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CLF-C02 · LESSON 4

Billing, Pricing, and Support12% · 3 topics

Learn AWS pricing models, billing, budget and cost management resources, technical resources and support plans.

4.1Compare AWS pricing models

4.1 Compare AWS pricing models.

Concept

EC2 purchase options include On-Demand (pay for what you use, no contract), Savings Plans (discounts for committing to a spend for one or three years), Reserved Instances (discounts for reserving capacity for one or three years), Spot Instances (spare capacity at up to 90% off, can be interrupted) and Dedicated Hosts (dedicated physical servers, bring your own licenses). For data transfer, inbound to AWS is basically free and outbound is charged.

How it works / steps

  1. Check whether the workload is always on, temporary or interruptible
  2. Use On-Demand for unpredictable short-term use
  3. Use Savings Plans or Reserved Instances for stable long-term use
  4. Use Spot for batch jobs that can be rerun if interrupted

Workplace example

Always-on core web servers use Compute Savings Plans, nightly image processing batches use Spot Instances and temporary test servers use On-Demand.

Common confusions and exam tips

Mini quiz

Q1. Which best describes Savings Plans?

  1. Charges for unused months automatically carry over to the next month
  2. They use spare AWS capacity and are much cheaper in exchange for possible interruption by AWS
  3. They dedicate a physical server and share no hardware with other customers
  4. Discounted rates apply in exchange for committing to a fixed hourly spend for one or three years
Show answer and explanation

Answer: D Discounted rates apply in exchange for committing to a fixed hourly spend for one or three years

Savings Plans are a flexible pricing model offering discounts for committing to an hourly spend ($/hour) for one or three years. Interruption applies to Spot Instances.

Q2. You publish a web service on EC2 and user downloads are growing. Which statement about data transfer pricing is most accurate?

  1. Within one Region, cross-AZ transfer is free
  2. Inter-Region transfer costs more than internet outbound
  3. Inbound from the internet is generally free; outbound to the internet is charged
  4. With CloudFront, delivery to users is free
Show answer and explanation

Answer: C Inbound from the internet is generally free; outbound to the internet is charged

Generally inbound is free, while outbound to the internet and transfers between Regions are charged. Even within a Region, transfers such as between AZs can be charged. [Other options] Cross-AZ transfer in a Region can be charged. Relative prices are not uniform. CloudFront delivery is charged (origin-to-CloudFront transfer may be free).

Reference links

4.2Understand resources for billing, budget and cost management

4.2 Understand resources for billing, budget, and cost management.

Concept

AWS Pricing Calculator estimates before use, AWS Cost Explorer analyzes past and forecast costs, AWS Budgets sets budgets and alerts, the AWS Cost and Usage Report (CUR) provides the most detailed usage data, and cost allocation tags aggregate costs by department. Consolidated billing in AWS Organizations combines bills for multiple accounts and shares volume discounts.

How it works / steps

  1. Estimate before use with Pricing Calculator
  2. Attach cost allocation tags (department, project) to resources and activate them
  3. Set monthly budgets and alerts for likely overruns in AWS Budgets
  4. Analyze trends in Cost Explorer to find waste

Workplace example

Each department tags resources with cost-center, costs are aggregated in Cost Explorer, and Budgets sends email when development exceeds 80% of its budget.

Common confusions and exam tips

Mini quiz

Q1. Which best explains how Reserved Instance and Savings Plans discounts are shared in an AWS Organizations organization?

  1. Discounts apply only if all accounts in the organization buy the same number of RIs
  2. Discounts apply only to usage in the purchasing account, with no way to share them
  3. With consolidated billing, the RI discount rate automatically doubles
  4. Within a consolidated billing organization, discounts can apply to usage in accounts other than the purchaser (sharing can also be turned off)
Show answer and explanation

Answer: D Within a consolidated billing organization, discounts can apply to usage in accounts other than the purchaser (sharing can also be turned off)

In a consolidated billing organization, RI and Savings Plans discounts can be shared among accounts (the management account can also turn sharing off).

Q2. You want to see AWS costs separately per department. Which method is most appropriate?

  1. Tag resources with the department, activate the tags as cost allocation tags and aggregate
  2. Share resources among all departments and divide costs equally
  3. Print invoices and have staff split them by department by guessing
  4. Use a different Region per department and treat each Region’s bill as that department’s cost
Show answer and explanation

Answer: A Tag resources with the department, activate the tags as cost allocation tags and aggregate

Tagging resources and activating cost allocation tags lets Cost Explorer and reports aggregate costs by department.

Reference links

4.3Identify AWS technical resources and AWS Support options

4.3 Identify AWS technical resources and AWS Support options.

Concept

AWS Support plans are Basic, included for every customer (customer service, documentation, re:Post, core Trusted Advisor checks and AWS Health), plus the paid Business Support+ (the minimum recommended plan for production workloads), Enterprise Support (business-critical workloads) and Unified Operations (mission-critical workloads), per the official comparison page as of October 2026. Paid plans include 24/7 phone and chat support and the full set of Trusted Advisor checks; higher plans have shorter response times for critical outages, and Enterprise Support and above include a designated Technical Account Manager (TAM). Other resources include AWS re:Post (Q&A), AWS Knowledge Center, AWS Prescriptive Guidance, AWS Marketplace (buying third-party software), the AWS Partner Network and AWS Health Dashboard (outage information).

How it works / steps

  1. Confirm the importance of production systems and the response times needed
  2. Choose a support plan that meets the requirements
  3. Research general questions in re:Post and the Knowledge Center
  4. Check the impact of AWS-side outages in AWS Health Dashboard

Workplace example

Because a response within one hour is needed if production goes down, the company subscribes to Business support and defines a procedure for checking AWS Health Dashboard for AWS-side outages.

Common confusions and exam tips

Mini quiz

Q1. Which is the condition for using all AWS Trusted Advisor checks?

  1. Purchase Trusted Advisor in AWS Marketplace
  2. Use it on Basic Support without any additional settings
  3. Subscribe to a paid support plan (Business Support+ or higher)
  4. Create an organization in AWS Organizations
Show answer and explanation

Answer: C Subscribe to a paid support plan (Business Support+ or higher)

Basic Support includes only core checks; all checks are available with paid support plans (Business Support+ or higher).

Q2. You want to adopt a security product without contracting the vendor separately and have charges on your AWS bill. Which fits best?

  1. AWS Marketplace
  2. AWS Partner Network partner finder
  3. AWS Service Catalog
  4. AWS Pricing Calculator
Show answer and explanation

Answer: A AWS Marketplace

In Marketplace you can buy and deploy software from ISVs and others, with billing integrated into your AWS bill. Estimates are done in Pricing Calculator. [Other options] Partner finder locates implementation help. Pricing Calculator estimates costs. Service Catalog distributes internally approved products and is not a place to buy.

Reference links

Lessons are written by this site based on public information and do not guarantee exam content. Product specifications change, so check the latest information at the reference links.

Notes (unofficial, original questions, no pass guarantee)