Create and implement an AWS Budget for EC2 actual cost

We will create a monthly EC2 actual cost budget, which will notify if the actual costs of EC2 instances exceeds the specified amount.

1. Click Create budget:

2. Select Cost budget, and click Set your budget >:

3. Create a cost budget, enter the following details:

   • Name: EC2_actual
   • Period: Monthly
   • Budget effective dates: Recurring Budget
   • Start Month: (current month)
   • Budget amount: Fixed
   • Budgeted amount: $1 (enter an amount a lot LESS than last months cost),
   • Other fields: leave a defaults

4. Create a filter to only include EC2 instances in the budget:

   • Under FILTERING click on Service:

5. Type Elastic in the search field, then select the checkbox next to EC2-Instances(Elastic Compute Cloud - Compute) and Click Apply filters:

6. De-select Upfront reservation fees, and click Configure thresholds >:

7. Select:

   • Send threshold based on: Actual Costs
   • Alert threshold: 100% of budgeted amount
   • Set up your notifications: Input your email address in the Email recipients field
   • Click on Confirm budget >:

8. Review the configuration, and click Create:

9. You can see the current amount exceeds the budget (you may need to refresh your browser):

10. You will receive an email similar to the previous budget within a few minutes.