10 Proven Ways to Cut Your AWS Bill

Source: Dev.to

Right‑size your EC2 instances

One of the most common reasons for high AWS bills is over‑provisioned EC2 instances. Many systems use only a fraction of their capacity and sit idle. By regularly monitoring CPU, memory, and other metrics, you can right‑size instances to match real usage. This change often results in savings of 20–40 % without affecting performance.

Use Auto Scaling

Static servers cost money even when no one is using them. Auto Scaling allows your infrastructure to grow and shrink based on actual demand. This is especially useful for applications with daily traffic spikes or seasonal usage patterns. You only pay for what you need at any given moment.

Leverage Reserved Instances and Savings Plans

If a service runs continuously and has predictable usage, on‑demand pricing is usually the most expensive option. Reserved Instances and Savings Plans offer significant discounts in exchange for long‑term commitment. They work best for databases, core backend services, and internal systems. A small amount of planning can lead to substantial monthly savings, but be careful: if you purchase them ahead of time and don’t use them, you’ll still be charged.

Take advantage of Spot Instances

Spot Instances use unused AWS capacity and are therefore much cheaper than standard instances. They are ideal for batch jobs, CI pipelines, and data‑processing tasks. While interruptions are possible, most of these workloads can handle restarts. When designed correctly, the cost savings can be dramatic. Do not use Spot Instances for stable production workloads.

Eliminate idle resources

Idle resources are silent budget killers. EC2 instances, RDS databases, and load balancers often remain running without serving any real purpose. Automating shutdowns outside of working hours is simple and highly effective—often the fastest way to see immediate cost reductions.

Optimize storage tiers

Not all data needs to be instantly accessible. Data that is rarely accessed should not live in expensive storage tiers.

• S3 Intelligent‑Tiering automatically optimizes storage costs without manual intervention.
• Glacier is a great option for archives and long‑term backups.

Reduce data transfer costs

Data transfer is one of the most underestimated AWS expenses. Cross‑AZ traffic and outbound data can add up quickly. Keeping services within the same availability zone where possible can significantly reduce costs.

Consider serverless pricing

Serverless pricing is based on execution time rather than uptime. For event‑driven systems and low or unpredictable traffic workloads, this model is often far more cost‑effective. It also reduces operational overhead—fewer servers mean less maintenance and fewer hidden costs.

Monitor with Budgets and Cost Anomaly Detection

You cannot control what you cannot see.

• AWS Budgets let you define spending limits and receive alerts before costs become a problem.
• Cost Anomaly Detection automatically identifies unusual spikes in usage.

These tools are essential for teams running production workloads.

Clean up unused storage resources

Storage resources tend to accumulate over time. Old snapshots, AMIs, and unused EBS volumes often provide no real value but continue to generate costs. Regular cleanup and automation can lead to consistent long‑term savings—a small habit with a big financial impact.

Example: An audit revealed ten 2 TB snapshots scattered across random regions, each incurring unnecessary charges.

Ongoing optimization

Optimizing AWS costs is not a one‑time task but an ongoing process. Most savings come from discipline, visibility, and smart architectural decisions. When these cost hacks are applied consistently, cloud spending becomes predictable and significantly lower, without sacrificing performance or reliability.