Cloud Cost Clinic Preflight

Free cloud cost optimization tool for AWS budget guardrails.

Answer a few planning questions and get a starter AWS budget split, alert thresholds, and first-review checklist for common cloud cost optimization traps.

Start free preflight Watch budget setup video

The budget planner does not connect to AWS and does not estimate exact pricing. The optional scanner setup below deploys a customer-owned read-only role for a future review scan. It cannot change resources.

Optional scanner setup

Deploy the read-only scanner role.

Use an external ID to deploy a small CloudFormation stack in your AWS account. The stack creates one read-only IAM role that can be used for scanner findings later.

  • Read-only metadata, billing, and metric permissions
  • No access keys, secrets, delete permissions, or write access
  • Findings are review candidates, not cleanup instructions

Deploy Stack setup

Use the external ID assigned to your scanner connection. For local testing, generate one here and keep it with the role ARN.

Deploy Stack

Enter the external ID and scanner AWS account ID to create the deploy link.

No login required

Create a starter AWS budget plan.

Work through three short steps. The result is a budget guardrail plan you can copy into your setup notes before launch.

01

Overall AWS budget target

02

Warning, high, and critical alert thresholds

03

Service-specific watch buckets

04

First review queue for likely cost traps

  1. Limit and stage
  2. AWS usage
  3. Risk settings
Step 1: Monthly AWS spend limit and workload stage

Enter the monthly AWS amount where you would want to be warned and review the account. This is a guardrail, not a forecast.

Workload stage

Walkthrough

Need help setting up the budget in AWS?

Use the generated plan as your starting point, then follow the walkthrough to create the AWS Budget in the console.

Watch the AWS Budget setup walkthrough

Workflow

Cloud cost optimization strategies before launch.

1

Plan the cost risks

Tell the tool what you expect to use: private subnets, NAT Gateway, RDS, S3, CloudWatch Logs, backups, or multi-AZ traffic.

2

Set guardrails

Create starting budgets, service watch areas, and alert thresholds before the first full monthly bill arrives.

3

Review real usage

After usage starts, compare actual Cost Explorer data with the guardrails and turn likely waste into a safe review queue.

FAQ

Cloud cost optimization tool questions

Is this cloud cost optimization tool an AWS pricing calculator?

No. Cloud Cost Clinic Preflight creates starter AWS budget guardrails from planned usage. It does not estimate exact AWS pricing or connect to your AWS account.

How is this different from AWS Budgets or Cost Explorer?

AWS Budgets and Cost Explorer use billing data from your AWS account. Preflight helps you plan budget thresholds and watch areas before real usage appears, then points you back to Cost Explorer for adjustment.

Can this help with NAT Gateway, VPC, CloudWatch Logs, S3, and EBS costs?

Yes. The starter plan can include NAT Gateway and data transfer, VPC-related costs, CloudWatch Logs, S3, EBS volumes, EBS snapshots, RDS or Aurora, load balancers, and shared unknowns.

What does the Deploy Stack button create?

It opens AWS CloudFormation with a small template that creates one read-only IAM role using your external ID. The role is for future scanner review. It cannot delete, stop, resize, or modify AWS resources.

When should I adjust the starter budget plan?

Adjust the plan after real Cost Explorer data appears, usually after the first few days or weeks of normal usage. Treat the output as a guardrail, not a final forecast.

Use the checklist after launch.

Preflight sets starting guardrails. The AWS Cost Review Checklist helps you review real findings safely once usage begins.

Open the checklist