- A
AWS Budgets
Why wrong: AWS Budgets allows you to set spending limits and receive alerts when costs exceed thresholds, but it does not provide historical cost analysis, usage trends, or Reserved Instance recommendations. It is not designed for exploring past spending or identifying specific optimization opportunities.
- B
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why wrong: AWS Trusted Advisor includes cost optimization checks and can suggest Reserved Instances, but it lacks a detailed historical cost and usage dashboard. It does not offer the same granularity for analyzing trends over time or visualizing spending by instance family.
- C
AWS Cost Explorer
AWS Cost Explorer is the correct tool. It provides an interactive dashboard of historical costs and usage, allows filtering by EC2 instance family, and generates Reserved Instance purchase recommendations based on your past usage. It is specifically designed for cost analysis and optimization.
- D
AWS Compute Optimizer
Why wrong: AWS Compute Optimizer provides right-sizing recommendations based on instance utilization metrics, but it does not analyze cost history or provide Reserved Instance recommendations. While it helps reduce costs by suggesting instance type changes, it does not fulfill the requirement for historical spending analysis.
Quick Answer
The answer is AWS Cost Explorer, the native AWS tool that provides a visual dashboard for historical cost analysis and RI recommendations. It is correct because it allows the finance team to filter cost and usage data by EC2 instance families and sizes, directly identifying underutilized resources, and then generates Reserved Instance purchase recommendations based on that historical On-Demand usage, enabling clear savings comparisons. On the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02 exam, this question tests your understanding of which AWS service handles both cost visualization and cost optimization recommendations, often contrasting Cost Explorer with AWS Budgets (which tracks budgets but lacks historical trend analysis) or Trusted Advisor (which gives general best-practice checks but not granular usage-based RI suggestions). A common trap is choosing AWS Cost and Usage Report, which provides raw data files rather than an interactive dashboard. Memory tip: think of Cost Explorer as your “cost detective” that explores past usage to recommend future savings.
CLF-C02 Billing, Pricing, and Support Practice Question
This CLF-C02 practice question tests your understanding of billing, pricing, and support. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company has been using Amazon EC2 instances for a production application for the past 12 months. The finance team wants to understand historical spending patterns and identify opportunities to reduce costs. Specifically, they need to see which EC2 instance families and sizes are being underutilized and get recommendations for purchasing Reserved Instances to save money compared to current On-Demand pricing. The team wants to use a native AWS tool that provides a visual dashboard of costs, usage trends, and actionable recommendations. Which AWS tool should the finance team use?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
AWS Cost Explorer
AWS Cost Explorer is the correct choice because it provides a visual dashboard of historical cost and usage data, including the ability to filter by EC2 instance families and sizes to identify underutilized resources. It also offers Reserved Instance (RI) purchase recommendations based on historical On-Demand usage, enabling the finance team to compare costs and identify savings opportunities directly within the native AWS console.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Budgets
Why it's wrong here
AWS Budgets allows you to set spending limits and receive alerts when costs exceed thresholds, but it does not provide historical cost analysis, usage trends, or Reserved Instance recommendations. It is not designed for exploring past spending or identifying specific optimization opportunities.
- ✗
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why it's wrong here
AWS Trusted Advisor includes cost optimization checks and can suggest Reserved Instances, but it lacks a detailed historical cost and usage dashboard. It does not offer the same granularity for analyzing trends over time or visualizing spending by instance family.
- ✓
AWS Cost Explorer
Why this is correct
AWS Cost Explorer is the correct tool. It provides an interactive dashboard of historical costs and usage, allows filtering by EC2 instance family, and generates Reserved Instance purchase recommendations based on your past usage. It is specifically designed for cost analysis and optimization.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
AWS Compute Optimizer
Why it's wrong here
AWS Compute Optimizer provides right-sizing recommendations based on instance utilization metrics, but it does not analyze cost history or provide Reserved Instance recommendations. While it helps reduce costs by suggesting instance type changes, it does not fulfill the requirement for historical spending analysis.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AWS Compute Optimizer (which focuses on right-sizing) with Cost Explorer (which provides both historical cost visualization and RI purchase recommendations), leading them to choose D instead of C.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
AWS Cost Explorer uses a data warehouse that aggregates cost and usage information from AWS Cost and Usage Reports, allowing granular filtering by service, region, instance type, and tags. Its RI recommendations are generated by analyzing the last 30 days of On-Demand usage and applying a break-even analysis to suggest the optimal RI term (1 or 3 years) and payment option (No Upfront, Partial Upfront, All Upfront) to maximize savings. A subtle behavior is that Cost Explorer's RI recommendations are based on steady-state usage; if usage patterns are highly variable, the recommendations may overestimate savings, so users should validate with custom date ranges.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
- →
Billing, Pricing, and Support — study guide chapter
Learn the concepts, then practise the questions
- →
Billing, Pricing, and Support practice questions
Targeted practice on this topic area only
- →
All CLF-C02 questions
1,024 questions across all exam domains
- →
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02 study guide
Full concept coverage aligned to exam objectives
- →
CLF-C02 practice test guide
How to use practice tests most effectively before exam day
Related practice questions
Related CLF-C02 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
Cloud Concepts practice questions
Practise CLF-C02 questions linked to Cloud Concepts.
Security and Compliance practice questions
Practise CLF-C02 questions linked to Security and Compliance.
Cloud Technology and Services practice questions
Practise CLF-C02 questions linked to Cloud Technology and Services.
Billing, Pricing, and Support practice questions
Practise CLF-C02 questions linked to Billing, Pricing, and Support.
AWS shared responsibility model practice questions
Practise CLF-C02 questions linked to AWS shared responsibility model.
AWS IAM practice questions
Practise CLF-C02 questions linked to AWS IAM.
AWS pricing practice questions
Practise CLF-C02 questions linked to AWS pricing.
AWS support plans practice questions
Practise CLF-C02 questions linked to AWS support plans.
AWS S3 practice questions
Practise CLF-C02 questions linked to AWS S3.
AWS EC2 practice questions
Practise CLF-C02 questions linked to AWS EC2.
Practice this exam
Start a free CLF-C02 practice session
Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this CLF-C02 question test?
Billing, Pricing, and Support — This question tests Billing, Pricing, and Support — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: AWS Cost Explorer — AWS Cost Explorer is the correct choice because it provides a visual dashboard of historical cost and usage data, including the ability to filter by EC2 instance families and sizes to identify underutilized resources. It also offers Reserved Instance (RI) purchase recommendations based on historical On-Demand usage, enabling the finance team to compare costs and identify savings opportunities directly within the native AWS console.
What should I do if I get this CLF-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Keep practising
More CLF-C02 practice questions
- A company publishes a message each time a new product is added to its catalogue. Three services need to receive this mes…
- A media company stores frequently accessed video thumbnails in Amazon S3. The thumbnails are read multiple times every d…
- A company needs a service to translate domain names (like www.example.com) into IP addresses, check the health of their…
- A startup runs an application on AWS and receives a monthly bill that charges exactly for the number of compute hours us…
- A financial institution runs its core banking application on-premises due to regulatory requirements. It has connected i…
- A company wants to run a MySQL database in AWS without managing database software installation, applying patches, settin…
Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This CLF-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CLF-C02 exam.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.