AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02)Billing, Pricing, and SupportEasy
A cloud administrator opens Cost Explorer to understand which service is driving an unexpected spike in last month's bill. Which built-in Cost Explorer capability should the administrator use to drill down and identify the specific service and linked account responsible?
- ATrusted Advisor cost optimization checks
- BCost and Usage Reports grouped by resource ID
- CAWS Budgets threshold alerts
- DCost Explorer's filter and group-by feature
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. Cost Explorer's filter and group-by feature
Cost Explorer includes built-in filtering and grouping (by service, linked account, region, tag, etc.) that lets users visually drill into cost data to pinpoint the source of a spend increase.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Trusted Advisor gives optimization recommendations, not historical cost breakdowns.
- B. Cost and Usage Reports are detailed CSV/Parquet exports, not an interactive visual tool like Cost Explorer.
- C. Budgets sends alerts on thresholds but does not provide the drill-down analysis itself.
Cost Explorer
An AWS billing tool that visualizes and analyzes historical and forecasted spending patterns.
- Supports filtering and grouping by service, account, tag, region.
- Provides up to 12 months of historical data and forecasts up to 12 months ahead.
- Free to use for viewing standard reports.
Memory trick: Cost Explorer = 'Cost X-ray' to see inside your bill.