The Billing Alarm template deploys CloudWatch alarms that notify you when your AWS spend crosses configurable thresholds. Two prerequisites are required before deploying: billing alerts must be enabled in your AWS account, and the stack must be deployed in us-east-1. Enter a notification email on the SNS node before exporting — CloudFormation creates the subscription automatically and AWS sends a confirmation link.
Paste into this field
SNS Topic → subscriptionEmailOutput looks like
you@example.comIn the AWS Console, click your account name (top-right) → Billing and Cost Management → Billing Preferences. Check "Receive Billing Alerts" and click Save preferences. Without this, CloudWatch never receives billing data.
Select the "Billing Alerts" SNS node on the canvas. In the property panel, find "Notification Email" and enter your email address. This is required — CloudFormation creates the subscription on deploy.
Select each alarm node and change the "Threshold" field. Defaults are $10, $50, $100 monthly and $5/day. Set thresholds that match your expected spend.
Click Export IaC → download the CloudFormation JSON. In the AWS Console → CloudFormation → Create stack → Upload a template file. IMPORTANT: Select us-east-1 as the region — billing metrics only exist there.
After the stack deploys, check your inbox for an email from no-reply@sns.amazonaws.com with subject "AWS Notification - Subscription Confirmation". Click the "Confirm subscription" link. Alarms will not send notifications until confirmed.
In the AWS Console → CloudWatch → Alarms. You should see four alarms named billing-alert-10, billing-alert-50, billing-alert-100, and billing-alert-daily. All will show INSUFFICIENT_DATA initially — this is normal and resolves within 24 hours when the first daily billing metric arrives.
Once you have the value, go back to CloudStack Canvas and paste it into the highlighted field.
CloudStack Canvas · Validation Guide