AWS Cost Optimization Hub: One Dashboard to Prioritize All Your Savings

Before Cost Optimization Hub, reviewing AWS savings recommendations meant visiting three separate dashboards: Compute Optimizer for right-sizing, Trusted Advisor for idle resources and coverage gaps, and Cost Explorer for Savings Plan and Reserved Instance recommendations. Each tool presented its findings in its own format with its own prioritization logic. Building a unified view required manual aggregation.

Cost Optimization Hub changes this. It ingests recommendations from all three sources and presents them in a single interface — filterable, sortable by savings, trackable through a workflow — across all accounts in an AWS Organization.

This guide covers how Cost Optimization Hub works, how to operationalize it in a FinOps practice, and what it does not cover.

What Cost Optimization Hub Aggregates

From AWS Compute Optimizer

Compute Optimizer analyzes CloudWatch utilization metrics for EC2 instances, Auto Scaling Groups, EBS volumes, Lambda functions, and ECS tasks. It generates right-sizing recommendations comparing current configuration to the optimal configuration for actual usage patterns.

Cost Optimization Hub pulls these recommendations and adds:

• Cross-account aggregation (all accounts in the Organization)
• Annual savings estimate in a consistent format
• Status tracking (none, pending, in-progress, completed, dismissed)

Compute Optimizer’s recommendations in Cost Optimization Hub cover:

• EC2 instances — Current type vs. recommended type, with savings and performance risk
• EC2 Auto Scaling Groups — Same logic applied to managed groups
• EBS volumes — Volume type, IOPS, and throughput right-sizing
• Lambda functions — Memory allocation vs. actual consumption
• ECS tasks — CPU and memory right-sizing for Fargate tasks

From AWS Trusted Advisor

Trusted Advisor’s cost optimization checks surface idle and underutilized resources that Compute Optimizer does not cover:

• Idle EC2 instances — Running but consuming minimal resources (CPU < 10% over 14 days)
• Unassociated Elastic IP addresses — Elastic IPs not attached to running instances ($0.005/hour)
• Idle RDS instances — DB instances with no connections for 7+ days
• Underutilized EBS volumes — Volumes with < 1 IOPS average for 7 days
• Idle Load Balancers — ALBs and CLBs with no active connections for 7 days
• Low-utilization EC2 instances — Running instances with < 10% CPU over 14 days

Note: Full Trusted Advisor cost checks require Business or Enterprise Support. Organizations on Developer or Basic Support see a subset of recommendations.

From Cost Explorer

Cost Explorer contributes commitment discount recommendations:

• Savings Plan recommendations — Compute, EC2 Instance, and SageMaker SPs based on your usage patterns
• Reserved Instance recommendations — For RDS, ElastiCache, OpenSearch, and other services not covered by Savings Plans
• RI coverage analysis — Identifies usage that could be covered by existing or new reservations

The Cost Efficiency Score

The Cost Efficiency Score is the headline metric of Cost Optimization Hub. It is a percentage (0–100%) that measures:

Cost Efficiency Score =
  (Current optimized spend / Total current spend + Total identified savings) × 100

A score of 65% means 35% of your eligible spend has identified savings opportunities in the Hub. A score of 90% means the Hub has identified optimization for 10% of eligible spend — a significantly more optimized environment.

How to use it:

• Set a target score (e.g., 85%) as a quarterly FinOps objective
• Track score improvement over time to measure FinOps program effectiveness
• Compare scores across accounts in an Organization to identify which accounts are least optimized

The score is not 100% comprehensive — it reflects what the Hub’s underlying tools can identify, not all possible optimization opportunities. Architecture changes, data transfer optimization, and custom usage patterns are not captured.

Operating Cost Optimization Hub in a FinOps Practice

Monthly Review Workflow

A structured 30-minute monthly review using Cost Optimization Hub:

Step 1: Check the Cost Efficiency Score trend (5 minutes)

• Has the score improved from last month?
• What is the total estimated annual savings in the “identified” status?
• Are there any new high-value recommendations (> $10,000/year) since last review?

Step 2: Filter to high-savings recommendations (10 minutes)

• Filter by estimated annual savings > $1,000
• Sort by savings descending
• For each recommendation in the top 10: is it actionable this month? Assign status “Planned” and assign an owner.

Step 3: Check in-progress items (5 minutes)

• Review recommendations marked “In Progress” from last month
• Move completed items to “Completed” status
• Update status on any that were abandoned or deferred

Step 4: Review dismissed recommendations (5 minutes)

• Periodically review dismissed items — business conditions change
• A recommendation dismissed 6 months ago may now be actionable

Step 5: Export action items (5 minutes)

• Export the current “Planned” list to your task tracker (Jira, Linear, Asana)
• Assign to the relevant team with a due date before next monthly review

Quarterly Optimization Sprint

Use Cost Optimization Hub to scope a quarterly optimization sprint:

1. Export all “Identified” recommendations with annual savings > $500
2. Group by team/account to identify which teams have the most savings available
3. Set a sprint goal (e.g., “implement $50,000 in annualized savings this quarter”)
4. Track progress via the Hub’s “Completed” status and the Cost Efficiency Score

Integration with Cost Anomaly Detection

Cost Optimization Hub is a proactive tool (known savings opportunities). Cost Anomaly Detection is reactive (unusual spending). Run both:

• Weekly: check Anomaly Detection for unusual charges
• Monthly: review Cost Optimization Hub for accumulated savings opportunities

Together, they cover both cost deviation and cost efficiency.

Enabling Enhanced Recommendations

Compute Optimizer Enhanced Infrastructure Metrics

By default, Compute Optimizer uses standard CloudWatch metrics (CPU, network) for right-sizing analysis. Enhanced Infrastructure Metrics uses additional CloudWatch Agent metrics (memory utilization, disk IOPS) for more accurate recommendations.

Cost: $0.0003360 per resource per hour (~$0.25/resource/month). For a 100-instance environment, this adds $25/month in Compute Optimizer charges in exchange for more accurate memory-aware right-sizing recommendations. Typically worth it if you have memory-bound workloads where CPU-only analysis leads to oversized instances.

Enable from Cost Optimization Hub: Settings → Compute Optimizer → Enhanced Infrastructure Metrics → Enable.

Trusted Advisor Coverage

Full Trusted Advisor cost checks require Business Support ($100/month minimum or 10% of monthly AWS charges). If you are not on Business Support, you see a subset of Trusted Advisor recommendations in the Hub.

For organizations spending more than $5,000/month on AWS, Business Support typically costs less than the value of a single Trusted Advisor-caught idle RDS instance or unattached EBS volume. The math usually justifies the support tier.

What Cost Optimization Hub Does Not Cover

Cost Optimization Hub aggregates recommendations from its three source tools. It does not provide:

• Data transfer and network cost analysis — Cross-AZ transfer, NAT Gateway processing, egress optimization require manual Cost Explorer analysis (see our data transfer costs guide)
• Application-level right-sizing — Database query optimization, caching opportunities, batch vs. real-time architecture changes
• Lifecycle policy gaps — S3 objects without lifecycle policies, CloudWatch log groups without retention settings
• Custom usage patterns — If your workload has unusual characteristics, the generic recommendations may not apply
• CI/CD and build cost — CodeBuild, GitHub Actions runners, and artifact storage are not covered by the Hub

Use Cost Optimization Hub as the primary source for infrastructure-level recommendations, and complement it with manual analysis for data transfer, application architecture, and operational hygiene.

Getting Started

If you have not yet set up Cost Optimization Hub:

1. Navigate to AWS Cost Management > Cost Optimization Hub in the console
2. Opt in all accounts in your Organization (recommended — the cross-account view is where the Hub’s value is greatest)
3. Enable Enhanced Infrastructure Metrics for high-spend accounts
4. Note your starting Cost Efficiency Score as a baseline
5. Set up a monthly calendar reminder to review and action the top recommendations

For a complete FinOps practice implementation — including Cost Optimization Hub setup, tagging strategy, budget configuration, and ongoing governance — our team helps organizations move from ad-hoc cost reviews to a continuous cost discipline.

See our comprehensive FinOps on AWS guide for the full governance framework that Cost Optimization Hub supports.

Contact us to build your FinOps practice →