Last updated: May 2026

Last revised for Milestone v1.1 (Shared Savings v2): adds §6.5 covering aggregate-storage of efficiency metrics, 5-year retention, 30-day-grace deletion timing, and the contract basis for the updated fee model. Implementation specifics (per-dimension formulas, baseline mechanics, and report cadence) are described on the pricing page, not in these Terms.

Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of Cost Coach ("Service"), an AI-powered AWS cost optimization service operated by Cost Coach ("we", "us", "our"). By using the Service, you agree to these Terms.

1. Service Description

Cost Coach is an MCP App that delivers AWS cost optimization through a conversational interface powered by AI assistants (ChatGPT and Claude). The Service provides:

  • Real-time AWS cost analysis via the Cost Explorer API
  • Idle resource detection and rightsizing recommendations
  • Reserved Instance and Savings Plan purchase guidance
  • Serverless migration path recommendations
  • Tag strategy analysis and improvement plans
  • Budget guardrail assessments and cost anomaly detection

2. Account Registration

To use Cost Coach, you must create an account using AWS Cognito authentication. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials. One account per user; account sharing is not permitted.

3. AWS Account Access

Cost Coach accesses your AWS billing and usage data through a read-only cross-account IAM role. To connect your account, you deploy a CloudFormation template in your AWS account that creates:

  • An IAM Role with read-only billing and resource permissions
  • An External ID condition to prevent unauthorized access

You are responsible for:

  • Deploying the CloudFormation template in the correct AWS account
  • Ensuring you have authorization to grant read-only billing access
  • Reviewing the IAM permissions before deployment
  • Revoking access by deleting the CloudFormation stack if you no longer wish to use the Service

4. Free Trial and Billing

Cost Coach offers a 7-day free trial for new users. During the trial, you have full access to all features with no credit card required.

After the trial period:

  • A paid subscription is required to continue using the Service, managed through Stripe
  • Pricing follows a hybrid model: a percentage of your monitored AWS spend (baseline) plus a percentage of realized savings (incentive-aligned)
  • Savings are measured by comparing before-and-after spend when recommendations are acted upon
  • Enterprise customers may subscribe through AWS Marketplace

You may cancel your subscription at any time. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period.

5. Recommendations Only

Cost Coach provides recommendations only. It does not make automated changes to your AWS infrastructure.

  • All optimization actions are performed by you, at your discretion
  • Recommendations are based on AWS Cost Explorer data, which may have a 12–24 hour delay
  • We do not guarantee specific savings amounts — results depend on your workload characteristics and implementation decisions
  • You should review and validate all recommendations before implementing them in your environment

6. Data Handling

Our data handling practices are detailed in our Privacy Policy. Key points:

  • We store tenant metadata and billing baselines; we do not store your AWS cost data
  • All AWS data is queried in real time and never persisted
  • Conversation history is managed by your AI assistant, not by us

6.5 Aggregate Storage and Updated Fee Model (Milestone v1.1)

Effective with Milestone v1.1 (Shared Savings v2): these Terms are amended to disclose the new aggregate-storage data path and the contract basis for the updated fee model. By continuing to use the Service after the “Last revised” date above and once Milestone v1.1 is active for your tenant, you agree to the additional clauses in this section.

(a) Aggregate-storage of efficiency metrics. Once Milestone v1.1 is active for your tenant, Cost Coach will compute and store weekly organization-level aggregated efficiency metrics derived from your AWS Cost Explorer data and default CloudWatch metrics, and persists those aggregates in our database. The aggregates contain no resource IDs, no workload names, and no raw logs — see our Privacy Policy section “Aggregate Efficiency Metrics” for the full disclosure.

(b) Five-year rolling retention with auto-deletion. Aggregate records are retained on a 5-year rolling window. Each record carries a Time-To-Live attribute set to 5 years from creation; AWS DynamoDB automatically deletes records within ~48 hours of the Time-To-Live expiry. We do not extend, copy, or archive aggregates beyond the rolling window.

(c) Updated fee model — contract basis. Fees are calculated based on monitored AWS spend and measured efficiency improvements. The current pricing model, including the specific base-spend and savings components and the methodology used to measure efficiency improvements, is described on cost-coach.pmcp.run/pricing. Changes to the pricing methodology will be communicated at least 30 days in advance via the same channel used for these Terms.

(d) Account closure and deletion timing. You can close your account at any time, either from inside Cost Coach or by canceling your Stripe subscription. Either path stamps a closure timestamp on your tenant record. When you close your account, your aggregate records are deleted on the next scheduled monthly sweep after a 30-day grace period — typically 30 to 60 days from the closure date. This deletion covers all weekly aggregate records (when the v1.1 model has been active), your tenant configuration, and any baseline/savings persistence. Your Stripe customer record remains in Stripe's control under their independent retention policy.

7. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

  • Use the Service for any unlawful purpose
  • Attempt to gain unauthorized access to our systems or other users' data
  • Share your account credentials with third parties
  • Use automated tools to scrape or extract data from the Service beyond normal API usage
  • Interfere with or disrupt the Service's infrastructure

8. Termination

You may disconnect your AWS account and cancel your subscription at any time through the Service interface. We may suspend or terminate your access if you violate these Terms or engage in activity that harms the Service or other users.

9. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, COST COACH SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE.

Our total liability for any claims arising from or related to the Service shall not exceed the amount you paid us in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim.

10. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

We do not warrant that:

  • The Service will be uninterrupted or error-free
  • Recommendations will result in specific cost savings
  • AWS Cost Explorer data will be completely accurate or current

11. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Changes will be reflected in the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the Service after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

12. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with applicable law, without regard to conflict of law principles.

13. Contact

For questions about these Terms, contact us at: guy@mlguy.us