Estimated cost of setting up a log metric filter and alarm on Cloudwatch

Question

As a part of increasing the AWS security score, I wish to set up a log metric filter and alarm for the following actions :-
1. Changes to network gateways
2. Route table changes
3. Changes to Network Access Control Lists (NACL)
4. Security group changes
5. VPC changes
6. Unauthorized API calls
7. Management Console sign-in without MFA
8. AWS Management Console authentication failures
9. CloudTrail configuration changes
10. IAM policy changes
11. S3 bucket policy changes
12. Disabling or scheduled deletion of customer-created CMKs

There is just one root user. I wish to estimate the cost of this operation. [PFA screenshot of failed controls](/media/postImages/original/IMLIP77JscTuCyktECxGF3sg)

Yash_C · Answer

Hello,

Considering that you are looking into creating log metric filters [1], note that CloudWatch Logs use these metric filters to turn log data into numerical CloudWatch metrics that you can graph or set an alarm on.

For example if we were to work with 12 filters that will mean that we will be creating 12 metrics at the very least (or more). Based on pricing calculator tool you can calculate the price on your end. 
> https://calculator.aws/#/addService/CloudWatch

For example 12 metrics in `us-east-1` will cost - 
```
Tiered price for: 12 metrics
12 metrics x 0.3000000000 USD = 3.60 USD
Total tier cost = 3.60 USD (Metrics cost (includes custom metrics))
CloudWatch Metrics cost (monthly): 3.60 USD
```
For 12 standard alarms (60 seconds), you will incur the following - 
```
12 alarms x 0.10 USD = 1.20 USD (Standard Resolution Alarms cost)
CloudWatch Dashboards and Alarms cost (monthly): 1.20 USD
```
For 12 High Resolution Alarm (10 seconds), you will incur the following - 
```
12 alarms x 0.30 USD = 3.60 USD (High Resolution Alarms cost)
CloudWatch Dashboards and Alarms cost (monthly): 3.60 USD
```
Again, these numbers will change depending upon how many metrics you have, and the types of alarms you configure.

My recommendation here is to play around with the pricing calculator tool to get an estimate idea based on your requirements, and if you still have any queries or concerns, then please feel free to log a support case with our billing and support team directly, and they can help answer your queries further in terms of cost and pricing.

References: 
[1] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/logs/MonitoringLogData.html

Estimated cost of setting up a log metric filter and alarm on Cloudwatch

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