AWS CloudWatch
Advanced Observability with CloudWatch
Understanding CloudWatch Pricing
Welcome back! In this lesson, we’ll dive into AWS CloudWatch pricing to understand how costs are structured across its core features: metrics, dashboards, alarms, logs, and events. A clear cost breakdown helps you optimize observability while keeping your AWS bill in check.
High-Level Pricing Components
AWS CloudWatch billing is composed of the following elements:
- Metrics – Standard and custom metric data points
- Dashboards – Visual consoles to monitor your metrics
- Alarms – Threshold-based notifications on metric data
- Logs – Ingestion, storage, and analysis of log data
- Events – Custom event deliveries and rule evaluations
Note
AWS CloudWatch offers a Free Tier across metrics, logs, and events. Always check your usage against free-tier limits to avoid unexpected charges.
Example Scenario: Mid-Sized E-commerce Website
Consider a mid-sized e-commerce company monitoring its application with these monthly usage patterns:
- Custom metrics
30 metrics reporting once per minute - Dashboards
3 CloudWatch dashboards for real-time visualization - Alarms
20 critical alarms to trigger on threshold breaches - Logs
10 GB of data ingested
5 GB of log data stored - Events
1 million custom events delivered
(AWS CloudWatch Events includes 100,000 free events per month; $1.00 per additional million)
Monthly Cost Breakdown
| Feature | Usage | Unit Price | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom Metrics | 30 metrics × $0.30 per metric-month | $0.30 / metric-month | $9.00 |
| Dashboards | 3 dashboards × $3.00 per dashboard | $3.00 / dashboard | $9.00 |
| Alarms | 20 alarms × $0.10 per alarm-month | $0.10 / alarm-month | $2.00 |
| Logs Ingestion | 10 GB × $0.50 per GB | $0.50 / GB | $5.00 |
| Logs Storage | 5 GB × $0.03 per GB-month | $0.03 / GB-month | $0.15 |
| Custom Events | 1 M events × $1.00 per million events | $1.00 / million events | $1.00 |
| Total | $26.15 |
Warning
AWS pricing varies by Region and can change over time. Always confirm the rates for your specific region in the AWS Console.
Up-to-Date Pricing
Refer to the official AWS CloudWatch pricing page for the latest cost information.
Why Understanding Pricing Matters
Breaking down your CloudWatch usage helps you to:
- Compare built-in AWS monitoring costs versus third-party tools
- Decide if you should augment CloudWatch with external services
- Optimize your architecture to balance observability needs and budget
Additional Resources
That’s it for this lesson! Thank you for reading, and see you in the next article.
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