Before launch: Preflight
Build an initial monthly guardrail, alert thresholds, and watch buckets for services such as NAT Gateway, CloudWatch Logs, S3, EBS, RDS, and data transfer.
AWS cost resources
Practical AWS cost resources for small teams.
Start with the free checklist, then use the guides to review likely waste without turning cleanup into a guessing game.
Resources
These resources are meant to be used together. Preflight helps you set starting AWS budget guardrails before a launch, the checklist helps you review real usage safely, and the guides explain the service-specific cost areas that commonly surprise small teams. Treat each item as a review aid, not a shortcut around ownership, dependency, backup, or rollback checks.
Cloud Cost Clinic Preflight
Answer a few planning questions and get starting AWS budget guardrails before usage surprises you.
Start preflight
Free AWS Cost Review Checklist
Use this first when you want a simple review path before changing AWS resources.
Open checklist page
AWS Cost Optimization Checklist Guide
Read the longer guide behind the checklist workflow for small AWS teams.
Read the guide
Beginner's Guide to Finding AWS Waste
Learn how to start with the bill, narrow the signal, and create a safer review queue.
Read the guideHow to use the library
Pick the resource that matches where you are.
New workloads need budget guardrails and watch areas. Existing workloads need a review queue based on Cost Explorer, tags, ownership, and service-specific signals. The resources here keep those two workflows separate so a planning estimate does not turn into a production cleanup instruction.
After usage starts: checklist
Review possible waste with owner, dependency, last-used, backup, and next-action fields before making changes.
When a service looks expensive: guides
Use the guides to understand why a service costs money, what to check first, and what needs verification before cleanup.
Cost savings basics
Use the broader cost savings guide when you need a safer starting framework before looking at individual AWS services.