How can I identify Extended Support costs in AWS Cost Explorer?

When AWS managed services (such as Amazon RDS, Amazon EKS, Amazon OpenSearch Service, or Amazon ElastiCache) run on older engine versions that have reached end of standard support, they begin to incur Extended Support charges until upgraded to versions under Standard Support.

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Prerequisites

Before you begin:

• Access to the AWS Billing and Cost Management Console with permissions to view Cost Explorer data (costexplorer:View*)
• For multi-account setups, sign in to your payer account to view organization-wide costs

Implementation Steps

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Step 1 — Open Cost Explorer

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console
2. Navigate to Billing and Cost Management → Cost Explorer
3. Choose Launch Cost Explorer.

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Step 2 — Apply filters for Extended Support

In the Cost Explorer interface, configure these filters:

1. Dimension: Select Service (can also Group By Linked Account, Tag, etc.)

2. Usage Type: Type "ExtendedSupport" and select all available options.

3. Charge Type: Exclude credits, refunds, and all other non-usage items except "Usage". This will display the costs before any discounts or credits are applied. You can modify it as per your requirements.

4. Aggregate costs: Select "Amortized costs".
   

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Step 3 — View Extended Support costs

After applying filters:

• Review the chart showing total Extended Support costs over time
• Examine the breakdown table by service or usage type
• Adjust the time range (e.g., Last 3 months) to analyze trends

Here is an example chart:

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Step 4 — Group or filter by additional dimensions

Enhance your analysis by grouping data by:

• Linked Account — identify accounts incurring Extended Support costs
• Region — locate resource deployment locations
• Usage Type — view detailed breakdowns by engine version or support type

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Step 5 — Save or export the report

Optional actions:

• Save your filter configuration as a custom Cost Explorer report
• Export data to CSV for use in Excel, QuickSight, or Athena dashboards

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Additional Tips

Extended Analysis Options

• Deploy and use the Extended Support Cost Projection Dashboard for current and projected costs.
• To use custom Athena queries, refer to the article How to analyze Extended Support Costs using Amazon Athena and CUR 2.0
• Create AWS Budgets to monitor and alert on Extended Support cost thresholds

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Summary

Using AWS Cost Explorer filters helps you:

• Identify Extended Support charges across your environment
• Understand which workloads incur these costs
• Prioritize upgrades to supported engine versions
• Optimize spend across managed AWS services