AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02)Billing, Pricing, and SupportHard
A company wants AWS to automatically apply an IAM policy that restricts EC2 launches once a defined monthly budget threshold is exceeded, without manual intervention. Which AWS Budgets feature enables this automated response?
- ABudget reports
- BBudget actions
- CBudget alerts
- DCost anomaly detection
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Budget actions
AWS Budgets Actions allow you to define automated or approval-based responses—such as applying an IAM or SCP policy, or stopping/terminating EC2 or RDS instances—when a budget threshold is exceeded. Budget alerts only send notifications and do not take direct action on resources.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Budget reports are scheduled summaries sent via email, not automated actions.
- C. Budget alerts notify stakeholders but do not enforce policy changes automatically.
- D. Cost anomaly detection identifies unusual spending patterns but does not apply restrictive policies.
AWS Budgets Actions
A feature of AWS Budgets that triggers automated or approval-based actions, such as applying IAM policies or stopping instances, when budget thresholds are exceeded.
- Can apply IAM or SCP policies automatically
- Can stop or terminate EC2/RDS instances
- Actions can require manual approval or run automatically
Memory trick: Budgets alert, Actions act