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How to cap AWS spending with spend limits and AWS Budgets

Last checked 2026-10-20 (ET). Tick each step as you go. Your progress is saved in this browser only.

AWS now has two different tools, and which one you can use depends on your account. See all 9 providers.

• Spend limits (a real cap, limited rollout): part of AWS's new experience. AWS's doc says "We're currently releasing our new experience to a limited number of customers. You might not be able to access this experience yet."
• AWS Budgets (alerts, plus optional actions): available to every account. Budgets do not stop all spending on their own.

Option 1: Spend limits (if your account has the new experience)

Official doc: Create a spend limit in AWS Settings

Requirements: you must be on a Paid Plan and be a project owner. Spend limits are set per project, and you can apply them to up to 10 projects.

1. Open AWS Settings at settings.aws.com.
2. In the main navigation pane, choose Billing.
3. In Cost by project, for Spend limit, choose Set limit for a project.
4. Choose the recommended spend limit or a custom limit, and enter the amount if custom.
5. Choose Set spend limit.
6. Optional early controls: Stop new resource launches, Pause idle resources or Pause top cost drivers. Then choose Save early cost controls.

What it does:

• If usage reaches the limit, "AWS pauses your project and stops all resources. Your data is preserved."
• Notifications arrive at 50%, 75% and 90% of the limit, or when you are on track to hit it in the next 10 days.
• The optional controls act earlier: new launches stop about 7 days before you would hit the limit, idle EC2, RDS and SageMaker resources pause about 5 days before, and top cost drivers (from EC2, RDS, Lambda, Bedrock and SageMaker) pause about 4 days before.

What it does not do:

• The minimum limit is the greater of $20 or AWS's "conservative estimate of your likely spend."
• It excludes credits and applies to pre-tax charges.
• After you reactivate, some resources may need a manual restart.
• "If you take no action within 90 days of your project being paused, AWS permanently deletes your project data."

Option 2: AWS Budgets (every account)

Official docs: Using a budget template and Configuring budget actions

Create a monthly budget:

1. Open the Billing and Cost Management console.
2. In the navigation pane, choose Budgets.
3. Choose Create budget.
4. Under Budget setup, choose Use a template (simplified).
5. Pick Monthly cost budget (or Zero spend budget to hear about anything beyond the Free Tier).
6. Update the details and choose Create budget.

Add a brake with a budget action (optional): AWS Budgets can run an action when a threshold is crossed, either automatically or after you approve it. Actions can apply an IAM policy or a service control policy, or target specific EC2 or RDS instances. That can block new resources or stop chosen instances. It is a partial brake, not a cap on all spend.

Email recipients: you can add up to 10 per notification. New addresses must be verified, and AWS says "The recipient must be signed in to the AWS account that added the email address to complete verification." (source) You can also send budget alerts to an Amazon SNS topic (source).

How AWS budget alerts work

• A monthly cost budget from the template "notifies you if you exceed, or are forecasted to exceed, the budget amount." Forecasted alerts warn you before the money is spent. Actual alerts fire after.
• The Zero spend budget template "notifies you after your spending exceeds AWS Free Tier limits."
• Alerts are not real time. AWS says "AWS Budgets information is updated up to three times a day." Updates typically come 8 to 12 hours apart.
• AWS also warns: "You might incur additional costs or usage that exceed your budget notification threshold before AWS Budgets can notify you."
• Alerts can go to email, to an Amazon SNS topic, or both.

Official docs: Managing your costs with AWS Budgets and Using a budget template

Also on Google Cloud? Set a spend cap budget there.

Where CapBrake helps

Most AWS accounts cannot set one hard cap on the whole bill yet, so alerts still matter. Use the free CapBrake checklist to tick off each step above. Your progress is saved in your browser. No account and no credentials.

CapBrake also has an alert relay for providers like AWS. It is free in early access. You put a private relay address on your budget alerts, and CapBrake sends each alert to your browser or Slack. CapBrake will never ask for your AWS credentials.