There are multiple ways that Kubecost can be configured to pull in pricing data. This document outlines the different options and how to configure them.
{% hint style="info" %} With the exception of integrated cloud service provider (CSP) billing, all pricing sources are configured per-cluster. {% endhint %}
Kubecost supports the following pricing sources:
| Source | Detail | Pros | Cons | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud provider on-demand API | On by default. Kubecost looks up public pricing APIs. | No configuration or maintenance. | For users with significant discounts, Kubecost costs will be significantly higher than actual billing. | Free |
| Integrated CSP billing | Kubecost pulls CSP billing every 6 hours. When billing becomes available Kubecost reconciles the previously-estimated costs | Extremely accurate with little maintenance needed. All cloud billing can be imported. Out-of-cluster (OOC) costs can be combined with Kubernetes resources. | Kubecost requires access to the billing account. This setup can take time, especially if the team deploying Kubecost does not have access to the billing account. | Free |
| Custom Pricing | Manually set monthly costs for: CPU, RAM, storage, GPU, network, spot CPU, spot RAM | Simple configuration. Does not require CSP access. Works for on-prem clusters. Completely air-gapped for highly-secure environments | Accuracy dependent on value provided. Single rate per resource- no flexibility per node/storage types. | Free |
| Azure Rate Card | Kubecost pulls Azure Rate Card API. | More accurate Azure costs in the short-term (48 hours). | Limited value if billing-integration is configured. Requires additional setup with Azure. | Free |
| Alibaba | Kubecost pulls Alibaba Rate Card API. | Currently the only method to retrieve Alibaba resource pricing. | More accurate costs. Requires additional setup with Alibaba. | Free |
| AWS Spot Data Feed | Kubecost pulls spot prices from a custom feed. | More accurate costs in the short-term (48 hours) for Spot nodes. | Limited value if billing-integration is configured. Requires additional setup with AWS. | Free |
| CSV Pricing | Reads a user-provided CSV to generate granular resource prices. | Does not require CSP access. Works for on-prem clusters. Completely air-gapped for highly-secure environments. | Mapping labels in the CSV can be tedious. | Enterprise |
Kubecost will attempt to identify the provider of the cluster and pull pricing data from their public pricing APIs. Alibaba and Azure have their own specific pricing sources.
The below files/resources are the onDemand prices used by Kubecost:
See the following Kubecost documentation for assistance with configuring your cloud provider services:
After Kubecost has ingested the initial billing data from your CSP, it will take approximately 36-48 hours to determine whether costs are accurately accounted as on-demand, and will account for any differences between standard retail pricing and actual spend. You can learn more about how reconciliation works in Kubecost's Cloud Billing Integrations doc.
After Kubecost has performed reconciliation, it can further deduct accurate node pricing through short-term cost estimation, in which Kubecost uses historical spend data to determine daily and hourly node costs. Learn more in Kubecost's Cloud Billing Integrations doc.
For users with air-gapped environments, custom pricing values can be configured for CPU, GPU, and RAM, with spot pricing distinctions. Set the following Helm values via your values-kubecost.yaml, or in the Kubecost UI by going to Settings, then under 'Pricing', toggling on 'Enable Custom Pricing', then making adjustments per group:
Prices are monthly. storage and miscellaneous network metrics are all per GB.
kubecostProductConfigs:
customPricesEnabled: true
defaultModelPricing:
enabled: true
CPU: 28.0 # Single core per month cost
spotCPU: 4.86 # Single core per month cost
RAM: 3.09 # GB per month cost
spotRAM: 0.65 # GB per month cost
GPU: 693.50 # per month cost
spotGPU: 225.0 # per month cost
storage: 0.04 # per GB per month cost
zoneNetworkEgress: 0.01 # per GB per month cost
regionNetworkEgress: 0.01 # per GB per month cost
internetNetworkEgress: 0.12 # per GB per month costFor advanced customization of individual resources, see CSV pricing.