What do I do if I receive a bill from AWS but can't find the resources that are related to the charges?

Short description

You might not see the resources that incurred charges for these reasons:

• You have active resources in your account that you aren't aware of.
• Resources in another AWS account caused the charges.
• Your permissions don't allow you to view the resources that incurred charges.
• Resources that you deleted or terminated earlier this month caused charges before removal.

Resolution

You have active resources in your account that you aren't aware of

To check the resources that are generating charges in your account, complete the following steps:

1. Open the AWS Billing and Cost Management console.

2. In the navigation pane on the left side of the screen, choose Bills.

   The Details section shows all the charges caused by various AWS services on your account. If you see charges for a service, then that service is generating charges.

   If you use the consolidated billing feature in AWS Organizations, then the Bills page lists totals for all accounts on the Consolidated Bill Details tab. To see the activity for each account in the organization, choose the Bill Details by Account tab.

   Note: It's a best practice to check the Details section for the previous month to identify all services that are generating charges.

3. Under Details, expand each service to identify the AWS Regions where the services incurred charges.

Note: The Billing and Cost Management console takes about 24 hours to update usage and charge information for active resources.

Use the AWS Systems Manager Automation

You can use the AWSSupport-ListEC2Resources AWS Systems Manager Automation document to list your active Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) resources. This automation document provides information about the following resources:

• Amazon EC2 instances
• Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volumes
• Elastic IP addresses
• Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling groups

By default, the automation gathers and displays information from all Regions that you specify. To run this automation, follow the instructions in Running a simple automation (console).

You can also use the AWS Cost and Usage Report or AWS Cost Explorer to check your resource usage.

After you identify your active resources across different Regions, you can terminate unnecessary resources through their respective service consoles. For guidance, see How do I terminate active resources that I no longer need on my AWS account?

Resources from another AWS account caused the charges

Check your other AWS accounts for active resources. To identify active Amazon EC2 resources, run the AWSSupport-ListEC2Resources automation on these accounts. To understand charges from unfamiliar AWS accounts, see Why was I charged by AWS when I don't have an AWS account?

Your permissions don't allow you to view the resources that incurred charges

When you sign in as an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) user, your permissions might restrict your ability to view resources that incur charges. Contact your account administrator to request the necessary viewing permissions. For more information about IAM permissions and policies, see How permissions and policies provide access management.

If you're using a member account in an organization, then the charges might come from resources in another account within your organization's consolidated bill. Contact that account's owner for details about their resources.

Resources that you deleted or terminated earlier this month caused charges before removal

The Billing and Cost Management console displays your total usage for the current month. When you stop or terminate resources during the month, they no longer appear in the AWS Management Console for that service. However, their earlier charges remain.

To verify that terminated resources are no longer incurring charges, review your AWS Cost and Usage Report or AWS Cost Explorer.

Related information

Viewing your monthly charges

What are AWS Cost and Usage Reports?

Analyzing your costs and usage with AWS Cost Explorer

How do I use the AWS Cost and Usage Report?

AWS pricing