specification: FinOps Framework
specificationVersion: '1.0'
schema: https://www.finops.org/framework/
alignedWith:
  framework: FinOps Foundation Framework
  frameworkUrl: https://www.finops.org/framework/
  dataSpec: FOCUS
  dataSpecVersion: '1.3'
  dataSpecUrl: https://focus.finops.org/focus-specification/v1-3/
provider: AWS CloudWatch
providerId: cloudwatch
publisherName: Amazon Web Services, Inc.
serviceCategory: Observability
created: '2026-05-04'
# Provenance stamped 2026-08-11: this artifact was written by the API Evangelist
# bulk sweep dated 2026-05-04, not harvested from the provider. See roadmap#35.
method: generated
modified: '2026-05-05'
reconciled: true
tags:
  - FinOps
  - FOCUS
  - Aws
  - Observability
  - Cost Management
description: 'FOCUS-aligned FinOps for Amazon CloudWatch: pure pay-as-you-go metering across metrics, API
  requests, alarms, logs (ingest / storage / query / Live Tail), dashboards, Contributor Insights, Synthetics,
  RUM, Application Signals, Internet Monitor and Network Flow Monitor. Costs land in AWS Cost and Usage
  Reports (CUR / CUR 2.0) under service code `AmazonCloudWatch` with usage-type granularity, and CloudWatch
  itself emits service-quota usage metrics that can be alarmed.'
sources:
  - https://aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/pricing/
  - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/cloudwatch_billing.html
  - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cur/latest/userguide/what-is-cur.html
billingModel:
  pricingCategory: Pay-As-You-Go + Committed Use
  billingFrequency: Monthly
  billingCurrency: USD
  chargeCategories:
    - Usage
    - Tax
    - Adjustment
    - Refund
    - Credit
focusColumns:
  ServiceName: AmazonCloudWatch
  ServiceCategory: Observability
  ProviderName: Amazon Web Services
  PublisherName: Amazon Web Services, Inc.
  InvoiceIssuerName: Amazon Web Services, Inc.
  PricingCategory: Usage-Based
  BillingCurrency: USD
  ChargeCategory: Usage
meters:
  - name: custom_metrics
    description: Custom and detailed-monitoring metrics, billed monthly with volume-tiered pricing.
    unit: metric-month
    aggregation: max
    dimensions:
      - region
      - namespace
      - resolution
  - name: api_requests
    description: CloudWatch API requests (PutMetricData, GetMetricData, GetMetricStatistics, ListMetrics,
      etc.).
    unit: request
    aggregation: sum
    dimensions:
      - region
      - api_action
  - name: alarm_metrics
    description: Standard- and high-resolution alarm metrics.
    unit: alarm-month
    aggregation: max
    dimensions:
      - region
      - resolution
  - name: logs_ingested
    description: Volume of log data ingested into CloudWatch Logs.
    unit: GB
    aggregation: sum
    dimensions:
      - region
      - log_group
      - log_class
  - name: logs_storage
    description: Archived log data retained beyond ingest.
    unit: GB-month
    aggregation: avg
    dimensions:
      - region
      - log_group
      - log_class
  - name: logs_insights_scanned
    description: Bytes scanned by Logs Insights queries.
    unit: GB
    aggregation: sum
    dimensions:
      - region
      - log_group
  - name: live_tail_minutes
    description: Live Tail streaming session minutes.
    unit: minute
    aggregation: sum
    dimensions:
      - region
  - name: contributor_insights_rules
    description: Contributor Insights rules and matched events.
    unit: rule-month
    aggregation: max
    dimensions:
      - region
  - name: synthetics_canary_runs
    description: Synthetics canary runs.
    unit: run
    aggregation: sum
    dimensions:
      - region
      - canary
  - name: rum_events
    description: CloudWatch RUM events recorded from end-user browsers.
    unit: event
    aggregation: sum
    dimensions:
      - region
      - app_monitor
  - name: application_signals_data
    description: Application Signals telemetry ingestion volume.
    unit: GB
    aggregation: sum
    dimensions:
      - region
principles:
  - name: Visibility
    description: Use AWS Cost Explorer and the Cost and Usage Report (CUR / CUR 2.0) filtered to service
      `AmazonCloudWatch` for line-item visibility. CloudWatch also exposes its own usage metrics under the
      `AWS/Usage` namespace so engineers can alarm on quota burn-down.
  - name: Allocation
    description: Tag log groups, alarms, dashboards and synthetics canaries; AWS-generated and user-defined
      tags flow through to CUR for chargeback. Use Account/OU and Region as natural allocation dimensions.
  - name: Optimization
    description: Drop noisy log groups, set retention policies on archived logs, batch PutMetricData (up
      to 1,000 data points per call), favor metric math over additional custom metrics, use CloudWatch Logs
      Infrequent Access log class for cold logs, and consolidate alarms via composite alarms.
  - name: Accountability
    description: Assign per-team budget alerts in AWS Budgets keyed on the CloudWatch service filter; review
      the top usage-types (DataProcessing-Bytes, Requests, AlarmMonitorUsage, MetricMonitorUsage) monthly.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com