization opportunities across your cloud infrastructure.

How to Add AWS Billing​

  1. 1
    Create IAM User
    1. Log in to your AWS Console
    2. Navigate to IAM > Users
    3. Create a new user with programmatic access
  2. 2
    Attach Required Policies

    Attach the following AWS managed policies to the IAM user:

    • ViewOnlyAccess or AWSBillingReadOnlyAccess (core billing)
    • CostOptimizationHubReadOnlyAccess (must enable in us-east-1)
    • ComputeOptimizerReadOnlyAccess (requires opt-in)
    • AWSBudgetsReadOnlyAccess (budget status)
  3. 3
    Generate Access Keys
    1. Select the user and go to Security credentials
    2. Create an access key for programmatic access
    3. Save your Access Key ID and Secret Access Key
  4. 4
    Connect to Civic
    1. Add the AWS Billing server to your Civic environment
    2. Enter your AWS credentials when prompted
tip

Enable Cost Optimization Hub in us-east-1 region and opt into Compute Optimizer. It takes approximately 12 hours for initial data to populate.

What You Can Do​

Cost Analysis

Track AWS spending by service, region, and account with customizable date ranges and granularity

Budget Monitoring

View budget status, track utilization, and identify budgets at risk of being exceeded

Optimization Recommendations

Discover rightsizing opportunities, idle resources, and Reserved Instance recommendations

Anomaly Detection

Identify unusual cost spikes and investigate the services causing unexpected spending

Available Tools (14)​

cost-explorer

Comprehensive tool for retrieving AWS cost and usage data using Cost Explorer API. Supports multiple operations including getCostAndUsage, getCostAndUsageWithResources, getDimensionValues, getCostForecast, getUsageForecast, getTagsOrValues, getCostCategories, and getSavingsPlansUtilization

compute-optimizer

Retrieves performance-based optimization recommendations from AWS Compute Optimizer for EC2, Auto Scaling groups, EBS volumes, Lambda functions, RDS instances, and ECS services

cost-optimization

Retrieves cost optimization recommendations from AWS Cost Optimization Hub including rightsizing, idle resource detection, and Reserved Instance/Savings Plans purchase recommendations

storage-lens

Query S3 Storage Lens metrics data using Athena SQL for storage optimization analysis

aws-pricing

Comprehensive AWS pricing analysis tool providing access to service pricing information through get_service_codes, get_service_attributes, get_attribute_values, and get_pricing_from_api operations

bcm-pricing-calc

Work with workload estimates using the AWS Billing and Cost Management Pricing Calculator API

budgets

Retrieves AWS budget information including budget limits, actual spend, and forecasted spend

cost-anomaly

Retrieves AWS cost anomalies detected on your account during a specified time period

cost-comparison

Retrieves AWS cost comparisons between two one-month periods for month-to-month variance analysis

free-tier-usage

Retrieves AWS Free Tier usage information showing current usage across services

rec-details

Get detailed cost optimization recommendation with integrated data from multiple AWS services including Cost Optimization Hub, Compute Optimizer, and Cost Explorer

ri-performance

Retrieves AWS Reserved Instance coverage and utilization data using Cost Explorer API

sp-performance

Retrieves AWS Savings Plans coverage and utilization data through get_savings_plans_coverage, get_savings_plans_utilization, and get_savings_plans_utilization_details operations

session-sql

Execute SQL queries on the persistent session database to query tables created by other tools within the current session

Use Cases​

Cost Analysis​

"What were my AWS costs by service for October 2025?" - Quickly identify which services are driving your cloud spend.

Budget Management​

"Which budgets am I close to exceeding?" - Proactively manage budget overruns before they happen.

Cost Optimization​

"What cost optimization recommendations do you have?" - Discover opportunities to reduce AWS spending without sacrificing performance.

Anomaly Detection​

"Show me any cost anomalies from the last 30 days" - Investigate unexpected spikes in AWS spending.

Complex Analysis​

"Analyze my AWS costs and provide optimization recommendations with estimated savings" - Get a comprehensive cost report with actionable insights.

Performance Optimization​

"Which EC2 instances are overprovisioned?" - Find resources that can be rightsized for cost savings.

note

Date Formats: Use ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD) for dates. End dates are exclusive.

Granularity: Daily granularity works best for periods under 3 months; use monthly for longer periods.

Metrics: UnblendedCost is the default and recommended metric for most cost queries.

Cost Optimization Hub: Available only in us-east-1 region.

Data Freshness: Cost data typically has a 24-48 hour delay.

warning

Storage Lens: Currently not supported. Requires S3 Storage Lens configuration.

Resource-level data: Limited to last 14 days for detailed resource queries.

Budgets: Cannot create or modify budgets, only view existing ones.

Guardrails​

This server supports all 14 universal guardrails. Server-specific guardrails are coming soon.