Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

Asking questions about your costs using Amazon Q Developer

Cost Explorer enables you to ask questions about your Amazon costs using suggested prompts or in your own words via the Ask question button, powered by Amazon Q Developer. You can receive detailed insights in Amazon Q Developer while Cost Explorer automatically updates its charts, tables, and report parameters including filters, groupings, and dates to reflect the analysis. This capability is available through two features: suggested prompts and the Ask question button.

Using suggested prompts

Cost Explorer displays suggested prompts above your Cost & Usage Overview data. These prompts surface the most commonly asked cost questions, such as "Show me my top spending services this month" or "Show my projected database cost for next month." You can click any prompt to instantly receive insights from Amazon Q Developer without needing to type a question.

When you click a suggested prompt, the following occurs:

Each time you load the page or complete a query, the prompts refresh with new suggestions. When you click a prompt during a session, it is replaced with a new prompt, ensuring you always have fresh analytical options to explore. You can scroll horizontally through the prompt container to discover additional suggestions beyond those initially visible.

Using the Ask question button

For questions that go beyond the suggested prompts, the Ask question button is positioned next to the suggested prompts. When you click this button, the Amazon Q Developer chat panel opens and you can type any cost related question in your own words, such as "What is my current month's cost and usage compared to the previous month?" or "Show me my EC2 costs broken down by instance type for the last 3 months."

Amazon Q Developer processes your question and delivers insights in the chat panel while determining how to display the visualization. Cost Explorer automatically updates charts and tables when analysis is based on your cost and usage data. When Amazon Q Developer compiles insights from additional datasets such as pricing or anomaly detection, visualizations are displayed in Amazon Q Developer's new artifacts panel.

Understanding visualization updates

When you interact with suggested prompts or the Ask question button, Cost Explorer automatically updates its charts and tables when the analysis is based on your cost and usage data. All corresponding report parameters, including filters, groupings, and date ranges, are visible in the Report Parameters panel so you can verify exactly which data subset is included in the analysis.

When Amazon Q Developer draws from additional datasets to provide richer analysis, visualizations are displayed in Amazon Q Developer's artifacts panel alongside the chat.

After Amazon Q Developer updates your Cost Explorer view, you can:

Using Analyze with Amazon Q

When you configure a cost report in Cost Explorer with your preferred filters, date range, and groupings, you can click Analyze with Amazon Q to receive a comprehensive explanation of what you're viewing. Amazon Q Developer analyzes the complete context of your current cost report and delivers detailed explanations in its chat panel.

When you click Analyze with Amazon Q, the following occurs:

Your Cost Explorer view remains unchanged. The analysis appears only in the Amazon Q Developer chat panel.

The analysis adapts based on the time period you are viewing:

After receiving your initial analysis, you can ask follow-up questions to explore any finding in greater detail. For example, you can ask "Tell me more about the anomalies detected this month" or "What are my optimization opportunities?" Amazon Q Developer maintains the full context of your conversation, allowing you to progressively drill deeper into your cost data.

Continuing the conversation with follow-up questions

After clicking a suggested prompt or asking a question using the Ask question button, you can continue the dialogue in Amazon Q Developer to drill deeper into your costs. For example, after seeing your top spending services, you might ask "Why did my RDS costs increase last month?" or "Break this down by region." Amazon Q Developer maintains the conversation context, allowing natural exploration of your cost data.

Amazon Q Developer draws from extensive knowledge beyond what is visible in your current Cost Explorer view, including pricing data, budget information, and anomaly detection data, to provide richer context and more comprehensive answers. If a follow-up question produces a visualization that Cost Explorer can display, it updates automatically. Otherwise, the visualization appears in Amazon Q Developer's artifacts panel while insights continue in the chat.

Permissions

To use the suggested prompts and Ask question button in Cost Explorer, you need the following permissions in addition to your existing Cost Explorer permissions:

For least-privilege access, create a custom IAM policy that grants only q:StartConversation, q:SendMessage, and q:PassRequest. Alternatively, administrators who already use Amazon Q Developer across multiple integrations can use the AmazonQFullAccess managed policy, which includes these permissions along with broader Amazon Q Developer access. The integration respects all existing IAM boundaries. Amazon Q Developer only accesses cost data you are authorized to view through Cost Explorer.

For detailed permission configurations and security considerations, see Security for cost management capabilities in Amazon Q Developer.