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CloudFront Metrics: Understanding CloudWatch vs. Billing Data

CloudFront Metrics: Understanding CloudWatch vs. Billing Data

A guide examining the differences between CloudFront operational metrics and billing data, with proven practices for accurate cost management and optimization.

billingcloudwatchcloudfrontcost-control-automationcosts
Nithin Chandran R
Amazon Employee
Published Feb 18, 2025
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Understanding Metric Variations
The interpretation of CloudFront metrics requires understanding two distinct measurement systems: CloudWatch for operational monitoring and billing reports for financial analysis. This technical guide examines these differences and provides implementation strategies for effective cost management.
1. Data Processing Fundamentals
CloudWatch and billing systems operate on fundamentally different timelines:
2. CloudWatch Processing:
  • Real-time metrics with 60-second updates
  • Immediate visibility into traffic patterns
  • Direct request counting methodology
3. Billing System Processing:
  • Cost Explorer: 18-24 hour delay
  • CUR: 24-36 hour finalization period
  • Complex aggregation rules
  1. Request Measurement Methodology
The disparity between CloudWatch and billing measurements stems from their distinct purposes. CloudWatch captures comprehensive operational data, including:
  • Total HTTP/HTTPS requests
  • Cache operations
  • System-generated requests
  • Failed attempts
  • Invalidation operations
  1. Data Aggregation Architecture
CloudWatch's minute-level granularity serves operational monitoring needs, while billing systems employ a different aggregation strategy. Understanding this architectural difference is crucial for accurate cost analysis. For example, a global content delivery network might see varying request patterns across regions, but billing consolidation provides a unified view of costs.
Recommended Billing Tools and Source of Truth
When analyzing CloudFront costs and usage patterns, it's imperative to rely on AWS's dedicated billing tools for accurate financial analysis and decision-making. Cost Explorer provides intuitive visualization and analysis capabilities for understanding spending trends, while Cost and Usage Reports (CUR) deliver the most granular and comprehensive billing data available. The CUR serves as the definitive source of truth, offering detailed line-item records of AWS service usage and costs. For organizations requiring custom analysis, AWS provides automated data exports that can be integrated with business intelligence tools. Based on extensive experience managing enterprise AWS accounts, I strongly recommend using these billing tools hierarchically: CUR for detailed analysis and automation, Cost Explorer for trend analysis and quick insights, and data exports for custom reporting requirements. This approach ensures consistent financial reporting and enables accurate cost attribution.

AWS provides two usage reports for CloudFront:

  • The AWS billing report is a high-level view of all activity for AWS services that you're using, including CloudFront.
  • The AWS usage report is a summary of activity for a specific service, aggregated by hour, day, or month. It also includes usage charts that provide a graphical representation of your CloudFront usage.
Please Refer Topics

View the AWS billing report for CloudFront

You can view a summary of your AWS usage and charges, listed by service, on the Bills page in the AWS Billing and Cost Management console.
To view the AWS billing report
  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the AWS Billing and Cost Management console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/costmanagement
  2. In the navigation pane, choose Bills.
  3. Choose a Billing period (for example, August 2023).
  4. On the Charges by service tab, choose CloudFront, and then expand Global or the AWS Region name.
  5. To download a detailed billing report in CSV format, choose Download all to CSV.
For more information about your AWS bill, see Viewing your bill in the AWS Billing User Guide.
The billing report includes the following values that apply to CloudFront:
  • ProductCode – AmazonCloudFront
  • UsageType – One of the following values:
    • A code that identifies the type of data transfer
    • Invalidations
    • Executions-CloudFrontFunctions
    • KeyValueStore-APIOperations
    • KeyValueStore-EdgeReads
    • RealTimeLog-KinesisDataStream
    • SSL-Cert-Custom
  • ItemDescription – A description of the billing rate for the UsageType.
  • UsageStart Date and UsageEndDate – The day that the usage applies to, in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
  • UsageQuantity – One of the following values:
    • The number of requests during the specified time period
    • The amount of data transferred in gigabytes
    • The number of objects invalidated
    • The sum of the prorated months that you hadSSLcertificates associated with enabled CloudFront distributions. For example, if you have one certificate associated with an enabled distribution for an entire month and another certificate associated with an enabled distribution for half of the month, this value will be 1.5.

View the AWS usage report for CloudFront

AWS provides a CloudFront usage report that is more detailed than the billing report but less detailed than CloudFront access logs. The usage report provides aggregate usage data by hour, day, or month, and it lists operations by region and usage type, such as data transferred out of the Australia region.
To view the AWS usage report
  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open theAWSBilling and Cost Management console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/costmanagement/
  2. In the navigation pane, choose Cost & Reports.
  3. Under the AWS Usage Report section, choose Create a Usage Report.
  4. On the Download usage report page, under Services, choose Amazon CloudFront
  5. Choose the Usage type.
  6. Choose the Operation.
  7. Choose the Time period for the report. If you choose Custom date range, you need to specify the Date range for the report manually.
  8. Under Report granularity, choose Hourly, Daily, or Monthly.
  9. Choose Download, and then choose XMLReport or CSVReport.
For more information about the AWS usage report, see AWS Usage Report in the AWS Data Exports User Guide.
The CloudFront usage report includes the following values:
  • Service – AmazonCloudFront
  • Operation –HTTPmethod. Values include DELETE, GET, HEAD, OPTIONS, PATCH, POST, and PUT.
  • UsageType – One of the following values:
    • A code that identifies the type of data transfer
    • Invalidations
    • Executions-CloudFrontFunctions
    • KeyValueStore-APIOperations
    • KeyValueStore-EdgeReads
    • RealTimeLog-KinesisDataStream
    • SSL-Cert-Custom
  • Resource – Either the ID of the CloudFront distribution associated with the usage or the certificate ID of an SSL certificate that you have associated with a CloudFront distribution.
  • StartTime/EndTime – The day that the usage applies to, in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
  • UsageValue – 1) The number of requests during the specified time period or 2)the amount of data transferred in bytes.
If you’re using AmazonS3as the origin for CloudFront, consider running the usage report for AmazonS3, too. However, if you use AmazonS3for purposes other than as an origin for your CloudFront distributions, it might not be clear what portion applies to your CloudFront usage.
Tip
For detailed information about every request that CloudFront receives for your objects, turn on CloudFront access logs for your distribution. For more information, see Standard logging (access logs).
For more information about understanding the CloudFront charges and usage types on your reports, see Interpret your AWS bill and usage reports for CloudFront.
Interpret your AWS bill and usage reports for CloudFront
Key Recommendations:
1. Use AWS Cost and Usage Report or AWS Data Exports as the primary source of truth for all financial reporting and analysis
2. Leverage Cost Explorer for quick insights and trend visualization
3. Implement automated CUR data processing for regular cost analysis
4. Maintain separate workflows for operational monitoring and financial reporting
5. Configure automated exports for integration with enterprise financial systems
Conclusion:
Remember that while CloudWatch metrics are valuable for operational insights, billing tools provide the authoritative data needed for financial planning and cost optimization strategies.
 

Any opinions in this post are those of the individual author and may not reflect the opinions of AWS.

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