AWS Billing Transfer is a new feature (GA since November 2025) that streamlines billing management across multiple AWS Organizations. It helps companies and channel partners who manage multiple Organizations by enabling centralized billing while keeping security and autonomy decentralized for business units or end customers.

Key Challenges Addressed

  • Multiple Organizations – Separate logins for billing and cost management across Organizations increase operational overhead
  • No Central View – Hard to get a single, holistic view of spend across business units or customers
  • Confidential Pricing – Protecting pricing data when billing and security roles are separated (e.g. channel partners)
  • Different Governance – Managing billing for customers or subsidiaries each with their own Organizations and different governance/security needs

What is Billing Transfer?

  • A single bill transfer account (management account) receives and pays bills for multiple bill source accounts (management accounts) across different AWS Organizations
  • Invite-based at the management account level (one-to-many)
  • Bill source accounts stop receiving AWS invoices; the bill transfer account gets consolidated invoices per transferred Organization plus its own
  • Billing is computed per AWS Organization; no cross-org discount spillovers
  • Transfers and withdrawals take effect on the first day of the following billing month, avoiding split billing

Architecture and Data Visibility

  • Works with AWS Billing Conductor so the bill transfer account controls cost visibility and billing views for bill source accounts
  • Billable data – Actual invoice cost paid to AWS (including discounts)
  • Pro forma data – Customizable cost data controlled by the bill transfer account (by default excludes discounts and taxes)
  • Billing views: Bill source accounts see only pro forma data; bill transfer account sees “My View” (billable, for reconciliation) and Showback/Chargeback views (pro forma for source accounts)

Core Functionalities

  • Centralized cost management via Cost Explorer, Bills, Budgets, Cost and Usage Reports (legacy and 2.0), and Billing Conductor
  • Pricing Rules and Pricing Plans – Global or service-specific discounts/markups on pro forma data; service-specific overrides global; pricing plans apply to billing groups (containers of bill source accounts)
  • Custom Line Items – Flat or percentage-based charges/credits (e.g. shared services, taxes)
  • Centralized payments – All invoices go to the bill transfer account; payment records attribute transactions to specific source Organizations
  • Tax – Bill source Organizations can inherit the bill transfer account’s tax profile; multi-region tax supported via invoice units and invoice configuration
  • Multi-currency and multi–seller of record (SoR) – Payment profiles per seller of record with preferred currency and payment methods

Use Cases

User Group Use Case
Direct customers Conglomerates/subsidiaries with separate Organizations and centralized billing; multinationals with different tax/currency/payment profiles; VCs/PE with billing visibility into portfolio companies without account access
Channel partners SIs/MSPs keeping customer security autonomy while managing billing centrally; distributors with up to two-level billing transfer (customer → partner → distributor); Partner Central integration with self-service PMA and reporting

Getting Started and Best Practices

  • Use Billing and Cost Management console to access Billing Transfer
  • Use clear, descriptive names on invitations for billing views and invoices
  • Add messages in invitations to set expectations
  • Choose or customize pricing plans that define billing visibility
  • Track invitation status; withdrawals are effective next billing month
  • Transfers and withdrawals can be started by either party; no approval required
  • Historical billing data stays available to the bill transfer account after withdrawal
  • All steps supported in UI and APIs (Billing Transfer via AWS Organizations SDK; Billing & Cost Management APIs)

Pricing Model

  • Billing Transfer – No charge
  • AWS Billing Conductor (for Billing Transfer users):
    • $50/month per AWS Organization with a customized pricing plan
    • Managed pricing plans are free
    • Charges appear on the bill transfer account’s invoice; prorated
    • Free trial until May 31, 2026; charges start June 1, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • One-to-many billing with a single bill transfer account receiving and paying invoices
  • Billing is decoupled from security and governance; business units/customers keep full control of their accounts
  • Cost visibility and data protection via Billing Conductor
  • Flexible transfers/withdrawals with consistent effective dates
  • Multi-region tax, multi-currency payments, and multi-level reseller billing
  • Reduces billing operations overhead and helps organizations and partners scale

For details, see the AWS News Blog and What’s New for Billing Transfer, and the user guides for direct customers and channel partners.