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When MilkStraw AI finds on-demand usage it can cover with , it shows a Savings plans card at the top of Todo on the Overview page. Activating it is the only step you need to take — our team does the rest.

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What you can activate

The card lists up to two plans, each with its estimated monthly savings:

Compute savings plans

EC2 (including EKS, ECS, and Elastic Beanstalk), Fargate, Lambda, and SageMaker.

Datastore savings plans

RDS, Redshift, ElastiCache, OpenSearch, Neptune, and DMS.
The estimates come from your AWS usage and refresh every day. See Supported services for exactly what each plan covers.

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Activate savings

1

Open the Overview page

Find the Savings plans card at the top of Todo.
2

Click Activate

One click activates every plan on the card. You need the Engineer, Admin, or Owner role.
3

Add a payment method if asked

A payment method is required. If none is on file, Admins and Owners see an Add a payment method dialog. Click Save and activate, and your plans activate as soon as the card is saved. Engineers see “A payment method is required. Ask a billing manager.” instead.
Billing members can add a payment method from Settings > Billing > Add Payment Method.
Activation is a one-time step. Once a plan is active, it stays active, and we keep managing its commitments for you. If you want to stop, see Cancellation. Your first activation also unlocks your projects.

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What happens next

1

Confirmation

You get a “Savings approved” email. Applying savings usually takes 48 hours to a week, depending on the type of savings.
2

MilkBoxes join your organization

Our team sends to your AWS Organization. They appear as member accounts named like milkbox-123456. You don’t need to accept anything: MilkStraw AI sends the invite through your cross-account role and accepts it from the MilkBox. Each time new MilkBoxes arrive, you get a “More savings on the way” email.
3

Savings go live

When your first savings go live, the organization owner gets an email with your expected monthly savings. Every month after that, the owner also gets a summary of what you saved.

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Track your savings

The Savings page shows your MilkBox commitments and what they save. Every member of your organization can open it. It stays empty until your first MilkBox commitment is active.
  • Contracts, Month to date savings, Monthly savings, and Lifetime savings summarize your savings. Month to date savings run up to two days ago, because AWS reports costs with a delay. Lifetime savings also include the savings from tasks in your completed projects.
  • The Compute and Database sections list your commitments with their Monthly savings and Coverage. Coverage shows how much of your savings opportunity your active commitments already capture, including commitments you own.
  • Each commitment shows its Type, Service, Contract ID, Utilization, Monthly Savings, and Status: Active, Retired, or Returned. Click a row to open its Contract Details.
Your MilkStraw AI fee is based on these MilkBox savings. See Billing.