Explain AWS NAT Gateway cost increases
Separate NAT Gateway-hour, processed-GB, and data-transfer charges so teams investigate the cost driver before changing network paths.
BASH4 min read
Cloud cost guides
Find answers to common questions about cloud and AI costs.
27 guides
Check AWS billing tag coverage before allocating costs
Review activation, historical gaps, and CUR 2.0 line-item values before using AWS resource tags to assign costs to teams.
Steps3 min read
Separate transfer costs before blaming compute or storage
Review AWS transfer usage types, Azure bandwidth categories, and Google Cloud network tiers before assigning a compute, storage, or network cost cause.
Steps4 min read
Check whether Redshift Serverless limits stop queries
Compare retained Redshift Serverless usage with capacity and RPU-hour limits, then confirm whether each action warns, logs, alerts, or stops query processing.
SQL4 min read
Separate AI requests from retries and evaluation work
Review AWS and Azure telemetry to separate application requests, model calls, retries, and evaluation activity before allocating AI spend.
Steps3 min read
Separate RDS billing meters before changing capacity
Break down Amazon RDS costs by usage type so instance hours, storage, IOPS, backups, and transfer are reviewed separately before capacity changes.
BASH3 min read
Measure AI cost per successful business outcome
Compare scoped AI spending with accepted business outcomes using a read-only worksheet that keeps retries, failed attempts and attribution gaps visible.
Steps4 min read
Review quiet SageMaker capacity before cutting it
List SageMaker endpoints and notebook instances, compare endpoint activity, and ask owners which resources can become candidates for a cost reduction.
BASH3 min read
Choose models by cost per usable answer, not token price
Compare model candidates on shared tasks, quality limits and response times. Use a read-only worksheet to estimate cost per accepted result from evaluation records.
Steps3 min read
Budget AI search and tool usage separately
Separate model tokens, search grounding, and tool-resource measurements so an AI workflow budget does not hide charges behind prompt counts or monitoring data.
Steps3 min read
Check GPU commitment cost against useful work
Separate reservation use from GPU activity, then compare period cost with accepted workload output before deciding whether to renew capacity.
Steps4 min read
Compare AI prices without mixing token types or capacity
Use a read-only worksheet to compare Azure OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock, and Vertex AI costs, separating token categories, cache charges, and provisioned capacity.
Steps4 min read
Avoid double-counting cloud network charges
Separate repeated imports from valid charges on one traffic path. Reconcile a closed invoice period while keeping credits, corrections, adjustments and distinct service fees visible.
Steps4 min read
Avoid buying cloud commitments from a single busy week
Before approving a cloud commitment, compare historical recommendations with lasting demand and check whether recent purchases have been reflected.
Steps4 min read
Choose an EC2 commitment that fits your workload
Compare Savings Plans and EC2 Reserved Instances with recurring usage, workload changes, and Availability Zone capacity needs before approval.
Steps4 min read
Separate CloudFront charges before tuning the cache
Review CloudFront request and transfer meters, pricing-plan coverage and cache trends to decide whether billing or cache settings need attention.
Steps3 min read
Review Transit Gateway and inter-AZ transfer costs
Check who pays for Transit Gateway attachments and separate hourly, processing and transfer charges before attributing network costs.
BASH4 min read
Reduce Athena scans without mistaking alerts for limits
Review Athena partition filters, scan statistics, per-query cancellation and workgroup alerts. Reuse results only when the permitted result age fits the business need.
SQL3 min read
Choose DynamoDB capacity without paying for idle throughput
Compare DynamoDB capacity modes using traffic patterns, CloudWatch metrics, index usage and throttling before changing how you pay for throughput.
Steps4 min read
Separate AWS Savings Plans utilization from coverage
Compare consumed commitment with eligible usage coverage in AWS Cost Explorer before deciding whether to investigate unused Savings Plans or review a new purchase.
BASH4 min read
Explain a cloud bill increase before changing resources
Use a read-only worksheet to compare monthly cloud costs and separate usage changes from prices, discounts, credits, and invoice adjustments.
Steps4 min read
Check Lambda memory before cutting it
Use Lambda REPORT logs to spot unused memory, then compare runtime and errors before testing a smaller allocation. Memory headroom alone is not a savings estimate.
Steps3 min read
Keep currencies separate in multi-cloud cost reports
Check cost denominations before combining cloud exports, choose billed or effective cost, and record a conversion policy that keeps totals traceable.
Steps3 min read
Check what drives your Fargate resource charges
Check requested CPU, memory, storage and billable runtime for ECS Fargate tasks before estimating the cost of a sizing change.
Steps3 min read