User Guide

Cost Explorer

Multi-dimensional cost analysis with flexible grouping, filtering, saved queries, and trend tracking.

Two tabs#

Cost Explorer has two tabs:

Overview tab
Multi-dimensional cost composition analysis. Group by service, resource group, resource, provider, subscription, or any tag key. Visualized as horizontal bar charts and stacked time-series charts.
Cost Trend tab
Search-first UX for tracking a specific item's cost over time. Search across all subscriptions — you don't need to know which subscription an item belongs to.

Overview controls#

Two rows of controls let you slice your cost data:

  • ✓Group By: service, resource_group, resource, provider, subscription, tag:<key>
  • ✓Period: current month, last month, last 3/6 months, YTD, last year, custom
  • ✓Time Breakdown: month, quarter, year, or daily export
  • ✓Scope: multi-subscription selection via checkbox dropdown
  • ✓WHERE filter: case-insensitive substring match on dimension values
  • ✓Tag key/value filters for proportional cost analysis
Tip
Click any bar in the horizontal bar chart to navigate to the Cost Trend tab with that item pre-selected. This is the fastest way to investigate a specific service or resource group.

Cost Trend#

The Cost Trend tab shows a 12-month cost history for any item:

  1. Type a search query in the prominent search box
  2. Optionally filter by dimension (service, resource group, resource, etc.)
  3. Click a result to see the monthly trend chart with month-over-month % change
  4. Export to Excel or email the trend report with one click

The search runs across all your subscriptions — if a VM exists in any subscription, the search will find it.

Saved queries#

Save frequently-used queries for quick access:

  • ✓Click 'Save Query' to save the current filter/group configuration
  • ✓Pin up to 5 queries (appear on Dashboard with live data)
  • ✓Load any saved query from the collapsible panel or via URL
  • ✓Schedule email delivery (daily/weekly/monthly) to any recipients
  • ✓Delete queries with a confirmation modal

Scheduled email delivery#

Each saved query can have an email schedule:

  • ✓Frequency: daily, weekly (pick day), or monthly (pick date)
  • ✓Time: set in UTC
  • ✓Recipients: any email addresses
  • ✓Content: Excel export of the query results

Celery Beat checks for due queries every 15 minutes. Recipients receive the Excel export as an email attachment with a "View in App" link.

Note
SMTP must be configured (Settings → Email) for scheduled delivery to work.

Export & sharing#

  • ✓Excel Export: hierarchical drill-down with collapsible rows and time-period columns
  • ✓Email: send results to any email address with a pre-filled subject line
  • ✓Daily Breakdown: async Celery job for day-level granularity (download or email)