cost-explorer

name	cost-explorer
description	Analyze AWS costs, usage, forecasts, and savings opportunities via AWS Cost Explorer CLI.
metadata	{"openclaw":{"emoji":"💰","requires":{"bins":["aws"]}}}

AWS Cost Explorer

Use this skill for cost analysis: viewing spending by service/account/tag, forecasting future costs, finding savings opportunities, analyzing Reserved Instance and Savings Plan utilization, and identifying cost anomalies.

Prerequisites

• AWS CLI v2 configured with valid credentials
• IAM permissions: ce:* for full access (Cost Explorer APIs)
• Cost Explorer must be activated in the AWS console (free, but takes 24h for data)
• Most Cost Explorer APIs operate in us-east-1 regardless of resource region

Common Operations

View Costs (Read-Only)

# Get total cost for the current month
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=$(date +%Y-%m-01),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metrics BlendedCost \
  --region us-east-1

# Get daily costs for the last 7 days
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=$(date -v-7d +%Y-%m-%d),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --granularity DAILY \
  --metrics UnblendedCost \
  --region us-east-1

# Get costs broken down by service
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=$(date +%Y-%m-01),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metrics UnblendedCost \
  --group-by Type=DIMENSION,Key=SERVICE \
  --region us-east-1

# Get costs by linked account (for Organizations)
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=$(date +%Y-%m-01),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metrics UnblendedCost \
  --group-by Type=DIMENSION,Key=LINKED_ACCOUNT \
  --region us-east-1

# Get costs by region
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=$(date +%Y-%m-01),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metrics UnblendedCost \
  --group-by Type=DIMENSION,Key=REGION \
  --region us-east-1

# Get costs by tag
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=$(date +%Y-%m-01),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metrics UnblendedCost \
  --group-by Type=TAG,Key=Environment \
  --region us-east-1

# Get costs for a specific service
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=$(date +%Y-%m-01),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --granularity DAILY \
  --metrics UnblendedCost \
  --filter '{"Dimensions": {"Key": "SERVICE", "Values": ["Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud - Compute"]}}' \
  --region us-east-1

# Get last month's total
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=$(date -v-1m +%Y-%m-01),End=$(date +%Y-%m-01) \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metrics UnblendedCost \
  --region us-east-1

Forecasts

# Forecast cost for the rest of the month
aws ce get-cost-forecast \
  --time-period Start=$(date +%Y-%m-%d),End=$(date -v+1m +%Y-%m-01) \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metric UNBLENDED_COST \
  --region us-east-1

# Forecast with prediction intervals
aws ce get-cost-forecast \
  --time-period Start=$(date +%Y-%m-%d),End=$(date -v+1m +%Y-%m-01) \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metric UNBLENDED_COST \
  --prediction-interval-level 80 \
  --region us-east-1

Savings Recommendations

# Get right-sizing recommendations
aws ce get-rightsizing-recommendation \
  --service "AmazonEC2" \
  --region us-east-1

# Get Savings Plans recommendations
aws ce get-savings-plans-purchase-recommendation \
  --savings-plans-type COMPUTE_SP \
  --term-in-years ONE_YEAR \
  --payment-option NO_UPFRONT \
  --lookback-period-in-days SIXTY_DAYS \
  --region us-east-1

# Get Reserved Instance recommendations
aws ce get-reservation-purchase-recommendation \
  --service "Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud - Compute" \
  --term-in-years ONE_YEAR \
  --payment-option NO_UPFRONT \
  --lookback-period-in-days SIXTY_DAYS \
  --region us-east-1

# Get RI utilization
aws ce get-reservation-utilization \
  --time-period Start=$(date -v-30d +%Y-%m-%d),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --region us-east-1

# Get Savings Plans utilization
aws ce get-savings-plans-utilization \
  --time-period Start=$(date -v-30d +%Y-%m-%d),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --region us-east-1

Cost Anomalies

# List cost anomaly monitors
aws ce get-anomaly-monitors --region us-east-1

# List recent anomalies
aws ce get-anomalies \
  --date-interval '{"StartDate": "'$(date -v-30d +%Y-%m-%d)'", "EndDate": "'$(date +%Y-%m-%d)'"}' \
  --region us-east-1

# Create an anomaly monitor (by service)
aws ce create-anomaly-monitor \
  --anomaly-monitor '{
    "MonitorName": "ServiceMonitor",
    "MonitorType": "DIMENSIONAL",
    "MonitorDimension": "SERVICE"
  }' \
  --region us-east-1

# Create an anomaly subscription (email alerts)
aws ce create-anomaly-subscription \
  --anomaly-subscription '{
    "SubscriptionName": "CostAlerts",
    "MonitorArnList": ["<monitor-arn>"],
    "Subscribers": [{"Type": "EMAIL", "Address": "<email>"}],
    "Threshold": 100,
    "Frequency": "DAILY"
  }' \
  --region us-east-1

Budgets

# List budgets
aws budgets describe-budgets \
  --account-id <account-id> \
  --query 'Budgets[].{Name:BudgetName,Limit:BudgetLimit.Amount,Actual:CalculatedSpend.ActualSpend.Amount}' \
  --output table

# Create a monthly budget with alert
aws budgets create-budget \
  --account-id <account-id> \
  --budget '{
    "BudgetName": "MonthlyBudget",
    "BudgetLimit": {"Amount": "1000", "Unit": "USD"},
    "TimeUnit": "MONTHLY",
    "BudgetType": "COST"
  }' \
  --notifications-with-subscribers '[{
    "Notification": {
      "NotificationType": "ACTUAL",
      "ComparisonOperator": "GREATER_THAN",
      "Threshold": 80,
      "ThresholdType": "PERCENTAGE"
    },
    "Subscribers": [{"SubscriptionType": "EMAIL", "Address": "<email>"}]
  }]'

Safety Rules

1. NEVER expose or log AWS credentials, access keys, or secret keys.
2. NEVER share cost data in group chats without explicit permission (it may be sensitive).
3. ALWAYS use us-east-1 region for Cost Explorer API calls.
4. ALWAYS clarify whether the user wants blended, unblended, or amortized costs.
5. NOTE that cost data can be up to 24 hours delayed.

Best Practices

• Set up AWS Budgets with alerts before costs become a problem.
• Use cost allocation tags (Environment, Team, Project) to track spending by business unit.
• Review right-sizing recommendations monthly — oversized instances are the #1 waste.
• Use Savings Plans (Compute SP) over Reserved Instances for flexibility.
• Enable Cost Anomaly Detection to catch unexpected spikes early.

Common Patterns

Pattern: Monthly Cost Summary Report

# Top 5 services this month
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=$(date +%Y-%m-01),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metrics UnblendedCost \
  --group-by Type=DIMENSION,Key=SERVICE \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --query 'ResultsByTime[0].Groups | sort_by(@, &Metrics.UnblendedCost.Amount) | [-5:].[Keys[0], Metrics.UnblendedCost.Amount]' \
  --output table

Pattern: Month-over-Month Comparison

# This month
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=$(date +%Y-%m-01),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --granularity MONTHLY --metrics UnblendedCost --region us-east-1

# Last month
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=$(date -v-1m +%Y-%m-01),End=$(date +%Y-%m-01) \
  --granularity MONTHLY --metrics UnblendedCost --region us-east-1

Pattern: Find Untagged Resource Costs

aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=$(date +%Y-%m-01),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metrics UnblendedCost \
  --group-by Type=TAG,Key=Environment \
  --region us-east-1
# Resources without the "Environment" tag show as empty key

Troubleshooting

Error	Cause	Fix
DataUnavailableException	Cost Explorer not activated or data not ready	Activate in console; wait 24h for initial data
BillExpirationException	Querying beyond available billing data	Check date range; data typically available for 12 months
RequestChangedException	Forecast date range in the past	End date must be in the future for forecasts
UnresolvableUsageUnitException	Invalid metric or dimension combination	Check supported metrics: BlendedCost, UnblendedCost, AmortizedCost, UsageQuantity
Empty results for tags	Tags not activated for billing	Activate cost allocation tags in Billing console