Roughly 32% of public-cloud spend is wasted, according to the 2024 Flexera State of the Cloud Report, and AWS environments are typically the largest line item on the bill. Idle EC2 instances, over-provisioned RDS clusters, orphaned EBS volumes, and unused NAT Gateway capacity quietly drain budgets every hour. This free, vendor-neutral 47-point checklist walks finance and engineering teams through the exact controls that consistently recover 20-40% of monthly AWS spend without slowing delivery.

Built from real Opsio engagements with mid-market SaaS, retail, and regulated workloads, the checklist mirrors the AWS Well-Architected Cost Optimization pillar and the FinOps Foundation framework, so it plugs into governance you may already run. Download the PDF, share it with your platform team, and use it as a recurring monthly audit.

What's inside the checklist

The 47 controls are grouped into seven categories, each with a short rationale, the AWS console path or CLI command, and a recommended cadence:

1. Right-sizing EC2 and RDS — Compute Optimizer recommendations, Graviton migration candidates, RDS instance class downshifts, Aurora I/O-Optimized switch analysis.
2. Reserved Instances and Savings Plans — Compute Savings Plans coverage targets, EC2 Instance Savings Plans for steady workloads, RI marketplace exit strategy, 1-year vs 3-year break-even math.
3. Spot Instances and fleet diversification — Spot-friendly workload identification (CI/CD, batch, stateless web), Spot Fleet and EC2 Auto Scaling mixed-instance policies, Karpenter consolidation for EKS.
4. Storage tiering — S3 Intelligent-Tiering enablement, lifecycle rules to Glacier Instant and Deep Archive, EBS gp2 to gp3 conversion (typically a 20% saving), orphaned snapshot cleanup.
5. Idle resource cleanup — Unattached EBS volumes, idle Elastic IPs (charged when not in use), forgotten load balancers, stopped EC2 with attached storage, low-traffic CloudFront distributions.
6. Data transfer optimization — Cross-AZ traffic auditing, VPC endpoints for S3 and DynamoDB, CloudFront origin shielding, NAT Gateway consolidation per VPC.
7. Networking and managed services — NAT Gateway alternatives (NAT instances for low-volume VPCs), Route 53 health-check audit, idle Direct Connect virtual interfaces, unused VPN tunnels.

Who this ebook is for

The checklist is written for three audiences who usually need to share the same source of truth:

Finance and FinOps leads who own the cloud P&L and need defensible savings projections for the board.
DevOps and platform engineers who must execute the changes without breaking production SLAs.
Cloud architects and CTOs evaluating whether to invest in tooling, services, or both to bring AWS spend under control.

Why this checklist beats a generic best-practices list

Typical savings: Opsio engagements using this exact playbook recover 20-40% of monthly AWS spend in the first 90 days, with the heaviest gains from RI/Savings Plans coverage and storage tiering.
Time to first win: The idle-resource and EBS gp3 conversion items are usually one-afternoon fixes that pay for the rest of the program.
Prerequisites are minimal: AWS Cost Explorer enabled, an organization-level Compute Optimizer view, and read access to the Billing console are enough to start; no third-party tooling required.
Maps to AWS Well-Architected: Every item references the matching design principle in the Cost Optimization pillar, so it doubles as audit evidence.

Sample preview

A taste of the controls inside, so you know what to expect before you fill in the form:

Item 12 — Compute Savings Plans coverage: Target 80-90% coverage of always-on compute with 1-year, no-upfront Compute Savings Plans. Review monthly in Cost Explorer > Savings Plans > Recommendations.
Item 23 — EBS gp2 to gp3 migration: Identify all gp2 volumes > 100 GB; gp3 delivers the same baseline performance at roughly 20% lower per-GB cost, with no downtime when migrated via Elastic Volumes.
Item 34 — NAT Gateway data transfer: Audit VPC Flow Logs for cross-AZ traffic flowing through NAT Gateways. Adding a VPC endpoint for S3 or DynamoDB often removes the bulk of NAT egress charges within a billing cycle.

Download the AWS cost optimization checklist

Fill in the short form below to get the 47-point PDF emailed to you immediately. No follow-up calls unless you ask for one.

Download the free PDF checklist

Want a hands-on assessment instead?

If you would rather have specialists run the audit with you, our FinOps and cloud financial management team delivers fixed-scope assessments that apply this checklist to your live AWS accounts. For broader engagement options, see AWS managed services or AWS consulting services.

Frequently asked questions

How do I download the AWS cost optimization checklist?

Fill in the form on this page with your name and work email. The 47-point PDF is sent to your inbox within a minute and is also accessible from the confirmation page.

Is the checklist free, and is it gated by a sales call?

Yes, the PDF is free. We do not require a sales call to access it. We may send one short follow-up email asking if the checklist was useful; you can ignore it or reply if you want to talk.

What AWS services does the checklist cover?

The 47 controls span EC2, RDS, Aurora, EKS, ECS Fargate, S3, EBS, NAT Gateway, CloudFront, Route 53, Direct Connect, and the AWS billing and cost management tools (Cost Explorer, Compute Optimizer, Savings Plans, Cost Anomaly Detection).

How much can I realistically save by following the checklist?

Opsio client engagements using this playbook typically recover 20-40% of monthly AWS spend within 90 days. The single largest contributors are Reserved Instance and Savings Plans coverage, EBS gp2-to-gp3 conversion, and idle-resource cleanup.

Can my team use this checklist without hiring Opsio?

Absolutely — that is exactly what it is designed for. The checklist is vendor-neutral and includes the AWS console paths and CLI commands needed to execute each step in-house. Engage us only if you want help applying it at scale or want an external audit to validate your numbers.

Unlock Hidden Cloud Savings: Your Strategic AWS Cost Optimization Checklist