Cost Widgets
Two cost-focused widgets sit on the dashboard: Cost Intelligence for period-over-period spend with a top-resources pie, and Cost Anomalies for a quick look at recent cost surprises. They share the layout described in Shared Widget Behavior; this page covers the metric cards, the chart, and the per-widget defaults.
Widgets on This Page
Cost data takes longer than the first scan
Cost widgets require historical cost data from Azure Cost Management, which is backfilled after the first scan completes. Expect cost cards to read $0 for a few hours after a fresh install while the backfill runs. Anomalies in particular need at least 14 days of history before the widget is meaningfully populated.
Cost Intelligence
Period-over-period spend with the top ten most expensive resources. The external-link icon on the title opens Cost Explorer. There is no subtitle. Requires the Cost Read permission.
Metric cards (day-based windows)
When the time window is 7 days, 14 days, or 30 days, the four metric cards compare the most recent N-day window against the previous N-day window. Cards are not clickable.
- Current period
- Total spend over the most recent N days.
- Previous period
- Total spend over the prior N days for comparison.
- Change Amount
- Absolute change in your billing currency. Trend icon: red ↑ for an increase, green ↓ for a decrease.
- Change %
- Percentage change between the two periods.
Metric cards (Current Month mode)
When the time window is Current Month, the cards switch to month-to-date framing.
- Month-to-date
- Spend so far this billing month.
- Previous month
- Total spend for the previous full billing month.
- Projected Month-End
- A linear extrapolation: month-to-date divided by days elapsed, multiplied by days in the month.
- Change vs Last Month
- Projected percentage change vs. previous full month, with trend icon.
Projected Month-End is directional
The projection is a simple linear extrapolation. It does not account for end-of-month batch charges, scheduled jobs, or planned ramp-ups, so treat it as a directional indicator and not a budget forecast.
Top 10 Most Expensive Resources
Below the metrics, a donut chart of the top ten resources by spend in the selected window.
- Default window
30 days. Options7 days,14 days,30 days,Current Month.- Click a slice
- Opens Cost Explorer filtered to that resource. Subscription-scoped resources without a resource group land on the parent subscription's Cost Explorer view instead.
No "Others" bucket
The pie shows only the top ten. Everything else is excluded, so the metric-card totals are usually larger than the sum of pie slices on tenants with many small resources. That is expected.
Cost Anomalies
A lightweight view into the same data the dedicated Cost Anomalies feature uses. The external-link icon on the title opens Anomalies Explorer. The subtitle reads <N> anomalies detected across <M> resources, with both counts reflecting the widget's current filters. Requires the Cost Read permission.
Metric cards
- Cost Increases
- Anomalies that are cost increases. Red ↑ icon.
- Cost Decreases
- Anomalies that are cost decreases. Green ↓ icon.
Top 7 Most Significant
Below the metrics, a top-7 table with two controls on the right side of the section header: a Hide purchases checkbox (on by default) and a time-window dropdown.
- Hide purchases
- When on, hides reservation purchases, refunds, and Azure Marketplace charges so the table shows usage-based anomalies.
- Default window
14 days. Options1 day,3 days,7 days,14 days,31 days.- Row click
- Opens Anomalies Explorer with that resource pre-selected. The Hide purchases state carries over.
The widget is for triage, not investigation
Use the dashboard widget to spot what moved this week. For tuning detection thresholds, hiding noisy resources, or doing investigation, work in the dedicated Cost Anomaly Detection docs.
Shared Behavior
- Permission: both widgets require
Cost Read. Without it, neither appears. - Currency: shown per resource's Azure billing currency. Multi-currency tenants will see different rows in different currencies.
- First-scan timing: cost data is backfilled from Azure Cost Management. Expect a few hours of
$0after the first scan before cost widgets populate.
See also
- Cost Anomalies dashboard widget detail for additional context on what the widget shows.
- Cost Anomaly Detection settings to adjust scanner-side detection thresholds.
Troubleshooting
The pie chart is just one big slice
Answer
One resource is dominating spend in the selected window. Click that slice to drill into Cost Explorer for that resource, or change the window to surface different patterns. To see the rest, switch to a Cost Explorer view with a different aggregation.
My anomalies count is much smaller than I expected
Answer
The widget hides purchases by default. Uncheck Hide purchases to include reservation purchases, refunds, and Marketplace charges. If counts are still low, the scanner's detection thresholds may be filtering them out, see Cost Anomaly Detection settings.
Pie chart slice click took me to the wrong subscription
Answer
Some Azure resources (for example, GitHub Enterprise) are subscription-scoped without a resource-group segment in their resource ID. The click drills to the parent subscription's Cost Explorer view instead of a single-resource view. This is intentional and matches how those resources are billed.