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Budgets and cost tools: CLF-C02 study notes and practice questions

What to know about Budgets and cost tools for the CLF-C02 exam, from the Billing, Pricing, and Support domain (12% of the exam guide), then 2 free questions to test it. Part of the CLF-C02 study guide.

Last verified against current AWS documentation ·How we write our questions

What to know for the exam

Cost tool questions ask which tool fits a moment: before building, while running, or when explaining a bill.

The tools

Tool Use it to
AWS Pricing Calculator Estimate the cost of an architecture before you build it
AWS Billing and Cost Management console See bills, payments and invoices
AWS Cost Explorer Visualize and filter spending over time, forecast future costs, see Savings Plans and RI recommendations
AWS Budgets Set a budget for cost or usage and get an alert when actual or forecasted spending exceeds it
AWS Cost and Usage Reports (Data Exports) The most detailed billing data, delivered to S3 for analysis
AWS Cost Anomaly Detection Spot unusual spending with machine learning and alert the owner
Cost allocation tags Label resources (for example by team or project) so costs can be grouped in reports
AWS Compute Optimizer Recommend right-sized EC2 instances and other resources
AWS Trusted Advisor Flag idle or underused resources that waste money

Key facts

  • Tags must be activated as cost allocation tags in the Billing console before they appear in cost reports.
  • Budgets can alert on forecasts, so you hear before you overspend, by email or Amazon SNS.
  • AWS Free Tier offers some services free for a limited time or up to a monthly limit; Budgets can warn you before you go over.

How to choose

  • “How much will this design cost?”: Pricing Calculator.
  • “Which service grew our bill last month?”: Cost Explorer.
  • “Email us before we pass $1,000 this month”: Budgets.
  • “Line-item data for our finance system”: Cost and Usage Reports.
  • “Show costs per department”: cost allocation tags.

Common traps

  • Pricing Calculator for current spending. It only estimates; Cost Explorer shows actual costs.
  • Cost Explorer for alerts. Alerts come from Budgets.

Try the 2 practice questions

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Question 1

Easier ·Link to this question (question 1)

A finance team wants an email alert whenever its monthly AWS spend is forecast to pass $5,000, so it can act before the bill arrives.

Which AWS service should it set up?

Choose one answer.

  1. A. AWS Cost Explorer, which charts past costs and forecasts future spend by service and tag
  2. B. AWS Pricing Calculator, which estimates costs for a planned architecture before it is built
  3. C. AWS Artifact, which provides on-demand compliance reports and agreements with AWS
  4. D. AWS Budgets, which sends notifications when cost is forecast to exceed a budget
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: D

  • A. Wrong: Cost Explorer charts and forecasts spending for analysis. It does not send alerts when a limit is forecast to be passed.
  • B. Wrong: Pricing Calculator estimates the cost of planned architectures. It does not watch actual spending against a limit.
  • C. Wrong: Artifact gives on-demand access to compliance reports and agreements with AWS. It does not track or alert on spending.
  • D. Right: Budgets notify you when actual or forecasted cost or usage exceeds the budget you set, by email or Amazon SNS. The alert can lag behind the charge itself. Learn more: Managing your costs with AWS Budgets (opens in a new tab)

Explanation

AWS Budgets is the service that sends notifications when cost or usage is forecast to exceed a budget you set. Cost Explorer shows trends and forecasts without alerts, and Pricing Calculator and Artifact serve planning and compliance.

Study

Question 2

Medium ·Link to this question (question 2)

A data team wants the most detailed AWS cost and usage data available, with line items for each product and usage type that can be aggregated by hour.

The data must be delivered to an Amazon S3 bucket so the team can load it into its own analytics tools.

What should it set up?

Choose one answer.

  1. A. AWS Budgets alerts, sent by email and Amazon SNS
  2. B. AWS Cost and Usage Reports, delivered to an S3 bucket
  3. C. Saved AWS Pricing Calculator estimates
  4. D. The AWS Health Dashboard event log
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: B

  • A. Wrong: Budgets send alerts when spending passes a threshold. They do not deliver line-item cost data to a bucket for analysis.
  • B. Right: Cost and Usage Reports hold line items for each combination of product, usage type and operation. They can be aggregated by hour, day or month and are delivered to an S3 bucket you own. Learn more: What are AWS Cost and Usage Reports? (opens in a new tab)
  • C. Wrong: Estimates model planned architectures and can be shared by link. They do not report actual usage or deliver hourly line items.
  • D. Wrong: The Health Dashboard reports events that affect resources and planned activities. It does not provide cost and usage line items.

Explanation

Cost and Usage Reports are AWS's most detailed billing dataset, with line items that can be aggregated by hour and delivered to an S3 bucket for analysis. Budgets alert on spending, Pricing Calculator models plans, and the Health Dashboard reports events.

Study

Want more on Budgets and cost tools? The 5 full-length practice sets have 10 more Budgets and cost tools questions, 325 in all, none of them in the free exam. One payment of $14.99, no subscription. See the practice sets

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