What’s the first thing you check when your AWS bill suddenly goes up?

An increase in AWS spending doesn’t always mean there’s unnecessary spend. Traffic may have increased, a new workload may have been added, or a temporary resource may have simply been running longer than expected.

So I’m curious how others approach this.

When you notice your AWS bill is suddenly higher than usual, what’s the first thing you check?

Do you start with Cost Explorer, look at individual services, review recent infrastructure changes, or check for unused resources?

Curious to hear how different teams handle this.