Compare costs

Learn how to compare your cloud spend across two date ranges with Compare.

Compare shows your spend from two date ranges side by side, so you can see what grew, what shrank, and by how much. Use it for month-over-month or year-over-year reviews, and to find the cause of a change in your bill.

To open Compare, select Analyze in the top navigation, then select Compare. For how splits, filters, and Sync work across all three tabs, see Visibility.

Setting the Two Date Ranges

Compare has two sides, each with its own date range and total:

• Base State. The period you want to examine, such as month-to-date.
• Compared State. The period you compare it against. Choose a range relative to the base state, such as Previous Period or Same Period Last Year, or pick a custom range.

Use a preset for a common comparison. Open Filters and expand Presets to choose one, such as MTD vs Last Month or Last 30 Days vs Previous 30 Days.

Splitting and Filtering a Comparison

Your splits, and the filters in the Filters drawer, apply to both sides of the comparison. To filter only one side, use the Filter menu next to that side's date range.

Choosing a Graph

Use Graph to show the two periods side by side, overlaid in one chart, or as the variance between them. Variance is available only when the two date ranges have the same length.

Granularity and Cost apply to both sides.

Reading the Results

The cards under the Compare charts show which costs changed between the two periods. Each entry is one series from the chart above.

• Top Growing Costs. The costs that grew the most.
• Top Decreasing Costs. The costs that fell the most.
• Top Cost Center. The cost with the highest average spend across both periods.