# Activating user-defined cost allocation tags


For tags to appear on your billing reports, you must activate them. Your user-defined cost allocation tags represent the tag key, which you activate in the Billing and Cost Management console. Once you activate or deactivate the tag key, it will affect all tag values that share the same tag key. A tag key can have multiple tag values. You can also use the `UpdateCostAllocationTagsStatus` API operation to activate your tags in bulk. For more information, see the [AWS Billing and Cost Management API Reference](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-cost-management/latest/APIReference/API_UpdateCostAllocationTagsStatus.html). 

**To activate your tag keys**

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the AWS Billing and Cost Management console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/costmanagement/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/costmanagement/).

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Cost allocation tags**.

1. Select the tag keys that you want to activate.

1. Choose **Activate**.

After you create and apply user-defined tags to your resources, it can take up to 24 hours for the tag keys to appear on your cost allocation tags page for activation. It can then take up to 24 hours for tag keys to activate.

For an example of how tag keys appear in your billing report with cost allocation tags, see [Viewing a cost allocation report](configurecostallocreport.md#allocation-viewing).

## About the `awsApplication` tag


The `awsApplication` tag will be automatically added to all resources that are associated with applications that are set up in AWS Service Catalog AppRegistry. This tag is automatically activated for you as a cost allocation tag. Use this tag to analyze the costs trends for your application and its resources. 

You can deactivate the `awsApplication` tag, but this will affect the cost reporting for the application. If you deactivate the tag, it won’t be automatically activated again. To manually activate the tag, use the Billing console or the [UpdateCostAllocationTagsStatus](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-cost-management/latest/APIReference/API_UpdateCostAllocationTagsStatus.html) API operation.

The `awsApplication` tag doesn’t count towards your cost allocation tag quota. For more information about quotas and restrictions for cost allocation tags, see [Quotas and restrictions](billing-limits.md). For more information about AppRegistry, see the [AWS Service Catalog AppRegistry Administrator Guide](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/servicecatalog/latest/arguide/overview-appreg.html#ar-user-tags).