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Cloud Cost Audit Checklist

AWS · Azure · GCP · Free Audit Checklist
The Cloud Cost Audit Checklist: 47 checks to find waste in your AWS, Azure, or GCP bill Most engineering teams are paying for cloud capacity they don't use — idle compute, orphaned volumes, over-provisioned instances, and reserved commitments that no longer match real usage. The waste rarely shows up on the invoice; it shows up in a systematic audit. This is the same 47-point checklist our FinOps architects use during client cost audits — covering compute, storage, networking, and governance across AWS, Azure, and GCP. Enter your details and we'll send the PDF straight to your inbox.
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47 Cost & waste checks included
3 Platforms covered — AWS, Azure, GCP
10min Typical time to complete the audit
PDF delivered instantly to your inbox Free
20–30%Cloud spend typically reclaimable, per industry FinOps benchmarks
47Checks across compute, storage, network & governance
3Cloud platforms — AWS, Azure and GCP — in one checklist
10 minTo run the full audit against your current bill
Is This Checklist for You? Built for Teams Whose Cloud Bill
Grew Faster Than They Expected. If your monthly AWS, Azure, or GCP bill has crept up and nobody can fully explain why, this checklist gives you a structured way to find out — before your next Reserved Instance or Savings Plan renewal locks in more waste.
DevOps, Platform, or Infrastructure leads who own the cloud bill
Engineering or Finance leaders scoping a first FinOps initiative
Teams about to renew Reserved Instances or Savings Plans
Anyone who suspects idle compute, orphaned storage, or stale snapshots
Companies without a dedicated FinOps function yet
This is probably not what you need if:
You already run a mature FinOps practice with full cost visibility and automated anomaly detection.
Your total cloud spend is under roughly $10K/month — the audit still helps, but the savings ceiling is lower.
You're looking for hands-on implementation, not a self-serve checklist — talk to a FinOps architect instead.
The checklist is free either way — it's a working document, not a sales funnel in disguise.
What's Inside
Four Categories.
47 Checks. Zero Fluff. Each section maps to a specific place cloud spend quietly leaks — with a plain-language check, not just a metric to stare at.
Compute & Rightsizing 12 checks
The single biggest source of avoidable spend on every cloud bill we've audited.
Idle & underutilised instance detection
Rightsizing against real utilisation data
Auto-scaling configuration gaps
Spot / Preemptible opportunities
Storage & Data Lifecycle 11 checks
Orphaned volumes and forgotten snapshots that bill quietly, month after month.
Unattached disks & orphaned snapshots
Storage tier / lifecycle policy gaps
Backup retention vs. actual need
Cold data sitting in hot storage
Networking & Data Transfer 10 checks
The line item most teams don't check until it's already too large to ignore.
Cross-AZ / cross-region transfer costs
NAT gateway & load balancer waste
Idle or unused public IP addresses
Egress cost hotspots by service
Governance, Tagging & Commitments 14 checks
The checks that make the other 33 sustainable instead of a one-time cleanup.
Tagging coverage & cost ownership
Reserved Instance / Savings Plan coverage
Budget alerts & anomaly detection setup
Recurring audit cadence recommendation
Vendor-Agnostic
One Checklist.
Every Major Cloud Platform. The checks are the same in spirit across clouds — but the console, service names, and pricing levers differ. This checklist maps every check to the right place in each platform.
AWS
Amazon Web ServicesEC2 · EBS · S3 · RDS

Covers EC2 rightsizing, EBS/snapshot cleanup, S3 lifecycle policies, and Reserved Instance / Savings Plan coverage.

EC2 & Auto Scaling checks EBS volumes & snapshot sprawl S3 storage class mismatches
AZ
Microsoft AzureVMs · Managed Disks · Blob

Covers VM rightsizing, managed disk cleanup, Blob Storage tiering, and Reserved Instance / Savings Plan alignment.

Virtual Machine sizing checks Managed disk & snapshot sprawl Blob Storage tier mismatches
GCP
Google Cloud PlatformCompute Engine · GCS

Covers Compute Engine rightsizing, persistent disk cleanup, Cloud Storage tiering, and Committed Use Discount coverage.

Compute Engine sizing checks Persistent disk & snapshot sprawl Cloud Storage tier mismatches
How to Use It
Ten Minutes.
Four Steps. No workshop, no consultant on the call. Pull up your billing console and walk through it end to end.
01
Pull Your Bill ~2 Minutes Export your last billing cycle from your AWS, Azure, or GCP console.
02
Run the Checklist ~5 Minutes Work through all 47 checks against your usage dashboards.
03
Flag the Waste ~2 Minutes Mark items to rightsize, retire, or reserve.
04
Share With Your Team ~1 Minute Turn flagged items into a prioritised cleanup backlog.
What Teams Typically Find The Waste Is Rarely One Big Line Item. It's Twenty Small Ones. Across the cloud cost audits our FinOps architects run for clients, the pattern repeats: idle compute left running after a migration, snapshots nobody deleted, and Reserved Instances that no longer match current usage. Individually small. Together, often 20–30% of the bill. This checklist is the same starting point we use before any paid engagement — free, self-serve, and yours to keep either way. Talk to a FinOps Architect
Cloud infrastructure and server data center
Why Trust This Checklist
Written From Real Audits.
Not a Generic Template. This isn't a repackaged blog post. It's the working document our own architects use.
Built from real client audits Every check exists because it caught real waste somewhere — not because it sounded good in a template.
Vendor-agnostic by design One checklist across AWS, Azure and GCP — useful whether you're single-cloud or multi-cloud.
No obligation, no upsell It's a free working document. Keep it, use it, share it with your team — no strings attached.
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