Anonymized audit example
CostPatrol found $1,112/mo
in savings — 12 rules, 7 regions
An anonymized example showing typical findings across 7 AWS regions. NAT Gateway waste, idle Aurora clusters, excessive log retention, stale EC2 instances — the kind of waste CostPatrol catches in a single scan.
$1,112/mo in waste. 35 resources running for no reason.
A single scan across 7 AWS regions found savings in NAT Gateway, CloudWatch, RDS, EBS, EC2, Lambda, and S3. Every finding with the dollar amount and the command to fix it.
Check your accountTotal savings
$1,112/mo
$713 - $1,112
Findings
35
Rules matched
12
Regions scanned
7
Every finding, with exact fix commands
35 optimization opportunities across 12 rules and 7 regions. Real dollar amounts. Anonymized resource names.
NAT Gateway vs VPC Endpoints
NAT-O001 · 8 NAT gateways across 4 regions
$262 - $471/mo
api-service-prod (eu-west-2)
$112 - $201/mo
4,965 GB processed · $255.86/mo · S3 and DynamoDB traffic routed through NAT
→ Create free VPC Gateway Endpoints for S3 and DynamoDB
# Create S3 Gateway Endpoint (FREE — no hourly or data charges) $ aws ec2 create-vpc-endpoint \
--vpc-id vpc-0a1b2c3d4e5f6789 \
--service-name com.amazonaws.eu-west-2.s3 \
--route-table-ids rtb-xxxxxxxxx
# Create DynamoDB Gateway Endpoint (FREE) $ aws ec2 create-vpc-endpoint \
--vpc-id vpc-0a1b2c3d4e5f6789 \
--service-name com.amazonaws.eu-west-2.dynamodb \
--route-table-ids rtb-xxxxxxxxx
payments-api-east (us-east-1)
$34 - $61/mo
1,503 GB processed · $100.04/mo · S3 and DynamoDB traffic routed through NAT
→ Create free VPC Gateway Endpoints for S3 and DynamoDB
$ aws ec2 create-vpc-endpoint \
--vpc-id vpc-1a2b3c4d5e6f7890 \
--service-name com.amazonaws.us-east-1.s3 \
--route-table-ids rtb-xxxxxxxxx
and 6 more NAT gateways across us-east-1, us-east-2, and us-west-2 — $116 - $209/mo in additional savings
RDS Cluster Sprawl
RDS-O005 · 3 Aurora PostgreSQL clusters
$202 - $288/mo
3x Aurora PostgreSQL clusters (eu-west-2)
$202 - $288/mo
3 clusters · $576.00/mo total · Each service running its own dedicated cluster
→ Consolidate 3 Aurora PostgreSQL clusters into 1 shared cluster with separate databases
# 1. Create snapshot of each cluster $ aws rds create-db-cluster-snapshot \
--db-cluster-identifier app-aurora-cluster \
--db-cluster-snapshot-identifier app-final-snapshot
# 2. Export and import into shared cluster $ pg_dump -h app-aurora-cluster.cluster-xxxx.eu-west-2.rds.amazonaws.com \
-U admin -d app_db > app_backup.sql
# 3. Repeat for payments_aurora_cluster and staging_aurora_cluster # 4. Delete original clusters after verification
Idle RDS Instances
RDS-O001 · 1 resource
$72 - $144/mo
staging-aurora-node-0
$72 - $144/mo
eu-west-2 · Aurora PostgreSQL · $144.00/mo · Zero active connections
→ Stop, downsize, or delete low-utilization RDS instance
# Option 1: Snapshot and delete $ aws rds create-db-cluster-snapshot \
--db-cluster-identifier staging-aurora-cluster \
--db-cluster-snapshot-identifier staging-aurora-final
$ aws rds delete-db-instance --db-instance-identifier staging-aurora-node-0 --skip-final-snapshot
# Option 2: Downsize $ aws rds modify-db-instance --db-instance-identifier staging-aurora-node-0 --db-instance-class db.t3.micro --apply-immediately
Idle EC2 Instances
EC2-O002 · 1 resource
$69/mo
monitoring-sensor-prod
$69.12/mo
eu-west-2 · m5.large · Running but idle
→ Stop or terminate idle instance
# Option 1: Stop (can restart later) $ aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids i-0a1b2c3d4e5f0001
# Option 2: Terminate (permanent) $ aws ec2 terminate-instances --instance-ids i-0a1b2c3d4e5f0001
Excessive Log Retention
CWL-O001 · 5 log groups · 2.8 TB stored
$63 - $79/mo
payments-api-central
$28 - $34/mo
us-east-2 · 1,249 GB stored · 365-day retention · $37.48/mo
→ Reduce log retention to 30 days
$ aws logs put-retention-policy \
--log-group-name "payments-api-central" \
--retention-in-days 30
payments-api-east
$19 - $23/mo
us-east-1 · 848 GB stored · 365-day retention · $25.45/mo
→ Reduce log retention to 30 days
$ aws logs put-retention-policy \
--log-group-name "payments-api-east" \
--retention-in-days 30
and 3 more log groups (app-api, payments-api-west, app-ui) — $17 - $21/mo in additional savings
Previous-Generation Instance Types
EC2-O001 · 2 resources
$17 - $26/mo
ci-runner-build
$9 - $13/mo
eu-west-2 · t2.xlarge · $72.00/mo
→ Upgrade to t3.xlarge (Nitro-based, better price/performance)
$ aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids i-0b2c3d4e5f6a0002
$ aws ec2 modify-instance-attribute --instance-id i-0b2c3d4e5f6a0002 --instance-type '{"Value":"t3.xlarge"}'
$ aws ec2 start-instances --instance-ids i-0b2c3d4e5f6a0002
ci-runner-services
$9 - $13/mo
eu-west-2 · t2.xlarge · $72.00/mo
→ Upgrade to t3.xlarge (Nitro-based, better price/performance)
$ aws ec2 modify-instance-attribute --instance-id i-0c3d4e5f6a7b0003 --instance-type '{"Value":"t3.xlarge"}'
GP2 to GP3 EBS Migration
EBS-O001 · 5 volumes
$12/mo
vol-0a1b2c3d4e5f0001
$4.00/mo
gp2 · 200GB · attached to ci-runner-build
→ Migrate to GP3 (20% cheaper, 3000 IOPS + 125 MB/s baseline included)
$ aws ec2 modify-volume --volume-id vol-0a1b2c3d4e5f0001 --volume-type gp3
and 4 more GP2 volumes (200GB, 100GB, 80GB, 9GB) — $7.78/mo in additional savings
S3 Missing Lifecycle Rules
S3-O001 · 1 resource
$7 - $11/mo
platform-access-logs
$6.55 - $11.45/mo
711 GB · $16.36/mo · No lifecycle policy
→ Add lifecycle policy to transition to Intelligent-Tiering after 30 days
$ aws s3api put-bucket-lifecycle-configuration \
--bucket platform-access-logs \
--lifecycle-configuration '{
"Rules": [{
"ID": "TransitionToIntelligentTiering",
"Status": "Enabled",
"Filter": {},
"Transitions": [{ "Days": 30, "StorageClass": "INTELLIGENT_TIERING" }]
}]
}'
Orphaned Elastic IPs
EIP-O001 · 1 resource
$3.60/mo
monitoring-sensor
$3.60/mo
eu-west-2 · Elastic IP not associated with any resource
→ Release orphaned Elastic IP address
$ aws ec2 release-address --allocation-id eipalloc-0a1b2c3d4e5f
Unnecessary Public IPv4 Addresses
IPV4-O001 · 1 resource
$3.60/mo
monitoring-sensor-prod
$3.60/mo
eu-west-2 · Instance has public IPv4 but only needs private networking
→ Remove unnecessary public IPv4 and use private networking
$ aws ec2 modify-subnet-attribute \
--subnet-id subnet-0a1b2c3d4e5f \
--no-map-public-ip-on-launch
Lambda Memory Right-Sizing
LAM-O002 · 5 resources
$2 - $3/mo
search-indexer-prod
$0.80 - $1.00/mo
eu-west-2 · 2048MB allocated · 192MB peak usage · $1.14/mo
→ Reduce memory from 2048MB to 256MB (90% over-provisioned)
$ aws lambda update-function-configuration \
--function-name search-indexer-prod \
--memory-size 256
and 4 more over-provisioned Lambda functions — $1.51 - $1.89/mo in additional savings
Lambda ARM64 Migration
LAM-O001 · 4 resources
$1/mo
search-indexer-prod
$0.17 - $0.29/mo
eu-west-2 · x86_64 · nodejs20.x · 2048MB · $1.14/mo
→ Migrate to ARM64 (Graviton2) for 20% cost savings
$ aws lambda update-function-configuration \
--function-name search-indexer-prod \
--architectures arm64
and 3 more x86_64 Lambda functions eligible for ARM64 migration
What AWS Cost Explorer misses
AWS Cost Explorer
Shows $526/mo in NAT Gateway charges — no traffic breakdown
Cannot tell you which traffic could use free VPC endpoints
Doesn't flag 2.8 TB of logs with excessive retention
Misses idle EC2, orphaned EIPs, and previous-gen instances
CostPatrol
"Create free S3/DynamoDB Gateway Endpoints — save $471/mo instantly"
12 different rule types — network, compute, storage, database, serverless
7 regions scanned simultaneously in a single run
Copy-paste AWS CLI commands for every finding
AWS tells you NAT Gateway costs went up. CostPatrol tells you that S3 and DynamoDB traffic is flowing through $526/mo in NAT Gateways — when free VPC Gateway Endpoints would handle it for $0.
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