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ConfigurationItemRecorded and ConfigRuleEvaluations - what AWS Config bills for

ConfigurationItemRecorded is the AWS Config charge per configuration item recorded ($0.003 each with continuous recording in US East N. Virginia) and ConfigRuleEvaluations the charge per rule evaluation ($0.001 each for the first 100,000 a month).

In your bill the usage type reads: ConfigurationItemRecorded, USE1-ConfigurationItemRecorded, ConfigRuleEvaluations, USE1-ConfigRuleEvaluations

What it costs

Charge	Price	Unit
Configuration item recorded, continuous recording (ConfigurationItemRecorded)	$0.003	per item
Configuration item recorded, daily recording (ConfigurationItemRecordedDaily)	$0.012	per item
Config rule evaluation, first 100,000 a month (ConfigRuleEvaluations)	$0.001	per evaluation

US East (N. Virginia); other regions differ. Checked 2026-11-05. Sources: AWS Config pricing, AWS price list file, Config offer, us-east-1.

Example with made-up numbers

200,000 configuration items recorded and 300,000 rule evaluations in a month

Items: 200,000 x $0.003 = $600.00; evaluations: 100,000 x $0.001 + 200,000 x $0.0008 = $100.00 + $160.00 = $260.00 (the next 400,000 are priced at $0.0008 each)

Dropping the resource types that make half of the items saves 100,000 x $0.003 = $300.00 per month

Typical causes

Record all resource types in all regions

The default setup records everything, including resource types that change many times a day.

Recorders left on in unused regions

A recorder enabled by a landing-zone template keeps billing in regions with almost no resources.

Churny resources

Network interfaces, security group rules and IAM changes create a new item on every change.

Rules nobody reads

Each rule evaluates every in-scope resource whenever it changes or on its schedule.

Find it in your bill

Have a CUR file queryable in Athena? Paste this and run it:

SELECT date_trunc('month', line_item_usage_start_date) AS month,
       line_item_product_code,
       line_item_usage_type,
       line_item_resource_id,
       SUM(line_item_usage_amount)  AS usage_amount,
       SUM(line_item_unblended_cost) AS cost
FROM your_cur_table
WHERE line_item_usage_type LIKE '%ConfigurationItemRecorded'
     OR line_item_usage_type LIKE '%ConfigRuleEvaluations'
GROUP BY 1, 2, 3, 4
ORDER BY month DESC, cost DESC
LIMIT 50;

Columns used: line_item_usage_start_date, line_item_product_code, line_item_usage_type, line_item_resource_id, line_item_usage_amount, line_item_unblended_cost.

No CUR file? Use Cost Explorer

Open Billing and Cost Management, then Cost Explorer, and set the date range to the last 3 months with Monthly granularity.
Set Group by to Usage type.
In the Filters panel choose Usage type and tick the entries ending in ConfigurationItemRecorded or ConfigRuleEvaluations (the region prefix, such as USE1-, differs by region).
Read the monthly cost per usage type. A line that grows faster than your traffic is the one to chase with the fix below.
To see which resource drives it, query the CUR above; resource IDs appear only if your CUR was set up with resource IDs included, otherwise the resource column is empty.

Column names checked against: docs.aws.amazon.com/cur/latest/userguide/Lineitem-columns.html, docs.aws.amazon.com/cur/latest/userguide/cur-ate-run.html.

The fix, step by step

Verify first

Check these before you change anything: the steps below are suggestions, and only you can see your own configuration.

Check with whoever owns compliance (SOC 2, PCI, an auditor) before turning off recording; some controls need the history.
Config rules only evaluate resources the recorder records; removing a resource type silently disables any rule that depended on it.
Stopping the recorder deletes nothing already recorded, but you lose change history from that point on.
Look at the per-region split in your file first: unused regions are the safest saving.

In the console

AWS Config console > Settings; for each region note whether Record all current resource types is on.
Config > Resources; look at which resource types have the most configuration items, and which regions you do not use.
Edit the recorder (Settings > Edit): choose Specific resource types and keep only the ones a rule, auditor or incident process needs.
In regions you do not use, stop the recorder (Settings > Turn off recording).
Config > Rules; delete rules nobody acts on and check how often periodic rules run.

With the CLI

aws configservice describe-configuration-recorders

aws configservice describe-config-rules --query "ConfigRules[].[ConfigRuleName,Source.Owner]" --output table

aws configservice get-discovered-resource-counts

aws configservice stop-configuration-recorder --configuration-recorder-name default

Rollback

Turn the recorder back on or add the resource types back in Settings; history from the gap is not recoverable.

Find your AWS Config lines in your own bill

Drop in your Cost Explorer or CUR CSV. Billtrim reads it in your browser, finds the Config item and rule lines and shows the monthly dollars.

See a sample result

Paste your export: how to export a Cost Explorer CSV or CUR file in two minutes.

Questions people ask

Is daily recording cheaper?

Per item it costs more ($0.012 against $0.003), but it records at most one item per resource per day. It only pays off for resources that change more than four times a day.

Does turning off recording delete my history?

No, but you stop recording new changes, so the gap cannot be reconstructed later.

Part of the guide: Reduce your AWS bill as a startup: a checklist for teams with no FinOps person