Quickstart

Set up CloudZero in minutes and start seeing your cloud costs within 24 hours.

What you need

Admin access to your cloud provider account (AWS, Azure, GCP, or Oracle Cloud)

Step 1: Create your account

Go to app.cloudzero.com and create an account.

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The first user from your company creates the organization. Anyone else who signs up with the same email domain is automatically added. Administrators can enable invite-only mode in Settings > Organization Settings to require invitations before users can register. See View and Manage Users for details.

Step 2: Connect your cloud provider

In CloudZero, select Settings > Cloud Connections.
Select Create Connection + and choose your cloud provider.
Follow the guided setup to complete the connection.

For detailed setup instructions, see the connection guide for your provider:

You can also connect SaaS platforms, AI platforms, and custom cost sources.

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CloudZero begins collecting your cost data shortly after you connect. Your costs appear in the Explorer within 24 hours. Anomaly Detection starts monitoring your spend automatically with no configuration needed.

Step 3: Allocate your spend

When your data appears in the Explorer, you can start organizing costs by team, product, environment, or any category that matters to your business. CloudZero offers two ways to allocate costs:

Allocate visually with Dimension Studio: Build cost allocation rules using a point-and-click interface. No code required.
Allocate through YAML with CostFormation: Write allocation rules in YAML for more advanced configurations.

After you publish a new allocation, your updated cost breakdowns are typically visible in the Explorer within 5 minutes.

Your first week with CloudZero

Explore your costs in the Explorer by filtering and grouping by service, account, team, or any category you define.
Set up Views to route cost alerts to specific teams through their own Slack channel or email.
Check Anomaly Detection. It is already watching your spend.
Ask a question in the AI Hub. Ask about your costs in natural language and get answers backed by your actual data.
Browse savings recommendations in Optimize to find specific ways to reduce your cloud spend.

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Have questions or feedback? Reach out to your account manager.