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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteTo reduce AWS costs, start with Cost Optimization Hub to find opportunities, then check the resource-level data before acting. Rightsize or remove confirmed waste first; consider a Savings Plan only for the steady, eligible usage you expect to keep. AWS recommendations are estimates—not guarantees—and savings can come with performance or commitment risk.
How do I reduce my AWS bill?
- Find candidate savings. Review Cost Optimization Hub for opportunities across your AWS resources. Cost Explorer’s rightsizing feature is narrower: it focuses on EC2 instances AWS suggests downsizing or terminating. See AWS’s rightsizing guidance.
- Check the evidence. Open the relevant recommendation and inspect utilization, workload patterns, and performance requirements in Compute Optimizer or the service’s own console. Compute Optimizer analyzes resource configuration and utilization metrics and presents recent and projected utilization to help assess price-performance. Its recommendations depend on service requirements and sufficient metric data. Details: What is AWS Compute Optimizer?
- Act on verified waste. Resize or remove only resources whose owners, dependencies, schedules, and peak demand you have checked. Measure the resulting bill and service performance after a staged change.
- Evaluate commitments last. Once the workload is right-sized, assess whether a Savings Plan commitment fits the usage you expect to retain.
What does AWS rightsizing mean?
Rightsizing means changing a resource’s size or configuration to better match its actual workload requirements. For EC2, Cost Explorer may recommend downsizing an instance or terminating one it identifies as idle. Compute Optimizer can offer resource options based on configuration and utilization data, with recent and projected utilization to inform the trade-off between cost and performance.
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A recommendation is a candidate for review, not an instruction to make a change. A quiet average can hide a short but important peak, and an apparently oversized resource may support a scheduled job, failover, or growth requirement.
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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →How do I find idle EC2 instances?
Use Cost Explorer rightsizing recommendations and Compute Optimizer findings to identify instances worth investigating. Cost Explorer’s documented calculation treats an EC2 instance as idle when its maximum CPU utilization is at or below 1% over the previous 14 days. This is the rule used by that calculation, not a universal definition of idle. See AWS’s explanation of rightsizing calculations.
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Before stopping or terminating a candidate, verify who owns it, whether it has a schedule, what depends on it, and whether the lookback includes the workload’s peak period. Low CPU alone does not establish that an instance is safe to remove.
Which AWS resources can Compute Optimizer assess?
AWS lists recommendations for EC2 instances and Auto Scaling groups, EBS volumes, Lambda functions, ECS services on Fargate, commercial software licenses, Aurora and RDS databases, NAT Gateway, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, MemoryDB, DocumentDB, WorkSpaces, and SageMaker. Availability of a recommendation depends on the resource meeting the service’s requirements and having enough metric data. Confirm current support and regional availability in the Compute Optimizer documentation.
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How far back do recommendations look?
Compute Optimizer’s default analysis uses 14 days of CloudWatch utilization metrics. Its rightsizing preferences offer 14-, 32-, or 93-day lookbacks. A 32-day period can help reveal monthly patterns; the 93-day option requires paid enhanced infrastructure metrics. Choose a window that includes the workload’s meaningful cycle, rather than treating a short quiet stretch as representative. AWS documents the options in rightsizing recommendation preferences.
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How do I balance savings against performance risk?
Compute Optimizer preferences let you adjust CPU utilization thresholds and CPU and memory headroom. AWS documents default EC2 settings of a P99.5 CPU threshold with 20% CPU and memory headroom. Lower thresholds or less headroom may surface more savings opportunities while leaving less capacity for peaks; higher headroom favors additional room for workload variation. Review the settings and trade-offs in AWS’s preferences guide.
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- Include normal peaks, batch windows, and seasonal or monthly demand when choosing a lookback.
- For sensitive production systems, preserve capacity for expected variation and validate changes under realistic load.
- Where memory data is important, check whether the recommendation has adequate memory metrics. Compute Optimizer can ingest external EC2 memory metrics from observability products; AWS gives Datadog and Dynatrace as examples. See the service documentation.
What are Savings Plans, and how do I choose one?
Savings Plans reduce rates on eligible usage in exchange for a commitment to a specified amount of compute usage per hour for a one- or three-year term. Compute Savings Plans apply broadly across EC2 instance families and AWS Regions, and also cover eligible Fargate and Lambda usage. Other plan types have different service and usage scopes; check the current Savings Plans types and eligibility before purchasing. The commitment structure and terms are described in What are Savings Plans?
Size the hourly commitment against the stable baseline you expect to use, not a temporary peak. Compare plan scope and flexibility, term length, payment option, historical utilization, and expected future usage. AWS recommendations use historical usage and do not forecast future demand. A migration, seasonal shift, or planned workload reduction can make recent history a poor predictor.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Are AWS savings estimates guaranteed?
No. Estimates are modeled from observed usage, pricing, and applicable discounts, and may not capture every effect on the bill. For example, Cost Explorer’s documented rightsizing calculation omits second-order effects such as reallocating freed Reserved Instance hours to other instances. Review how discounts are treated in the calculation details, then verify actual cost and performance after a staged rollout.
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