# Getting help with your bills and payments
There are many resources available for you if you have any questions about your Amazon Billing and Cost Management console tools, your charges, or payment methods. If you have any inquiries or appeals regarding your Amazon bill, we recommend you open a case with Amazon Web Services Support so an associate can assist you directly.
**Topics**
+ [Amazon Knowledge Center](#billing-support-KC)
+ [Contacting Amazon Web Services Support](#billing-support)
+ [Understanding your charged usage](#billing-support-usage)
+ [Monitoring your Free Tier usage](#billing-support-Free)
+ [Closing your Amazon Web Services account](#closing-your-account)
## Amazon Knowledge Center
All Amazon account owners have access to account and billing support free of charge. You can find answers to your questions quickly by visiting the Amazon Knowledge Center.
**To find your question or request**
1. Open [Amazon Knowledge Center](http://www.amazonaws.cn/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/).
1. Choose **Billing Management**.
1. Scan the list of topics to locate a question that is similar to yours.
## Contacting Amazon Web Services Support
Contacting Amazon Web Services Support is the fastest and most direct method for communicating with an Amazon associate about your questions. Amazon Web Services Support does not publish a direct phone number for reaching a support representative. You can use the following process to have an associate contact to you by email or phone instead.
Only personalized technical support requires a support plan. For more information, visit [Amazon Web Services Support](http://www.amazonaws.cn/support-plans/).
To open an Amazon Web Services Support case where you specify *Regarding: Account and Billing Support*, you must either be signed into Amazon as the root account owner, or have IAM permissions to open a support case. For more information, see [Accessing Amazon Web Services Support](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/awssupport/latest/user/getting-started.html#accessing-support) in the *Amazon Web Services Support User Guide*.
If you have closed your Amazon account, you can still sign in to Amazon Web Services Support and view past bills.
If you transferred your billing to a management account external to your Amazon organization (bill transfer account), first reach out to the billing transfer account owner. That account controls the cost data available in your account, and receives the Amazon invoice reflecting your usage. To find the bill transfer account information, go to the **Billing transfer** page, **Outbound billing** tab
**To contact Amazon Web Services Support**
1. Sign in and navigate to the [Amazon Web Services Support Center](http://www.amazonaws.cn/support). If prompted, enter the email address and password for your account.
1. Choose **Create case**.
1. On the **Create case** page, choose **Account and billing support** and fill in the required fields on the form.
1. After you complete the form, under **Contact options**, choose either **Web** for an email response, or **Phone** to request a telephone call from an Amazon Web Services Support representative. Instant messaging support is not available for billing inquiries.
**To contact Amazon Web Services Support when you can't sign in to Amazon**
1. Recover your password or submit a form at [Amazon Web Services account support](https://support.aws.amazon.com/#/contacts/aws-account-support).
1. Choose an inquiry type in the **Request information** section.
1. Fill out the **How can we help you?** section.
1. Choose **Submit**.
## Understanding your charged usage
If you want to see the usage behind your charged amount, you can check your usage yourself by enabling Cost Explorer. This tool enables you to analyze your costs in depth by providing you with premade reports and graphs.
Cost Explorer is available 24 hours after you activate the feature.
For more information about Cost Explorer, see [Analyzing your costs with Amazon Cost Explorer](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cost-management/latest/userguide/ce-what-is.html).
If your Amazon Organizations uses billing transfer, the bill transfer account controls the cost data shown in Cost Explorer.
## Monitoring your Free Tier usage
You can track your Amazon Free Tier usage to keep you under the Free Tier limits. You can set up alerts on your Amazon account when your Free Tier limits reach a threshold, and monitor your usage through the Billing and Cost Management console.
For more information about using these features, see [Trying services using Amazon Web Services China Region Free Tier (before July 15, 2025)](billing-free-tier.md).
To see details for usage that was charged beyond your Free Tier limit, see the [Understanding your charged usage](#billing-support-usage) section.
**Note**
If your Amazon organization uses billing transfer, you can track your Free Tier usage on the **Free Tier** page. However, you can't view your Free Tier credits in Cost Explorer, Amazon Cost and Usage Report (CUR), or on the **Bills** page unless the bill transfer account enables this access. The Free Tier page doesn't process pro forma data, so there might be discrepancies. For example, the page might show usage covered by Free Tier that was removed from the pro forma bill.
## Closing your Amazon Web Services account
For more information about closing your Amazon Web Services account, see [Close your account](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/accounts/latest/reference/manage-acct-closing.html) in the *Amazon Account Management Reference Guide*.