---
title: "AWS S3 Cost Management"
domain: selfhosting
category: cloud
tags: [aws, s3, cost, billing, mastodon, glacier]
status: published
created: 2026-04-19
updated: 2026-04-19
---

# AWS S3 Cost Management

The majorlinux AWS account is used exclusively for S3 object storage. This covers how to monitor costs, what's driving the bill, and how to reduce it.

## Account Overview

- **Account ID:** `408469496267`
- **Account name:** majorlinux
- **Services in use:** S3 (Standard + Glacier Deep Archive), AWS Config, Cost Explorer
- **Monthly spend:** ~$32/mo (March 2026); expected ~$16/mo post-media-prune

## Buckets and Cost Drivers

| Bucket | Size | Storage Class | Cost/mo | Purpose |
|--------|------|---------------|---------|--------|
| `majortoot` | 648 GB (mostly remote cache) | S3 Standard | ~$15/mo | Mastodon media |
| `majorhomebackup` | 16 TiB | Glacier Deep Archive | ~$16/mo | MLS stream archives (sole copy) |
| `config-bucket-*` | ~185 KB | S3 Standard | ~$0.00 | AWS Config snapshots |

## CLI Setup

AWS CLI installed on MajorMac via Homebrew. Credentials configured at `~/.aws/credentials`.

```bash
brew install awscli
# Credentials pulled from Ansible vault:
# AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID / AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY in group_vars/all/vault.yml
```

### Useful commands

```bash
# Check current month spend by service
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=2026-04-01,End=2026-04-30 \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metrics "UnblendedCost" \
  --group-by Type=DIMENSION,Key=SERVICE

# View anomaly alerts
aws ce get-anomalies \
  --date-interval StartDate=2026-04-01,EndDate=2026-04-30

# Check conformance pack compliance
aws configservice get-conformance-pack-compliance-details \
  --conformance-pack-name MajorConformance

# List budgets
aws budgets describe-budgets --account-id 408469496267
```

## Budget Alert

`MajorS3MonthlyAlert` configured 2026-04-19:
- 80% threshold → email at $20 actual spend
- 100% threshold → email at $25 actual spend
- Recipient: maj.linux@gmail.com

## Cost Reduction Options

### majortoot — S3 Standard-IA

Switching `S3_STORAGE_CLASS=STANDARD_IA` in Mastodon's `.env.production` reduces storage cost from $0.023/GB to $0.0125/GB for new uploads. Expected saving: ~$4–5/mo after cache is pruned down to local-only content.

See [[mastodon-instance-tuning]] for full instructions.

### majortoot — Weekly media prune

Weekly cron deployed (`0 3 * * 0`) via `configure_mastodon_media_prune.yml`. Removes remote federated cache older than 7 days. Expected to reduce bucket from 648 GB to ~7 GB over time.

### majorhomebackup — Self-host consideration

Deep Archive at $0.00099/GB is the cheapest cloud tier — no cloud alternative is cheaper. If the MLS archives are no longer needed, deletion would save ~$16/mo. A 20TB HDD (~$300–400) would break even in ~2 years vs. continued cloud storage. **These are the sole copy — do not delete without a separate backup.**

## Conformance Pack

`MajorConformance` (created 2024-12-20) monitors S3 buckets for:
- Public read/write access (majortoot is intentionally public — Mastodon media)
- Account-level public access blocks (off by design, same reason)
- S3 default object lock (not enabled — expected)
- S3 event notifications (not enabled — expected)

Evaluations cost $0.001 each and run on a periodic schedule. Safe to ignore; at current scale costs pennies per month.

## IAM Users

| User | Scope | Credentials location |
|------|-------|---------------------|
| `MajorToot` | S3 only — no billing/Cost Explorer | `~/.aws/credentials` on majortoot |
| Root | Full access | `~/.aws/credentials` on MajorMac (configured 2026-04-19) |

## Related

- [[Services/AWS]] — infrastructure record
- [[mastodon-instance-tuning]] — media cache management
- [[majortoot]] — Mastodon host