Cloud Cost Handbook

The Cloud Cost Handbook by vantage-sh is an open-source, community-driven documentation project that breaks down the often confusing and opaque pricing models of major public cloud providers into clear, practical guides written in plain English. It’s intended as an educational resource for developers, finance teams, and FinOps practitioners who need to understand how cloud costs are structured, what drives pricing across services, and how to estimate, optimize, and forecast spend without wading through dense official documentation. The handbook covers core concepts, pricing examples, cost-optimization techniques, and billing models across providers such as AWS, Azure, and GCP, with each section curated to improve clarity and accessibility for readers without deep financial or cloud billing expertise. Because it’s hosted on GitHub and open to contributions, anyone from beginners to experts can add insights, examples, and updated pricing patterns as cloud offerings evolve.