Clanker provides comprehensive cost analysis capabilities using AWS Cost Explorer, GCP Cloud Billing, and other cloud provider billing APIs.
Getting started with cost analysis Clanker fetches real cost data directly from your cloud provider APIs, giving you accurate, up-to-date spending information.
View overall costs # Current month summary clanker cost clanker cost summary # Specific date range clanker cost summary --start 2026-02-01 --end 2026-02-28 # JSON output for automation clanker cost summary --format json
Example output: ======================================== Cloud Cost Summary Period: March 1-28, 2026 ======================================== Total Cost: $2,847.23 By Provider: AWS: $2,450.18 (86%) GCP: $285.50 (10%) Cloudflare: $111.55 (4%) Top 5 Services: 1. EC2: $1,234.56 (43%) 2. RDS: $678.90 (24%) 3. EKS: $245.67 (9%) 4. Lambda: $123.45 (4%) 5. S3: $89.12 (3%) Forecast (End of Month): $3,120.45 Projected Variance: +9.6%
Detailed cost breakdown Service-level analysis # All services clanker cost detail --provider aws # Specific provider clanker cost detail --provider gcp clanker cost detail --provider azure # JSON format clanker cost detail --format json
Service breakdown: ======================================== AWS Cost Breakdown (March 2026) ======================================== EC2 Instances: $1,234.56 c5.2xlarge (prod-app-1): $245.60 c5.2xlarge (prod-app-2): $245.60 m5.large (api-server): $112.50 t3.medium (dev-instances x5): $156.80 t3.small (bastion): $15.36 Reserved Instance credits: -$41.30 RDS: $678.90 db.r5.xlarge (prod-postgres): $456.00 db.t3.medium (staging-db): $112.40 Backup storage (285 GB): $57.00 Snapshot storage (120 GB): $24.00 Enhanced monitoring: $29.50 EKS: $245.67 Control plane (prod-cluster): $73.00 Control plane (staging-cluster):$73.00 Worker nodes (m5.large x4): $99.67 Lambda: $123.45 Invocations (12.5M): $2.50 Duration (45.2M GB-seconds): $75.30 Provisioned concurrency: $45.65 S3: $89.12 Standard storage (456 GB): $10.49 Intelligent-Tiering (1.2 TB): $25.60 Glacier (2.8 TB): $8.40 Requests (2.3M): $23.52 Data transfer (890 GB): $21.11 CloudWatch: $67.23 Logs ingestion (125 GB): $45.60 Logs storage (80 GB): $4.00 Metrics (custom, 450): $13.50 Alarms (35): $3.50 Dashboards (3): $0.63 NAT Gateway: $56.78 Hourly charges: $32.40 Data processing (245 GB): $24.38 ELB/ALB: $45.90 ALB hours (2 ALBs): $32.40 LCU charges: $13.50 Route53: $12.34 Hosted zones (3): $1.50 Queries (25M): $10.84
Tag-based cost analysis # By environment clanker cost tags --key Environment # By team clanker cost tags --key Team # By project clanker cost tags --key Project --format json
Tag breakdown: ======================================== Costs by Environment Tag ======================================== production: $1,845.67 (65%) staging: $678.23 (24%) development: $223.45 (8%) untagged: $99.88 (3%) Recommendation: Tag the 8 untagged resources - 3 EC2 instances - 2 S3 buckets - 2 EBS volumes - 1 RDS instance
Cost trends Historical analysis # Last 30 days clanker cost trend # Custom date range clanker cost trend --start 2026-01-01 --end 2026-03-01 # JSON for charting clanker cost trend --format json > cost-trend.json
Trend output: ======================================== Cost Trend (Last 30 Days) ======================================== Date | Daily Cost | 7-Day Avg | Change -----------|------------|-----------|-------- 2026-02-27 | $94.23 | $89.45 | +5.3% 2026-02-28 | $96.78 | $90.12 | +7.4% 2026-03-01 | $102.34 | $91.23 | +12.2% ⬆️ 2026-03-02 | $98.45 | $92.11 | +6.9% 2026-03-03 | $95.67 | $92.78 | +3.1% [...] Trend: ↗️ Increasing (+12% vs. last week) Peak day: March 1 ($102.34) Lowest day: Feb 15 ($78.90) Top cost increases: 1. EKS worker nodes: +$23/day (new cluster) 2. RDS storage: +$8/day (database growth) 3. S3 requests: +$5/day (API traffic increase)
Forecasting End of month projection Forecast output: ======================================== Cost Forecast ======================================== Current Month (March 2026) Days elapsed: 28 / 31 Actual spend: $2,847.23 Projected EOM: $3,120.45 Budget: $3,000.00 ⚠️ Over budget: $120.45 (4.0%) Next Month (April 2026) Projected: $3,245.67 Trend: +4.0% Confidence: 85% (based on 90-day trend) Projected by service (April): EC2: $1,289.45 (+4.4%) RDS: $712.34 (+4.9%) EKS: $289.67 (+17.9%) ⬆️ Lambda: $118.90 (-3.7%) S3: $95.23 (+6.9%) Other: $740.08 (+2.1%)
Anomaly detection Find cost anomalies Anomaly report: ======================================== Cost Anomalies Detected ======================================== 🚨 High Impact (Monthly waste: $423) 1. Idle EC2 Instance: i-0a1b2c3d4e5f6 (dev-test-1) - Running 24/7 with 0.2% avg CPU - Last SSH login: 14 days ago - Monthly cost: $125.60 - Recommendation: Stop or terminate - Potential savings: $125/month 2. Unused RDS: dev-playground-db - db.t3.medium, no connections in 30 days - Created: 2025-11-15 (forgotten?) - Monthly cost: $178.40 - Recommendation: Take final snapshot, delete - Potential savings: $178/month 3. Unattached EBS Volumes: 8 volumes - Total: 1.2 TB across 8 volumes - Detached: 15-60 days ago - Monthly cost: $120.00 - Recommendation: Delete or attach - Potential savings: $120/month ⚠️ Medium Impact (Monthly waste: $156) 4. Underutilized RDS: staging-db - db.t3.large, avg CPU: 5%, max connections: 3 - Right-size to: db.t3.small - Monthly cost: $223.20 - Potential savings: $89/month 5. S3 Glacier retrieval costs spike - Unusual retrieval: 450 GB on March 3 - Cost: $45.60 (vs $2.30 typical daily) - Recommendation: Review retrieval patterns 6. NAT Gateway underutilized: nat-0abc123 - Data processed: 12 GB/day avg - Consider: VPC endpoints for S3/DynamoDB - Potential savings: $67/month 💡 Low Impact (Optimization opportunities) 7. S3 Standard tier old objects: logs-archive-2023 - 456 GB not accessed in 180 days - Move to: Glacier Deep Archive - Potential savings: $10/month 8. Provisioned Lambda concurrency unused - email-sender: 10 provisioned, max used: 2 - Reduce to: 3 - Potential savings: $49/month 9. CloudWatch Logs retention too long - 12 log groups with 90-day retention - Recommendation: 7-day retention for dev logs - Potential savings: $8/month ======================================== Total Potential Monthly Savings: $579 Annual savings: $6,948 ========================================
Export and reporting Export cost data # CSV export clanker cost export --output costs.csv # JSON export clanker cost export --output costs.json --format json # Specific provider clanker cost export --output aws-costs.csv --provider aws # Date range clanker cost export --output feb-costs.csv --start 2026-02-01 --end 2026-02-28
CSV format: Date, Service, Cost, Provider 2026-03-01, EC2, 41.23, AWS 2026-03-01, RDS, 22.56, AWS 2026-03-01, Lambda, 4.12, AWS 2026-03-01, S3, 2.89, AWS [...]
Automate reports #!/bin/bash # weekly-cost-report.sh WEEK_START = $( date -d '7 days ago' +%Y-%m-%d ) WEEK_END = $( date +%Y-%m-%d ) # Generate report REPORT = "cost-report-$( date +%Y-%m-%d).txt" echo "Weekly Cost Report: $WEEK_START to $WEEK_END " > $REPORT echo "" >> $REPORT clanker cost summary --start $WEEK_START --end $WEEK_END >> $REPORT echo "" >> $REPORT echo "Anomalies:" >> $REPORT clanker cost anomalies >> $REPORT # Email or upload mail -s "Weekly Cost Report" [email protected] < $REPORT
Multi-cloud cost analysis Compare providers # All providers clanker cost summary --provider all # Compare specific providers clanker cost summary --provider aws,gcp --format json
GCP costs # Requires GCP project configured clanker cost summary --provider gcp clanker cost detail --provider gcp
Azure costs # Requires Azure subscription configured clanker cost summary --provider azure clanker cost detail --provider azure
Best practices
Review weekly Run cost reports weekly to catch anomalies early before they compound.
Tag everything Tag all resources with Environment, Team, and Project for accurate cost allocation.
Act on anomalies Don’t just review anomalies—actually stop idle resources and right-size services.
Set budgets Use AWS Budgets or equivalent to get alerts when spending exceeds thresholds.
Advanced analysis Custom queries # Natural language cost queries clanker ask "What's our EC2 spending trend over the last 3 months?" clanker ask "Which Lambda functions cost the most?" clanker ask "Show me RDS costs by instance type" clanker ask "What are our data transfer costs?"
Cost optimization queries clanker ask "Find EC2 instances with low CPU that could be downsized" clanker ask "Show me EBS volumes that could be moved to gp3" clanker ask "Which S3 buckets should use Intelligent-Tiering?" clanker ask "Find RDS instances that could use Reserved Instances"
AWS Cost Explorer integration Clanker uses the AWS Cost Explorer API directly:
# Verify Cost Explorer is enabled aws ce get-cost-and-usage \ --time-period Start=2026-03-01,End=2026-03-02 \ --granularity DAILY \ --metrics UnblendedCost
Cost Explorer data is typically delayed by 24 hours. For today’s costs, data may not be available until tomorrow.
CloudWatch billing alarms # Create billing alarm with maker clanker ask --maker "create a CloudWatch alarm when my monthly bill exceeds $3000 "
Troubleshooting
If cost commands return no data:
Cost Explorer not enabled (AWS)
Enable in AWS Console: Billing > Cost Explorer
Insufficient permissions # Required IAM permissions: # ce:GetCostAndUsage # ce:GetCostForecast # ce:GetAnomalies
Date range too recent # Use date at least 24-48 hours old clanker cost summary --start 2026-02-15 --end 2026-02-28
AWS Cost Explorer forecast requires:
At least 2 weeks of historical data
Sufficient data points for trend analysis
# Check if you have enough history clanker cost trend --start 2026-02-01
Costs don't match AWS console
Differences can occur due to:
Time zone differences (UTC vs. local)Blended vs. unblended costs Credits and refunds (applied differently)Data delay (24-48 hour lag) Clanker uses unblended costs by default. Next steps
Cost optimization Act on cost analysis findings to reduce spending
Monitoring resources Set up ongoing cost monitoring
Security audit Combine cost and security analysis
Multi-environment Track costs across dev, staging, and prod