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AWS Cost Explorer

Retrieves cost and usage information from AWS

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Overview

The AWS Cost Explorer node's "Get Cost Forecast" operation retrieves a forecast of how much Amazon Web Services (AWS) predicts you will spend over a specified time period, based on your past costs. This is useful for budgeting, cost monitoring, and financial planning within AWS environments.

Common scenarios:

  • Predicting future AWS spending for a project or department.
  • Automating budget alerts in workflows.
  • Integrating cost forecasts into dashboards or reports.

Practical example:
A DevOps team schedules this node to run weekly, forecasting the next month's AWS costs and sending the results to Slack for review.

Properties

Name Meaning
Time Start The start date for retrieving AWS cost forecasts. Data for this date is included.
Time End The end date for retrieving AWS cost forecasts. Data for this date is excluded.
Granularity How the forecasted costs are broken down. Options: DAILY (by day), MONTHLY (by month), HOURLY (by hour).
Metrics The metrics to include in the output. You can specify one or more metrics (e.g., "BlendedCost", "UnblendedCost", "AmortizedCost").

Output

The node outputs a json object containing the AWS Cost Explorer forecast response. The structure typically includes:

{
  "Total": { /* Forecasted total cost data */ },
  "ForecastResultsByTime": [
    {
      "TimePeriod": { "Start": "...", "End": "..." },
      "MeanValue": "...",
      "PredictionIntervalLowerBound": "...",
      "PredictionIntervalUpperBound": "..."
    }
    // ...more entries per granularity
  ]
  // ...other AWS response fields
}
  • Total: The overall forecasted cost for the period.
  • ForecastResultsByTime: An array with forecasted values for each time interval (daily, monthly, or hourly).
  • Other fields may be present depending on AWS API responses.

Dependencies

  • AWS Account: Requires valid AWS credentials (Access Key ID, Secret Access Key, and Region) configured in n8n.
  • n8n Credentials: Must set up an "aws" credential in n8n.
  • External Service: Uses AWS Cost Explorer API via the aws-sdk package.

Troubleshooting

Common issues:

  • Invalid credentials: If AWS keys or region are incorrect, authentication will fail.
  • Missing permissions: The AWS user must have permission to access Cost Explorer APIs.
  • Date errors: If "Time Start" is after "Time End", or dates are not in the correct format (YYYY-MM-DD), AWS may return errors.
  • Unsupported metric: If an invalid metric is provided, AWS will reject the request.

Error messages:

  • Operation "..." not supported!: Ensure you selected a valid operation.
  • AWS SDK errors (e.g., "User is not authorized"): Check IAM permissions and credentials.
  • Date format errors: Use ISO date strings (YYYY-MM-DD).

Links and References

Discussion