How Do You Configure Email Alerts for AWS Spending Thresholds of Specific Dollar Amounts?

Problem scenario
Sometimes you forget what is running in AWS. You want to be notified when you have spent a certain amount of money. How do you set up a notification in your AWS account that will apprise you when you have have spent over a certain amount of money for a given month?

Solution

  1. Log into the AWS Management Console (aka the web UI).
  2. Go to CloudWatch
  3. Click "Create alarm"
  4. Click "Select metric"
  5. Click on the hyperlink for "Billing"
  6. Click on the hyperlink for "Total Estimated Charge"
  7. Check the radio button for the desired Currency (for the U.S. it will be "USD")
  8. Click the "Select metric" button in the lower right-hand corner
  9. Enter a metric name
  10. Enter a threshold value in the appropriate field.
  11. Expand "Additional configuration" and configure as necessary. (This is an optional step.) You may or may not want to set other settings (e.g., for the "Missing data treatment" drop down, you may want to select "Treat missing data as bad (breaching threshold)" to be extremely conservative).
  12. Click "Next"
  13. For "Send a notification to…" choose a list with the email addresses you want to receive the notification
  14. Click "Next"
  15. Click "Create alarm"

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *