Why it matters
Most organizations end up with multiple AWS accounts (prod, non-prod, shared services, sandboxes, partners). If each pays its own bill, you lose volume discounts, have scattered invoices, and no single place to see total spend.
Consolidated billing in AWS Organizations lets a management account pay for all member accounts, while workloads stay isolated. The key benefits:
- One bill for all accounts in the org
- Shared discounts from combined usage (volume pricing, Reserved Instances, Savings Plans)
- Centralized cost visibility with the ability to report per account or business unit
How to implement
- Create or designate a management account, then enable AWS Organizations. AWS Well-Architected guidance recommends that this account does not run workloads, so you should create a new, dedicated payer/management account for this purpose.
- Invite existing accounts (or create new ones) as member accounts so they’re paid by the management account.
Learn more
- Consolidated billing for AWS Organizations
- AWS account management and separation.
- AWS Organizations User Guide
- Tagging Strategy – how to design tags to support showback/chargeback on top of consolidated billing