Reduce Your AWS Bill by 60%: Real Techniques That Actually Work

The 6 Changes That Actually Move the Needle

Most cost guides list 50 things. These 6 account for 80%+ of savings.

1. Right-Size EC2 Instances

# Check 2-week average CPU
aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics \
  --namespace AWS/EC2 --metric-name CPUUtilization \
  --dimensions Name=InstanceId,Value=i-xxx \
  --start-time 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z --end-time 2024-01-14T00:00:00Z \
  --period 86400 --statistics Average

# Average CPU < 20% and peak < 40%? Downsize by one size.
# t3.large -> t3.medium saves ~50% on that instance.

2. Savings Plans (30-60% Discount)

Commit to a spend amount for 1 year, no instance changes required. AWS Cost Management > Savings Plans > Compute Savings Plans. A t3.medium: $456/year on-demand vs $280/year on Savings Plan.

3. S3 Lifecycle Rules

{
  "Rules": [{
    "ID": "Move old logs",
    "Filter": {"Prefix": "logs/"},
    "Transitions": [
      {"Days": 30, "StorageClass": "STANDARD_IA"},
      {"Days": 90, "StorageClass": "GLACIER"}
    ],
    "Expiration": {"Days": 2555}
  }]
}

Typical result: 2TB of logs from $46/month to $8/month.

4. Delete Orphaned EBS Volumes

aws ec2 describe-volumes \
  --filters Name=status,Values=available \
  --query 'Volumes[*].[VolumeId,Size]' --output table
# Review then delete what you do not need

Also check: unattached Elastic IPs ($3.65/month each), unused load balancers ($18/month each).

5. Spot Instances for Non-Critical Workloads

70-90% cheaper than on-demand. Perfect for: CI/CD agents, batch jobs, dev environments. Not for: production databases or web servers.

6. Budget Alert (Do This Today)

AWS Console > Billing > Budgets > Create Budget. Also enable Cost Anomaly Detection — it catches unusual spend before you see it on the bill.

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