Cloud Cost Calculator

This project helps you watch how much money you spend on AWS. It uses CloudWatch, Lambda, SNS, and S3 to send you alerts when your AWS bill gets too high.

Example: If you want to know when your AWS cost passes $20 per day, this system will check your spending every day and send you a message when that happens.

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Problem

Many people get surprised by high AWS bills. You may start a small project and forget to stop some services, then at the end of the month, you see a big bill.

AWS has a billing page, but it doesn’t send alerts fast or explain which service is using the most money. Checking it by hand every day is slow and boring.

Main problems:

• You don’t get alerts when your cost increases suddenly.
• It’s hard to know which service (like EC2, S3, or Lambda) is causing high costs.
• Doing it manually wastes time and can cause money loss.

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Solution

Cloud Cost Calculator fixes that by watching your AWS spending automatically. It runs every day, checks your costs, and tells you if you go over your limit.

How it works:

• CloudWatch collects your daily cost from AWS.
• Lambda is a small program that checks your spending.
• SNS sends you an alert by email or SMS when your cost is too high.
• S3 saves all your reports so you can look back later.

Example: Let’s say you spend $10 on Monday, $15 on Tuesday, and your limit is $12. The system will send you an alert on Tuesday saying: “Your AWS cost today is $15. You crossed your $12 limit.”

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Why This Way

• No extra servers: Lambda only runs when needed, so you don’t pay for idle time.
• All AWS tools: Everything uses built-in AWS services. No external software.
• Easy to grow: Works for small or big projects.
• Automatic: Once you set it up, it runs by itself.

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Architecture (How it connects)

• CloudWatch watches the cost and sends data.
• Lambda checks the data once per day.
• SNS sends alerts if needed.
• S3 stores your cost history.

[CloudWatch] → [Lambda] → [SNS]
                     ↓
                   [S3]

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Setup Steps

1. Create an S3 bucket

Name it something like aws-cost-logs. It will save your data.

2. Create an SNS topic

This is where alerts go. Add your email or phone number to get messages.

3. Create a Lambda function

• Use Python 3.12
• Give it permission to use CloudWatch, S3, and SNS

4. Set CloudWatch to run Lambda daily

Add a rule in CloudWatch Events to trigger the Lambda function once a day.

5. Test it

Run Lambda manually the first time. You should get an alert if the cost passes your limit.

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Example Alert

Email Subject: AWS Cost Alert Email Message: Your total AWS cost for today is $22.45, which is more than your limit of $20.00.

Ideas for Later

• Show a chart of cost trends using QuickSight or Grafana.
• Add warning levels, like yellow for $10 and red for $20.
• Send alerts to Slack or Microsoft Teams.
• Add a dashboard to view cost reports directly.
• Use AI (Bedrock) to predict next month’s cost.
• Add multiple users so team members can get their own alerts.