aws-cost-explorer
This skill should be used when users need to query AWS cost and usage details for a specific date. It supports querying costs at service level (e.g., EC2, S3, RDS) and drilling down to usage type level (e.g., instance types, storage classes, data transfer). Triggers on requests mentioning AWS costs, billing, spending, cost breakdown, or fee analysis.
Resources
1Install
npx skillscat add oldwinter/skills/aws-cost-explorer Install via the SkillsCat registry.
AWS Cost Explorer
Query AWS costs and usage details with flexible granularity - from service-level overview to detailed usage type breakdown.
Capabilities
- Query daily AWS costs by service (e.g., EC2, S3, OpenSearch, DocumentDB)
- Drill down to usage type details for specific services (e.g., instance types, storage, data transfer)
- Filter results by minimum cost threshold
- Support both relative dates (days ago) and absolute dates (YYYY-MM-DD)
- Output in human-readable table or JSON format
Usage
Quick Commands
To query costs, use the bundled script at scripts/cost_query.py:
# Query costs from 2 days ago (default) by service
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/cost_query.py
# Query yesterday's costs, show items > $5
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/cost_query.py --days-ago 1 --min-cost 5
# Query specific date
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/cost_query.py --date 2026-01-15
# Query specific service's usage breakdown
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/cost_query.py --service "Amazon OpenSearch Service" --min-cost 1
# Query all services with usage type details
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/cost_query.py --detailed --min-cost 5
# Output as JSON
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/cost_query.py --json --min-cost 5Script Options
| Option | Short | Description |
|---|---|---|
--days-ago |
-d |
Query N days ago (default: 2, i.e., day before yesterday) |
--date |
Query specific date (YYYY-MM-DD format) | |
--min-cost |
-m |
Minimum cost threshold to display (default: 0) |
--service |
-s |
Query usage type breakdown for a specific service |
--detailed |
Show all services with usage type breakdown | |
--json |
-j |
Output in JSON format |
Common Service Names
When using --service, use the exact AWS service names:
| Common Name | AWS Service Name |
|---|---|
| OpenSearch | Amazon OpenSearch Service |
| DocumentDB/MongoDB | Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility) |
| EC2 Compute | Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud - Compute |
| EC2 Other (EBS, NAT) | EC2 - Other |
| EFS | Amazon Elastic File System |
| S3 | Amazon Simple Storage Service |
| RDS | Amazon Relational Database Service |
| EKS | Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes |
| VPC | Amazon Virtual Private Cloud |
| Bedrock | Amazon Bedrock |
| Lambda | AWS Lambda |
| CloudWatch | AmazonCloudWatch |
Understanding Usage Types
Common usage type patterns:
| Pattern | Meaning |
|---|---|
BoxUsage:* |
EC2 instance hours (e.g., BoxUsage:m7i.large) |
ESInstance:* |
OpenSearch instance hours |
EBS:VolumeUsage.* |
EBS storage (e.g., EBS:VolumeUsage.gp3) |
TimedStorage-ByteHrs |
S3/EFS storage capacity |
DataTransfer-* |
Data transfer costs |
NatGateway-* |
NAT Gateway costs |
VpcEndpoint-* |
VPC Endpoint costs |
*-input-tokens / *-output-tokens |
Bedrock token usage |
Elastic*Usage |
DocumentDB Elastic costs |
Prerequisites
- AWS CLI configured with appropriate credentials
- IAM permissions for
ce:GetCostAndUsage
Example Workflow
First, get service-level overview:
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/cost_query.py --min-cost 5Identify high-cost services, then drill down:
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/cost_query.py --service "Amazon OpenSearch Service" --min-cost 1For comprehensive analysis, use detailed mode:
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/cost_query.py --detailed --min-cost 5
Categories
Install
npx skillscat add oldwinter/skills/aws-cost-explorer Install via the SkillsCat registry.