RDS:ChargedBackupUsage - $0.095 per GB-month of RDS backups beyond the free allocation

What it costs

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

Example with made-up numbers

Typical causes

Manual snapshots kept forever

A snapshot before every migration or release, never deleted, is billed every month.

Maximum retention on every instance

A 35-day window on a development database keeps 35 days of change data nobody will restore.

Backups of deleted databases

Retained automated backups and final snapshots outlive the instance they came from.

Cross-Region copies

Disaster-recovery copies bill again in the destination Region.

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_product_code = 'AmazonRDS'
  AND (line_item_usage_type LIKE '%RDS:ChargedBackupUsage')
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

1. Open Billing and Cost Management, then Cost Explorer, and set the date range to the last 3 months with Monthly granularity.
2. Set Group by to Usage type.
3. In the Filters panel choose Usage type and tick the entries ending in *RDS:ChargedBackupUsage (the region prefix, such as USE1-, differs by region).
4. Read the monthly cost per usage type. A line that grows faster than your traffic is the one to chase with the fix below.
5. 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.

• Deleting a snapshot cannot be undone. Keep the newest snapshot of any database you may still need, and anything a compliance or contract rule requires.
• A snapshot of a deleted production database may be the only copy: restore-test it or export it to S3 before deleting.
• Free allocation is per Region and equals your total database storage there; a line in a second Region may be billed even when your main Region is not.
• Cross-Region snapshot copies bill in the destination Region; check both ends before counting.
• Lowering retention shortens how far back you can restore to a point in time; confirm that with the people who own the data.

In the console

1. RDS console > Snapshots > Manual tab; sort by Created, and note snapshots older than your restore policy needs.
2. Snapshots > System tab shows the automated snapshots; Automated backups > Retained shows backups kept from databases that were deleted.
3. Databases > an instance > Maintenance & backups; read the Backup retention period for each instance.
4. Lower the retention on development and test instances (Modify > Backup retention period).
5. Delete manual snapshots and retained automated backups you are sure you do not need: Actions > Delete snapshot.

With the CLI

aws rds describe-db-snapshots --snapshot-type manual --query 'DBSnapshots[].[DBSnapshotIdentifier,SnapshotCreateTime,AllocatedStorage]' --output table

aws rds describe-db-instances --query 'DBInstances[].[DBInstanceIdentifier,BackupRetentionPeriod,AllocatedStorage]' --output table

aws rds describe-db-instance-automated-backups --query "DBInstanceAutomatedBackups[].[DBInstanceIdentifier,Status,AllocatedStorage]" --output table

aws rds modify-db-instance --db-instance-identifier EXAMPLE --backup-retention-period 7 --apply-immediately

aws rds delete-db-snapshot --db-snapshot-identifier EXAMPLE

Rollback

A deleted snapshot is gone. Before deleting anything you may regret, export it to S3 (start-export-task) or copy it. Retention can be raised again at any time, but backups already expired stay gone.

Find your RDS backup line in your own bill

Drop in your Cost Explorer or CUR CSV. Billtrim reads it in your browser, finds the RDS backup line and shows how many billed gigabytes sit behind it.

Get my ranked savings list See a sample result

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

Questions people ask

What is the free allocation?

Backup storage up to 100% of the total storage of your databases in a Region is included. Only the part above it is billed on this line.

Do manual snapshots count?

Yes. Manual snapshots count towards the same backup storage as automated backups.

Can I get the gigabytes from my bill?

Yes: the line cost divided by $0.095 is the billed GB-months, shown on the finding.

Related

• Multi-AZUsage - RDS Multi-AZ costs twice the single-AZ hourly price
• EBS:SnapshotUsage - the snapshot storage line, and how to trim it
• EFS TimedStorage-ByteHrs - Standard storage, and the cheaper Infrequent Access

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