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Frequently Asked Questions

Getting Started​

What is CloudWise?​

CloudWise is the agent for your AWS bill. Instead of digging through complex dashboards and CSVs, you talk to the agent in plain English in the Workspace—like "Why did my bill spike last week?"—and it answers, renders the matching view, and hands you the fix. Built for CTOs, Engineering Managers, and developers who own the AWS bill but don't have time to become FinOps experts.

How do I get started with CloudWise?​

  1. Sign up for a CloudWise account at cloudcostwise.io
  2. Follow our Quick Start Guide to set up your account
  3. Connect your AWS account using our AWS Setup Guide
  4. Start exploring your cost data and optimization opportunities

Is CloudWise secure?​

Here is what CloudWise does, and what it doesn't claim:

  • Read-only by default: The connection role is read-only. Write access exists only on the Agentic plan, in a separate remediation stack you choose to deploy
  • No AWS keys stored: Access is by an assumed IAM role; we never store AWS access keys or secrets
  • Encryption: TLS 1.2 or newer in transit; AES-256 at rest for DynamoDB and S3, using AWS-owned or AWS-managed keys
  • No certifications: We do not hold a SOC 2 report or any other third-party certification
  • AI on Amazon Bedrock: The Copilot and Help questions run on Claude models through Amazon Bedrock, which is the only AI service that receives your data
  • Air-Gapped Mode option: No account connection at all. You upload your Cost and Usage Report and an export file you generated yourself, and you can anonymize identifiers before upload

The full list is on the Security page.

Account Setup​

How do I connect my AWS account?​

Start the Connect flow (existing users can go to Settings → AWS Accounts) and click Open AWS — one-click setup. You create a read-only IAM role from a CloudFormation template, and CloudWise checks the permissions before it saves the account. Step by step: AWS Setup Guide.

What AWS permissions does CloudWise need?​

CloudWise uses a read-only IAM role: it reads your cost data (Cost Explorer and your Cost and Usage Report) and describes your resources so it can find waste. It cannot change anything. See our AWS Setup Guide for detailed permission requirements.

Can I try CloudWise without connecting my AWS account?​

Yes! CloudWise offers Air-Gapped Mode specifically for this purpose. You can:

  1. Download your Cost and Usage Report (CUR) CSV from the AWS Billing console. It is required: CloudWise will not start an upload without it
  2. Run our export script in AWS CloudShell (no IAM roles needed) and download the export ZIP file, which waste detection needs
  3. Upload both to CloudWise for analysis

This is perfect for companies with strict compliance requirements or security policies that make it difficult to grant cross-account access. You get up to 158 of the 186 waste checks without any account connection; the other 28 need live AWS calls (see the Air-Gapped Mode quick start).

Learn about Air-Gapped Mode →

What if my organization has strict DLP (Data Loss Prevention) policies?​

CloudWise supports client-side anonymization for organizations with strict data protection requirements. Before your data leaves your network, you can:

  1. Use the --anonymize flag with our export script to replace the names and identifiers it recognizes with pseudonyms
  2. Review the output before you upload it, because anonymizing is not complete and some fields stay raw
  3. Upload the reviewed export. Pseudonyms are deterministic, so with the same salt the same value gets the same pseudonym and records still match each other

Account IDs show as anonymized identifiers like acct_a1b2c3d4e5f67890. Check the output against your own DLP policy: we don't certify that an anonymized export meets it.

Learn about client-side anonymization →

Can I connect multiple AWS accounts?​

Yes, on Shield and Agentic. Free covers 1 AWS account; Shield and Agentic cover up to 5. Compliance connects no AWS account by design: regulated teams work from Air-Gapped uploads instead, with several offline accounts. See Multi-Account Setup.

Can I analyze multiple AWS regions in Air-Gapped Mode?​

Yes! Use the --regions flag to export multiple regions into a single ZIP file:

bash cloudwise-export.sh --regions us-east-1,eu-west-1,ap-southeast-1

Global services (CloudFront, Route53, Global Accelerator) are automatically exported once. The backend detects the multi-region layout and runs waste detection per region, avoiding duplicate findings. Without the flag, only the current CloudShell region is exported.

How long does it take to see my data?​

Your first waste scan starts as soon as you connect, and your findings appear when it finishes. Cost data depends on AWS: a Cost and Usage Report you just set up can take AWS up to 24 hours to deliver for the first time, and your cost history appears once it does. If nothing shows after a day or two, run Troubleshoot Connection on the account card in Settings → AWS Accounts, then see Troubleshooting.

With Air-Gapped Mode, results appear once your uploaded export finishes processing.

Cost Analysis​

How accurate is the cost data?​

Cost reporting comes directly from AWS Cost Explorer and your Cost & Usage Report, updated daily. These are AWS's own billing figures, not CloudWise estimates.

Savings figures work differently, and it's worth being precise about it. We price each finding at published AWS rates, then check that figure against what AWS actually billed you for that resource and cap it accordingly. Where your CUR carries per-resource detail, a savings figure is reconciled against your real bill. Where it doesn't — resource IDs are an opt-in CUR setting, and Reserved Instance / Savings Plan coverage is recorded on separate line items — the figure stays a list-price estimate and is labelled as one in the UI. We'd rather show you a caveat than a confident number we can't stand behind. See How savings are calculated.

What cost optimization recommendations does CloudWise provide?​

Two kinds:

  • Waste findings: The waste scan checks your resources for idle, unused or oversized ones and gives each finding a reason, a confidence level, an estimated monthly saving and the recommended fix (see Waste Detection below)
  • Cost analysis: Your spend by service, region, account and tag, with trends over time, from Cost Explorer and your Cost and Usage Report, plus budget alerts that tell you when spend crosses a threshold you set

A good order to work in: start with the waste findings ranked by savings, act on the high-confidence ones first, then ask the Copilot "what should I work on first?" for a prioritized list.

For specific optimization techniques and implementation guidance, see our Cost Optimization Guide which covers industry best practices for all AWS services.

How do Cost Insights work?​

Cost Insights come from your waste scan plus rule-based checks on your Cost Explorer data. They are not generated by an AI model. Each waste finding has a dollar figure from your resource's configuration and AWS pricing, checked against your bill where your CUR allows.

What you'll see on the Dashboard:

  • Top waste findings: Your biggest findings with confidence, risk and monthly saving
  • Current spend: Your spend for the selected period, with the change against the prior period
  • Cost breakdown: Cost by service, region, account or tag, with each one's share of spend
  • Cost efficiency: A percentage that rises as your open savings opportunity shrinks relative to your spend

Savings figures are specific to your environment—CloudWise doesn't promise a fixed percentage.

For a complete guide on understanding and acting on these insights, see our Cost Insights Guide.

How reliable are the cost optimization recommendations?​

CloudWise Cost Insights are grounded in your actual AWS billing data and published AWS pricing, with each savings figure capped at what AWS actually billed for the resource wherever your CUR makes that checkable (and labelled where it doesn't):

Confidence Levels:

  • High: Strong, unambiguous signals (for example an EBS volume that is not attached to any instance). Act with confidence.
  • Medium: Real metrics with caveats (e.g., low utilization that may have legitimate exceptions). Review first.
  • Low: Informational/housekeeping flags. Consider during maintenance windows.

Accuracy Factors:

  • All recommendations use real AWS pricing data
  • Savings estimates are based on your actual usage patterns
  • High-confidence findings rest on strong signals (for example an unattached volume) and AWS list prices; some still carry estimated usage, which the finding states

Start with the highest-confidence insights to validate the recommendations against your specific environment. See the Waste Detection Guide for exactly how each confidence level is derived.

Learn how to prioritize and implement recommendations effectively in our Cost Insights Guide.

Can I set up cost alerts?​

Yes. Create a budget alert under Settings → Budget Alerts: set a threshold and a period and CloudWise notifies you when spend crosses it. Budget alerts are on every plan. Automatic spike detection is on Shield and above (see Anomaly Detection below). Choose whether alerts go to email, Slack, or both under Settings → Notifications. Details: Alerts Guide.

How do I see costs broken down by tag?​

CloudWise reads the tags in your cost data and makes them available here:

  1. Dashboard — Open the Cost breakdown panel and choose Tag, then pick a tag key to see the top values by spend
  2. Cost Reports — Group by any tag key (under the "Tags" section in Group By) for tag-based breakdowns
  3. QoQ Variance (Compliance, on the Air-Gapped page) — Select "Tag" in the Group By dropdown, then choose a tag key to compare tag-based costs across your uploads

The tag keys are discovered from your cost data, so there is no list to set up.

Why don't I see any tags in the Tag view?​

Tags only appear if your AWS resources are tagged and your Cost and Usage Report includes tag columns. Common reasons for missing tags:

  • No cost allocation tags activated — In AWS Billing, go to Cost Allocation Tags and activate the tags you want to track
  • Resources aren't tagged — Only resources with tags will show tag data. Untagged resources appear as "(untagged)"

What tag keys does CloudWise support?​

CloudWise supports all tag keys present in your cost data. There's no predefined list — any tag you use in AWS (e.g., Environment, Team, CostCenter, Project, Owner) will appear automatically in the tag key dropdowns.

The Copilot​

What is the Copilot and what powers it?​

The Copilot is the agent you talk to in plain English in the Workspace to understand and act on your AWS spend, for example "where is my money going?" or "show me the unattached EBS volumes". It answers from your own data and runs on Claude through Amazon Bedrock, calling CloudWise's own tools (waste summary, findings, remediation) behind server-side guardrails. See The CloudWise Agent.

What can I ask the Copilot?​

Anything about your spend and waste: cost breakdowns, trends, the top findings to work on, and fixes for a finding. It proposes fixes as cards, and you approve them; it does not act without your click. Examples are in The CloudWise Agent.

Are there limits on Copilot questions?​

Yes. Each plan has a daily cap on questions that resets every day and exists to prevent abuse; over the cap you get an upgrade prompt, not an error. The caps per plan are listed in The CloudWise Agent. Asking questions never uses action credits.

How do questions and action credits differ?​

Two separate meters. Questions are a daily cap. Action credits are a monthly allowance that is spent only when you execute a remediation, so only Agentic has them. Each month starts from that month's allowance; unused credits are not carried over. One execution attempt costs one credit, and an attempt that does not complete is returned automatically. If you run out, wait for next month's allowance or upgrade; credit top-ups are not on sale yet. The full rules are in Action credits.

Can the Copilot analyze waste and propose fixes?​

Yes. It reads your Waste Detection findings, so you can ask "what's wasting money?" or "show me idle instances" and it ranks them by monthly savings. On Agentic it can propose a fix as a card with an Approve & execute button. On the other plans it gives you the finding and the steps to apply yourself.

Waste Detection​

What is Waste Detection?​

Waste Detection finds idle or underused AWS resources that cost you money, using your resource data and CloudWatch metrics, and estimates the monthly savings for each. There are 186 waste checks across 40+ AWS services. Free scans (daily and on demand) run 20 of the 46 detectors, which is 91 of the 186 checks; Shield and above run all of them. See the Waste Detection Guide.

What kinds of waste does CloudWise detect?​

Idle EC2 instances, unattached EBS volumes, unused Elastic IPs, oversized RDS, old snapshots, idle load balancers and NAT gateways, idle ECS and Fargate services, and many more. Each finding shows the resource, the reason, a confidence level, and the estimated monthly savings. The full list is in the Waste Detection Guide.

How accurate is Waste Detection?​

Each finding carries a confidence level (high, medium or low) that describes how sure the detection is; it is not the dollar figure, which is reconciled separately. Metric-based detectors read CloudWatch over a window set per detector, shown with the finding. See Confidence Levels Explained and How savings are calculated.

How often does Waste Detection run?​

Every connected account is scanned once a day, at an hour assigned to the account. You can also start a scan on demand with Scan now at the top of the Workspace; the control shows how many on-demand scans you have left today.

Can I dismiss a finding?​

Not yet: the app has no way to hide a finding you want to keep, such as a dev or test resource that is idle on purpose. To keep a resource from ever being proposed for a fix, add its ID or one of its tags to Excluded Resource IDs or Excluded Resource Tags under Settings → Remediation Policy (see Remediation). The finding still shows in your scan results.

Fixing Findings​

How do I act on a finding?​

Open the finding to see the resource, its current cost, the estimated savings and the recommended action. On every plan you get the recommendation and, when you open the finding's Action steps, a step-by-step walkthrough (with the AWS CLI command, where one applies, as the fallback) to apply the fix yourself. On Agentic you can also approve the plan and CloudWise runs it in your account. See Remediation.

How does one-click remediation work, and is it safe?​

On Agentic, the fix is proposed as a plan and nothing runs until you approve it. CloudWise then runs the scoped action through the separate write role you deployed, logs it in the audit trail, and keeps a 24-hour window in which you can roll it back when the action can be undone. Some fixes cannot be undone, such as deleting a snapshot or releasing an Elastic IP, and the plan says which before you approve. Details: Remediation.

Why can't I execute fixes on my plan?​

Executing starts at Agentic. Free, Shield and Compliance show you the recommendation and Action steps to apply yourself. Compliance connects no AWS account, so its findings come from your Air-Gapped uploads, and CloudWise makes no plans and runs no fixes for it. See Remediation.

Billing & Pricing​

How much does CloudWise cost?​

CloudWise offers simple, transparent pricing:

  • Free (Ask): $0/forever - Talk to the agent, see waste, get propose-only fixes; 1 AWS account
  • Shield (Watch): $19/mo or $149/year - Anomaly detection, email/Slack alerts, 5 AWS accounts, 50 questions/day
  • Agentic AI (Fix): $49/mo or $399/year - The agent executes approved fixes, with one-click rollback where the fix can be undone
  • Compliance (Govern): $99/mo or $799/year - Air-gapped mode for regulated enterprises with 365-day retention, consistent anonymization (client-held salt), and QoQ variance reports, including by tag (no connected AWS account; fix steps are yours to apply, and CloudWise runs none)

Visit our pricing page for full feature comparison.

What's included in Shield?​

Shield (the Watch rung) includes:

  • 🛡️ Automatic cost anomaly detection
  • 💬 Slack & email alerts for cost spikes
  • 🔗 Up to 5 AWS accounts
  • 🤖 50 agent questions per day
  • 🔍 All 186 waste checks

Do you offer a free trial?​

There is no time-limited trial of the paid plans. The Free plan is free forever: a daily allowance of agent questions, one AWS account and a daily scan with a curated set of checks. You can upgrade to Shield at any time for anomaly detection, Slack alerts and all checks.

What payment methods do you accept?​

You pay by card through Stripe's secure checkout, which shows the payment methods it accepts before you pay.

Shield is $19/mo, or $149/year billed annually.

Can I get a refund?​

Fees are non-refundable except where the law requires it (see our Terms). You can cancel at any time, and you keep your plan until the end of the period you paid for. If something went wrong, email support@cloudcostwise.io.

Anomaly Detection​

How does anomaly detection work?​

On Shield and above, CloudWise checks your AWS costs daily and uses statistical analysis to detect unusual spending patterns. When a service's daily cost spikes above its baseline, the daily check raises an alert and sends it by email and/or Slack.

Learn more in our Anomaly Detection Guide.

What triggers an anomaly alert?​

An alert is triggered when:

  • Daily cost exceeds 2 standard deviations from your 30-day average
  • The dollar increase is at least $5
  • You have at least 7 days of historical data

Can I customize anomaly thresholds?​

Not yet. Every account uses the rule above. In Settings → Notifications you choose whether alerts are on and whether they go to email, Slack, or both.

What should I do if my costs suddenly spike?​

On Shield and above, daily anomaly detection flags the spike and alerts you by email or Slack. Open the cost breakdown by service and account to find the driver, or ask the Copilot "why did my costs jump this week?". See Anomaly Detection and the Cost Insights Guide.

Is Slack integration required?​

No, Slack is optional. You can receive anomaly alerts via email only, or use both Slack and email.

Technical Support​

What support do you provide?​

We offer multiple support channels:

What if I need help with AWS cost optimization?​

CloudWise is a self-service product, and the agent in the Workspace is the first place to ask. If you want hands-on help with your AWS costs beyond what the product does, email support@cloudcostwise.io and describe what you need.

How do I report a bug or request a feature?​

You can contact us through:

Account Management​

How do I cancel my subscription?​

You can cancel at any time from Subscription in the user menu. Your plan stays active until the end of the period you paid for.

What happens to my data if I cancel?​

Cancelling a paid plan moves your account back to Free at the end of the period you paid for; the account itself stays. To delete your account, request it by email to privacy@cloudcostwise.io, as the Privacy Policy says. If you delete your account, its data is deleted within the period the Privacy Policy states, and database backups may hold it for a limited time after that. The Privacy Policy lists every retention period.

What is Compliance tier?​

Compliance (the Govern rung—$99/mo or $799/year) is designed for regulated enterprises (FinTech, Healthcare, Government) that cannot grant IAM access to third-party services. It includes:

  • 365-day retention for Air-Gapped uploads (vs 7 days on Free, Shield and Agentic)
  • Consistent entity correlation across uploads — reuse your own client-held anonymization salt (CloudWise never sees it)
  • QoQ variance reports for tracking cost trends over time
  • PDF audit report exports for compliance documentation
  • Up to 12 historical upload sessions

Learn more about Compliance tier →

Who should use Compliance tier?​

Compliance tier is ideal for:

  • Organizations with strict security policies prohibiting cross-account IAM access
  • Regulated industries (FinTech, Healthcare, Government) with data sovereignty requirements
  • Teams that need to track cost trends across quarters for budget planning
  • Finance/procurement teams requiring audit-ready PDF reports

Can I export my data?​

Yes, on Shield and above: on the Cost Reports page, Export downloads the report you are looking at as CSV or PDF. Compliance can also export PDF audit reports.

Integration & API​

Does CloudWise integrate with other tools?​

CloudWise sends notifications to:

  • Email: Alerts, reports and remediation notices
  • Slack: Incoming webhooks, one per alert category if you like (see Slack Integration)
  • Prometheus / Grafana: A metrics endpoint for your waste findings (Shield and above, see Prometheus Integration)

Microsoft Teams is not supported yet.

Is there an API available?​

There is no general public API yet. On Shield and above you can create API keys in Settings → API Keys for the Prometheus metrics endpoint described in Prometheus Integration.

Still have questions?​

If you can't find the answer you're looking for, we're here to help: