AWS is powerful, scalable, and pay-as-you-go. However, many businesses notice their monthly bill steadily increasing even when nothing major has changed. This happens because certain AWS services continue using resources quietly in the background. Here are the five services that most commonly drive up costs without clear warning.
Amazon S3 Storage S3 seems very inexpensive at first, but charges grow over time. Costs increase when you store multiple versions of objects, keep old backups forever, or transfer data frequently between regions. Many companies do not use lifecycle policies, so cold or unnecessary data continues to be billed every month. S3 bills can rise slowly and go unnoticed until they become one of the biggest expenses.
Elastic Block Store (EBS) EBS is the storage behind EC2 virtual machines. The biggest issue is that you continue to pay even when the storage is not actually being used. Deleted EC2 instances often leave behind old volumes and snapshots. Oversized volumes are also common because they were created “just in case.” Without regular clean-up, EBS becomes a major hidden cost.
Elastic IP Addresses An Elastic IP is free only when attached to a running instance. If that instance is stopped or deleted, AWS keeps charging for the IP address because it is considered reserved. Many businesses end up paying for IPs nobody remembers exist. It is easy to accumulate unused IPs over time, especially during testing or short-term projects.
NAT Gateways NAT Gateways allow private subnets to access the internet. They are simple to use but very expensive when large amounts of data pass through them. Businesses often transfer logs, backups, or analytics traffic through NAT Gateways without realizing how much those gigabytes cost. If you move a lot of data, the NAT Gateway charges can be surprisingly high.
CloudWatch Logs and Metrics Monitoring is essential, but the defaults in AWS are aggressive. Log retention periods are set very long, sometimes forever, even when the data is no longer useful. High-resolution custom metrics also cost more than standard ones. When logs grow constantly, the bill becomes bigger every month unless limits are in place.
How to Reduce These Hidden AWS Costs Small configuration changes can produce big savings. A few examples include reviewing unused storage, archiving old logs, deleting abandoned Elastic IPs, and controlling how much data moves through NAT Gateways. Many companies save 20 to 40 percent on their AWS bill simply by cleaning up unused resources.
Why This Matters for Businesses Cloud cost increases often go unnoticed until someone is shocked by the monthly invoice. Even worse, leaders may assume cloud pricing is unpredictable when the real issue is lack of maintenance. AWS is not “set and forget.” Someone must watch consumption metrics and adjust configurations as workloads evolve.
A cost review every quarter helps prevent waste and keeps your cloud budget under control.
If your company would like help identifying cost savings, we can analyze your AWS environment, break down where the money is going, and put a plan in place to keep your cloud budget stable and efficient.