Organizations frequently inherit continuous recording by default (e.g., through landing zones) without validating the business need for per-change granularity across all resource types and environments. In change-heavy accounts (ephemeral resources, CI/CD churn, autoscaling), continuous mode drives very high CIR volumes with limited additional operational value. Selecting periodic recording for lower-risk resource types and/or non-production environments can maintain necessary visibility while reducing CIR volume and cost. Recorder settings are account/region scoped, so you can apply continuous in production where required and periodic elsewhere.
Configuration Item Recorded (CIR)–based pricing: charges accrue for each configuration item that AWS Config records. Continuous recording captures a configuration item for every change event, while periodic recording captures state at fixed intervals (e.g., daily). Although the unit price for periodic items may differ, reducing recording frequency can materially lower total CIR volume and spend when per-change granularity isn’t required.
*Note:* AWS Config also has other pricing dimensions (e.g., rule and conformance pack evaluations). This entry focuses specifically on the CIR component.
