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Quick Start Guide

Get up and running with CloudWise.

🆕 Choose Your Path​

CloudWise offers two ways to analyze your AWS costs:

PathBest ForRequirements
🔌 Online ModeOngoing daily scans and alertsPermission to create an IAM role and a CloudFormation stack
📁 Air-Gapped ModeEvaluation, compliance-restricted environmentsAWS CloudShell access to run the export script, plus a Cost and Usage Report (CUR) CSV file from your account
Air-Gapped Mode - No AWS Connection Required!

If your company has strict compliance rules or you want to evaluate CloudWise before connecting your AWS account, try Air-Gapped Mode! Upload your Cost and Usage Report (CUR) CSV, which is required, together with the ZIP file our export script creates in AWS CloudShell, which waste detection needs. No IAM role and no cross-account access.

Skip to Air-Gapped Mode Setup →

🔌 Online Mode Setup​

📋 Prerequisites​

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • An AWS account with billing access
  • Permission to create an IAM role and a CloudFormation stack
  • A CloudWise account (sign up at cloudcostwise.io)

🚀 Step-by-Step Setup​

Step 1: Try the Workspace on Sample Data (no signup)​

  1. Visit cloudcostwise.io and open the Workspace
  2. It loads on a curated sample account—talk to the agent, ask "where's my waste?", and see exactly what the live product looks like (same surface, sample data)
  3. When you're ready, click Connect to bring the agent onto your own account

Step 2: Create Your CloudWise Account​

  1. From the Connect flow, register with email (or SSO / magic-link)
  2. Verify your email
  3. Free is available forever (1 AWS account, a daily scan with 20 of the 46 detectors, 5 agent questions a day), or choose Shield ($19/mo or $149/year) for anomaly alerts, all 186 waste checks and more

Step 3: Connect Your AWS Account​

  1. Continue through the Connect flow in the Workspace
  2. Follow the guided CloudFormation setup to create a read-only IAM role (details in the AWS Setup Guide)
  3. The agent moves from sample data onto your real scan data (the Live state)

Step 4: Wait for Data Collection​

  • Your first waste scan starts as soon as you connect, and the Workspace shows it running. After that, your account is scanned once a day
  • Cost data appears once AWS delivers your Cost and Usage Report; for a brand-new report configuration, AWS itself may take up to 24 hours to deliver the first one

Step 5: Set Up Alerts (Shield Plan)​

  1. Open Settings → Notifications
  2. Enable Cost Anomaly Detection for automatic spike alerts
  3. Connect Slack for instant notifications
  4. Optionally set up budget alerts

🛡️ CloudWise Shield Features​

Shield (the Watch rung—$19/mo or $149/year) 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

Learn more about Shield

🎯 What's Next?​

Now that you're set up, explore these key features:

  • 🤖 The agent (Workspace): Ask questions about your costs in plain English - Learn More
  • 🚨 Anomaly Detection: Automatic cost spike alerts - Learn More
  • 🗑️ Waste Detection: 186 waste checks across 40+ services - Learn More
  • 🔧 AI Remediation: Let the agent propose and (on Agentic) execute fixes - Learn More

Try the Agent Now!​

Open the Workspace and ask:

  • "What are my top services?"
  • "How much am I spending this month?"
  • "Where can I save money?"

🆘 Need Help?​

📁 Air-Gapped Mode Quick Start​

Air-Gapped Mode lets you analyze your AWS costs without connecting your AWS account to CloudWise. Perfect for:

  • Security-conscious organizations with strict compliance requirements
  • Evaluating CloudWise before committing to full integration
  • One-time cost audits without ongoing monitoring

Step 1: Run the Export Script in AWS CloudShell​

  1. Open AWS CloudShell in your AWS Console

  2. Download the CloudWise export script and verify its checksum:

    # Download the script and its checksum
    curl -sLO https://cloudcostwise.io/scripts/cloudwise-export.sh
    curl -sL  https://cloudcostwise.io/scripts/SHA256SUMS | grep cloudwise-export.sh > SHA256SUMS

    # Verify integrity before running
    sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS 2>/dev/null || shasum -a 256 -c SHA256SUMS

    # Run the script
    bash cloudwise-export.sh
    Data Loss Prevention Policies

    For organizations with strict Data Loss Prevention policies, add the --anonymize flag. It replaces the names and identifiers it recognizes with pseudonyms before they leave your network. It is not complete and some fields stay raw, so review the output before you upload it.

    bash cloudwise-export.sh --anonymize

    Learn more about client-side anonymization →

    Multi-Region Export

    To analyze resources across multiple AWS regions in a single upload:

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

    Global services (CloudFront, Route53) are exported once automatically. Without --regions, the script exports only the current CloudShell region.

    Why verify the checksum?

    Verifying the SHA256 checksum ensures the script hasn't been tampered with in transit. The checksum file is published alongside every release. Learn more →

    Minimal AWS API Cost

    This script incurs minimal AWS API costs. Most API calls (describe/list) are free. The paid calls are CloudWatch GetMetricStatistics ($0.01 per 1,000 requests), S3 ListObjectsV2 (one per bucket, $0.005 per 1,000) and Cost Explorer (4 requests per region at $0.01 each, $0.04 per region).

  3. Wait for the export to complete (it takes longer with more resources and regions)

  4. Download the generated cloudwise-export.zip file

Step 2: Download Your CUR Report​

Download your Cost and Usage Report (CUR) CSV as well. It is required: CloudWise will not start an upload without it.

  1. Go to AWS Billing Console
  2. Navigate to Cost & Usage Reports to see the S3 bucket your report is delivered to
  3. Download the latest CUR CSV file (.csv or .csv.gz) from that bucket

Step 3: Upload to CloudWise​

  1. Log into CloudWise and open Air-Gapped Mode (the offline path of the Connect flow)
  2. Start a new upload
  3. Upload your files:
    • Required: your CUR CSV file
    • Needed for waste detection: cloudwise-export.zip (the upload can proceed without it, but then CloudWise only analyses costs, with no waste findings)
  4. Follow the instructions on the page

Step 4: View Results​

Once the upload finishes processing, you'll see your waste findings as a ranked list, with the estimated saving.

What's Included in Air-Gapped Mode?

Air-Gapped Mode covers up to 158 of the 186 waste checks with the full export, spanning EC2, EBS, RDS, Lambda, S3, DynamoDB, and more — with multi-region support via --regions. The remaining 28 checks require Online Mode: AWS Compute Optimizer rightsizing (4), Reserved Instance / Savings Plan purchase recommendations (8), the live-lookup commitment detectors — unused/expiring RI and SP tracking and convertible-RI exchange suggestions (6; the CUR-based unused-reservation checks still run offline), unused API Gateway APIs (1), unused KMS keys (1), CloudTrail duplicate-trail and lifecycle checks (2), unused CloudFront distributions (1), unused Route 53 hosted zones (1), orphaned DNS record cross-referencing (1), the Elastic Beanstalk orphaned-RDS cross-service check (1), never-subscribed Kinesis enhanced fan-out consumers (1), and idle OpenSearch domains (1), whose cross-cluster connections the export doesn't carry — each of these needs a live AWS API call the offline export can't provide.

For regulated enterprises: Compliance tier ($99/mo or $799/year) extends Air-Gapped Mode with 365-day data retention, consistent anonymization (client-held salt), and quarter-over-quarter variance reports, including by tag.

⏳ Data availability: Online, waste findings from the first scan, which starts when you connect, and cost data once AWS delivers your Cost and Usage Report (up to 24 hours for a new one). Air-Gapped, as soon as your upload is processed.