Getting Started
Three steps stand between you and your first AWS savings finding: install the CloudPouch desktop app, pick an AWS profile, and run a Cost Insight. If the AWS CLI already works on your machine, there is nothing new to configure on the AWS side — CloudPouch reads the same ~/.aws/credentials and ~/.aws/config files, and it never installs anything into your AWS account.
The journey
Section titled “The journey”- Install CloudPouch — download the installer for Windows, macOS, or Linux from cloudpouch.dev, or run
brew install cloudpouchon macOS. - Connect an AWS profile — choose one of your existing AWS profiles. Static IAM credentials, AWS SSO profiles, shared
sso-sessionblocks, and role-chaining profiles all work. - Run your first Cost Insight — press
Cmd/Ctrl + Enterto analyze every eligible AWS service in one bulk run, then review the flagged resources and estimated savings.
The output is a list of concrete findings: which resources are wasting money, in which regions, roughly what they cost, and what to do next. In one 2021/2022 account, a single EBS Cost Insight run surfaced $18,890/month of GP2-to-GP3 savings.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”You need:
- An AWS account and a working local AWS profile (the same setup the AWS CLI uses).
- Read permissions for the services you want to analyze — see AWS permissions, or use the ready-made IAM policy. CloudPouch needs no write access — it analyzes your resources but never changes or deletes them.
If your security team needs to approve the tool first, Desktop app vs SaaS and AWS read-only access explain why no cost data leaves your machine.