Set AWS Billing Alert

We can monitor our estimated AWS charges by using Amazon CloudWatch. The alarm triggers when our account billing exceeds the threshold we specified.

Step 1: Enable Billing Alerts:

AWS ➔ click on root account ➔ My Billing Dashboard ➔ Billing preferences ➔ [*] Receive billing alerts ➔ Save preferences.

Step 2: Configure CloudWatch:

AWS ➔ Services ➔ CloudWatch ➔ Billing ➔ Create alarm…

Fig: Create Alarm

➔ Select metric ➔ select Billing ➔ there are two options 1. By service and 2. By total estimated charges. I am using 'Total Estimated Charge'…

Fig: Select Metric

…➔ tick on USD ➔ Select Metric ➔ Metric name: EstimatedCharges ➔ Currency: USD ➔ Statistic: Maximum ➔ Period: 6 hours ➔

Fig: Configure Metric

Conditions ➔ Threshold type: Static ➔ Whenever EstimatedCharges is: Greater/Equal ➔ than: 10 USD ➔ Next ➔...

Fig: Threshold Conditions

…Alarm state: in Alarm ➔ Select an SNS topic: Create new topic ➔ Topic name: Default_CloudWatch_Alarms_Topic ➔ Email endpoints that will receive the notification: divakar.rastogi@gmail.com ➔ Create Topic (this time AWS will send an e-mail to us for confirmation from your e-mail account) ➔ (we can add more notifications by clicking on 'Add notification') ➔ Next.

Define Alert Name and Description:

Alert Name: Charges Exceed ➔ Alarm Description: Provide any description for your Alarm set ➔ Next ➔ Review everything in Preview and create section ➔ Create alarm.

As we click on Create alarm, we will see our configured alarm has been created.

Fig: Alarm Status

But we can see that the alarm is pending for confirmation. So, verify the account from your e-mail account.

Step 3: Verify alarm from e-mail account:

Open the mail received from AWS… ➔

Fig: Notification e-mail

As we click on 'Confirm Subscription', AWS sends us a notification that 'Subscription confirmed'.

Fig: Confirmation from AWS

We can verify this in SNS subscription also:

FIg: Verify from SNS subscription

Enjoy!