In this post I will be showing you how to create a AWS free tier billing alert to be sent to the email address you specify. While there are many resources available to you under the AWS free tier, it is very important that you set up billing alerts to avoid a surprise bill in case you accidentally forget to delete resources that are no longer needed. In this example I set an email alert after $5 USD.
Click your account name and then click My Billing Dashboard
Click Billing Preferences then check the box named Receive Free Tier Usage Alerts, enter your email address then check the Receive Billing Alerts check box. Finally click Save Preferences
Click the Manage Billing Alerts link
Click Billing
Click Create Alarm
Scroll down to Define the threshold value, enter the amount of money you desire then click Next
Under Create a new topic create a unique topic name then enter the email addresses that will receive the notifications and click Create Topic
Click View SNS Console
You will see Pending Confirmation under subscriptions, open your email inbox to confirm
Click on the Confirm Subscription link in the AWS Notifications email that was sent to you
