Connecting to AWS

Connect your AWS accounts to CloudZero to bring your AWS cost data into a unified view of all your cloud spend. CloudZero organizes your AWS costs, along with your other cloud costs, into categories (called Dimensions) that matter most to your business. For example: business unit, team, product, feature, environment, customer, or virtually anything else. Once connected and organized, you can quickly answer questions about your cloud spend that matter to your stakeholders.

This guide covers the automated connection method, which uses a read-only CloudFormation template. The process takes about 5 minutes.

What you need

An AWS account with permissions to deploy a CloudFormation stack
AWS Organizations with consolidated billing enabled
CloudZero user with data configuration permissions
Recommended: Cost Allocation Tagging configured in AWS

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All CloudZero access to your AWS accounts is read-only. For details on permissions, IAM policies, and CloudFormation templates, see AWS Permissions and Security.

Connect your AWS account (automated method)

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Connect your AWS Management Account first so CloudZero can retrieve your billing data.

In CloudZero, go to Settings > Cloud Connections.
Select Create Connection +.
Select the AWS tile, then choose Automated Setup on the Billing Payer tile. To connect a resource (member) account instead, choose Automated Setup on the Resources (Member) tile.
Enter a Connection Name using lowercase letters and dashes only (for example, my-aws-billing).
Select Save & Continue. You will be redirected to the AWS Console.
In the AWS Console, verify you are logged into the correct AWS account.
Scroll to the bottom of the page, check both boxes in the Capabilities section, then select Create stack.

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CloudZero automatically detects an existing Cost and Usage Report in your account, whether it exports in CSV or Parquet format. If one exists in the required format, CloudZero connects to it, including any available historical data. If not, CloudZero creates one for you. You do not need to convert a Parquet CUR to CSV before connecting. If you have a historical Cost and Usage Report that CloudZero did not pick up, reach out to your account manager to bring that data into CloudZero. For format requirements, see Cost and Usage Report Requirements.

What to expect

AWS takes about 5 minutes to deploy the necessary permissions. Your AWS cost data will appear in CloudZero within 24 hours. You can verify the connection on the Cloud Connections page, where the Status column shows a green healthy indicator when the connection is active.

Connect additional accounts

You can connect additional AWS accounts at any time using the same process. Deploy the automated connection from your Management Account for billing data, or from individual member accounts for resource-level data. CloudZero supports organizations with multiple Management Accounts.

Manual setup

If you need to connect an AWS account manually instead of using the automated method, see Manual Setup for step-by-step instructions for both Billing (Payer) and Resources (Member) accounts.

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Have questions or feedback? Reach out to your account manager.