Viewing Usage Data in Dashboards

Behind every cloud cost is associated usage data. For example, if you are charged $5 for a compute instance for a day and used it for 4.2 hours, the 4.2 hours is the usage data and "hours" is the pricing unit. Analyzing usage alongside cost helps you understand whether cost changes are driven by consumption or by pricing changes like new savings plans.

Billing-level usage data (usage amounts and pricing units) is available in Analytics Dashboards for AWS, Azure, GCP, and custom cost data sources from AnyCost. For resource-level usage metrics like Kubernetes CPU, memory, and GPU, see Viewing Usage Data in Explorer.

Why usage data matters

Costs can decrease without any change in usage, for example, when a savings plan takes effect. Costs can also increase while usage stays flat, due to pricing changes. Usage data gives you the unaffected view of actual resource consumption, separate from pricing mechanics.

Build a visualization with usage data

Navigate to Analytics.
When adding a visualization, expand Cost Types and Usage.
Select Usage Amount.
Add a date filter for optimal results.

ℹ️
When working with Usage Amount, always include Pricing Unit to ensure accuracy. Aggregating different units (hours, MB, instances) without filtering by Pricing Unit and Resource Type produces misleading results.

To summarize or aggregate usage data, always include both Resource Type and Pricing Unit in your visualization. This prevents mixing different units into a single total.

ℹ️
Usage data timestamps and invoice dates do not always align. You may see different dates for the same charge depending on which Cost Type you use in your Dashboard.

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