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This article explains how to install and use the Cost Management Power BI app. The app helps you analyze and manage your Azure costs in Power BI. You can use the app to monitor costs, usage trends, and identify cost optimization options to reduce your expenditures.
The Cost Management Power BI app currently supports only customers with an Enterprise Agreement.
The app limits customizability. If you want to modify and extend the default filters, views, and visualizations to customize for your needs, use Cost Management connector in Power BI Desktop instead. With the Cost Management connector you can join additional data from other sources to create customized reports to get holistic views of your overall business cost. The connector also supports Microsoft Customer Agreements.
Note
Power BI template apps don't support downloading the PBIX file.
Prerequisites
- A Power BI Pro license is required to install and use the app.
- To connect to data, you must use an Enterprise Administrator account. The Enterprise Administrator (read only) role is supported.
Installation steps
To install the app:
On the Power BI AppSource page, select Get it now.
Select Continue to agree to the terms of use and privacy policy.
In the Install this Power BI app box, select Install.
If needed, create a workspace and select Continue.
When installation completes, notification appears saying that your new app is ready.
Select the app that you installed.
On the Getting started page, select Connect your data.
In the dialog that appears, enter your EA enrollment number for BillingProfileIdOrEnrollmentNumber. Specify the number of months of data to get. Leave the default Scope value of Enrollment Number, then select Next.
Note
(Video) Azure Cost Management - 10-Minute OverviewThe default value for Scope is
Enrollment Number. Do not change the value, otherwise the initial data connection will fail.The next installation step connects to your EA enrollment and requires an Enterprise Administrator account. Leave all the default values. Select Sign in and connect.
The final dialog connects to Azure and gets data. Leave the default values as configured and select Sign in and continue.
You are prompted to authenticate with your EA enrollment. Authenticate with Power BI. After you're authenticated, a Power BI data refresh starts.
Note
The data refresh process might take quite a while to complete. The length depends on the number of months specified and the amount of data needed to sync.
After the data refresh is complete, select the Cost Management App to view the pre-created reports.
Reports available with the app
The following reports are available in the app.
Getting Started - Provides useful links to documentation and links to provide feedback.
Account overview - The report shows the current billing month summary of information, including:
- Charges against credits
- New purchases
- Azure Marketplace charges
- Overages and total charges
The Billing account overview page might show costs that differ from costs shown in the EA portal.
Note
The Select date range selector doesn’t affect or change overview tiles. Instead, the overview tiles show the costs for the current billing month. This behavior is intentional.
Data shown in the bar graph is determined by the date selection.
Here's how values in the overview tiles are calculated.
See Also
Assign access to Cost Management data - Microsoft Cost ManagementPlan costs, understand Microsoft Sentinel pricing and billingUnderstand and work with Cost Management scopes - Microsoft Cost ManagementAzure Monitor cost and usage - Azure Monitor
- The value shown in the Charges against credit tile is calculated as the sum of
adjustments. - The value shown in the Service overage tile is calculated as the sum of
ServiceOverage. - The value shown in the Billed separately tile is calculated as the sum of
chargesBilledseparately. - The value shown in the Azure Marketplace tile is calculated as the sum of
azureMarketplaceServiceCharges. - The value shown in the New purchase amount tile is calculated as the sum of
newPurchases. - The value shown in the Total charges tile is calculated as the sum of (
adjustments+ServiceOverage+chargesBilledseparately+azureMarketplaceServiceCharges).
The EA portal doesn't show the Total charges column. The Power BI template app includes Adjustments, Service Overage, Charges billed separately, and Azure marketplace service charges as Total charges.
The Prepayment Usage shown in the EA portal isn't available in the Template app as part of the total charges.
Usage by Subscriptions and Resource Groups - Provides a cost over time view and charts showing cost by subscription and resource group.
Usage by Services - Provides a view over time of usage by MeterCategory. You can track your usage data and drill into any anomalies to understand usage spikes or dips.
Top 5 Usage drivers - The report shows a filtered cost summarization by the top 5 MeterCategory and corresponding MeterName.
Windows Server AHB Usage - The report shows the number virtual machines that have Azure Hybrid Benefit enabled. It also shows a count of cores/vCPUs used by the virtual machines.
The report also identifies Windows VMs where Hybrid Benefit is enabled but there are less than 8 vCPUs. It also shows where Hybrid Benefit is not enabled that have 8 or more vCPUs. This information helps you fully use your Hybrid Benefit. Apply the benefit to your most expensive virtual machines to maximize your potential savings.
RI Chargeback - The report helps you understand where and how much of a reserved instance (RI) benefit is applied per region, subscription, resource group, or resource. The report uses amortized usage data to show the view.
You can apply a filter on chargetype to view RI underutilization data.
For more information about amortized data, see Get Enterprise Agreement reservation costs and usage.
RI Savings - The report shows the savings accrued by reservations for subscription, resource group, and the resource level. It displays:
- Cost with reservation
- Estimated on-demand cost if the reservation didn't apply to the usage
- Cost savings accrued from the reservation
The report subtracts any under-utilized reservation waste cost from the total savings. The waste wouldn't occur without a reservation.
You can use the amortized usage data to build on the data.
VM RI Coverage (shared recommendation) - The report is split between on-demand VM usage and RI VM usage over the selected period. It provides recommendations for VM RI purchases at a shared scope.
To use the report, select the drill-down filter.
Select the region that you want to analyze. Then select the instance size flexibility group, and so on.
See Also
Understand Cost Management data - Microsoft Cost ManagementPlan to manage costs for Azure Synapse Analytics - Azure Synapse AnalyticsConnect to Azure Cost Management data in Power BI Desktop - Power BIEstimating Consumption plan costs in Azure Functions
For each drill-down level, the following filters are applied to the report:
- The coverage data on the right is the filter showing how much usage is charged using the on-demand rate vs. how much is covered by the reservation.
- Recommendations are also filtered.
The recommendations table provides recommendations for the reservation purchase, based on the VM sizes used.
The Normalized Size and Recommended Quantity Normalized values help you normalize the purchase to the smallest size for an instance size flexibility group. The information is helpful if you plan to purchase just one reservation for all sizes in the instance size flexibility group.
VM RI Coverage (single recommendation) - The report is split between on-demand VM usage and RI VM usage over the selected time period. It provides recommendations for VM RI purchases at a subscription scope.
For details about how to use the report, see the VM RI Coverage (shared recommendation) section.
RI purchases - The report shows RI purchases over the specified period.
Price sheet - The report shows a detailed list of prices specific to a Billing account or EA enrollment.
Troubleshoot problems
If you're having issues with the Power BI app, the following troubleshooting information might help.
Error processing the data in the dataset
You might get an error stating:
There was an error when processing the data in the dataset.Data source error: {"error":{"code":"ModelRefresh_ShortMessage_ProcessingError","pbi.error":{"code":"ModelRefresh_ShortMessage_ProcessingError","parameters":{},"details":[{"code":"Message","detail":{"type":1,"value":"We cannot convert the value \"Required Field: 'Enr...\" to type List."}}],"exceptionCulprit":1}}} Table: <TableName>.A table name would appear instead of <TableName>.
Cause
The default Scope value of Enrollment Number was changed in the connection to Cost Management.
Solution
Reconnect to Cost Management and set the Scope value to Enrollment Number. Do not enter your organization's enrollment number, instead type Enrollment Number exactly as it appears in the following image.
BudgetAmount error
You might get an error stating:
Something went wrongThere was an error when processing the data in the dataset.Please try again later or contact support. If you contact support, please provide these details.Data source error: The 'budgetAmount' column does not exist in the rowset. Table: Budgets.Cause
This error occurs because of a bug with the underlying metadata. The issue happens because there's no budget available under Cost Management > Budget in the Azure portal. The bug fix is in the process of getting deployed to the Power BI Desktop and Power BI service.
Solution
- Until the bug is fixed, you can work around the problem by adding a test budget in the Azure portal at the billing account/EA enrollment level. The test budget unblocks connecting with Power BI. For more information about creating a budget, see Tutorial: Create and manage Azure budgets.
Invalid credentials for AzureBlob error
You might get an error stating:
Failed to update data source credentials: The credentials provided for the AzureBlobs source are invalid.Cause
This error occurs if you change the authentication method for your data source connection.
Solution
- Connect to your data.
- After you enter your EA enrollment and number of months, make sure that you leave the default value of Anonymous for Authentication method and None for the Privacy level setting.
- On the next page, set OAuth2 for the Authentication method and None set for Privacy level. Then, sign in to authenticate with your enrollment. This step also starts a Power BI data refresh.
Data reference
The following information summarizes the data available through the app. There's also links to APIs that give in-depth details for data fields and values.
See Also
Overview of Cost Management + Billing - Microsoft Cost ManagementEstimate the cost of archiving data (Azure Blob Storage) - Azure Storage
| Table reference | Description |
|---|---|
| AutoFitComboMeter | Data included in the app to normalize the RI recommendation and usage to the smallest size in the instance family group. |
| Balance summary | Summary of the balance for Enterprise Agreements. |
| Budgets | Budget details to view actual costs or usage against existing budget targets. |
| Pricesheets | Applicable meter rates for the provided billing profile or EA enrollment. |
| RI charges | Charges associated to your reserved instances over the last 24 months. |
| RI recommendations (shared) | Reserved instance purchase recommendations based on all your subscription usage trends for the last 7 days. |
| RI recommendations (single) | Reserved instance purchase recommendations based on your single subscription usage trends for the last 7 days. |
| RI usage details | Consumption details for your existing reserved instances over the last month. |
| RI usage summary | Daily Azure reservation usage percentage. |
| Usage details | A breakdown of consumed quantities and estimated charges for the given billing profile in the EA enrollment. |
| Usage details amortized | A breakdown of consumed quantities and estimated amortized charges for the given billing profile in the EA enrollment. |
Next steps
For more information about configuring data, refresh, sharing reports, and additional report customization see the following articles:
- Configure scheduled refresh
- Share Power BI dashboards and reports with coworkers and others
- Subscribe yourself and others to reports and dashboards in the Power BI service
- Download a report from the Power BI service to Power BI Desktop
- Save a report in Power BI service and Power BI Desktop
- Create a report in the Power BI service by importing a dataset
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FAQs
How do you use Power BI on Azure cost management? ›
Connect using Azure Cost Management
Select Azure from the list of data categories. Select Azure Cost Management. In the dialog that appears, for the Choose Scope drop down, use Manually Input Scope for Microsoft Customer Agreements, or use Enrollment Number for Enterprise Agreements (EA).
Cost Management works with Azure Advisor to provide cost optimization recommendations. Azure Advisor helps you optimize and improve efficiency by identifying idle and underutilized resources.
How do you calculate cost analysis in Azure? ›To review your costs in cost analysis, open the scope in the Azure portal and select Cost analysis in the menu. For example, go to Subscriptions, select a subscription from the list, and then select Cost analysis in the menu. Use the Scope pill to switch to a different scope in cost analysis.
What should you use to track the costs of Azure? ›Azure Cost Management + Billing is the primary tool you'll use to analyze your usage and costs. It gives you multiple options to analyze your monthly charges for different Azure Monitor features and their projected cost over time.
How do you use cost management in Azure? ›Enable access to costs in the Azure portal
To enable an option in the Azure portal: Sign in to the Azure portal at https://portal.azure.com with an enterprise administrator account. Select the Cost Management + Billing menu item. Select Billing scopes to view a list of available billing scopes and billing accounts.
Azure Cost Management lets you analyze past cloud usage and expenses, and predict future expenses. You can view costs in a daily, monthly, or annual trend, to identify trends and anomalies, and find opportunities for optimization and savings.
Which of the following can you use to configure and estimate the costs for Azure products? ›Azure Cost Management Tools
Azure Price Calculator—can help you estimate the cost of the Azure services you intend to use. You can choose a resource and define the settings. The calculator can then provide you with a cost breakdown.
Azure Cost Management's Cost Analysis tool helps you break down the details of your Azure spend—with this tool you can take a more in-depth look into exactly what everything costs, and do all kinds of grouping and filtering across your resources.
Which five factors affect the cost of an app service in Azure? ›- Factors Affecting Azure Costs. Resource Type. Services. Location. Azure Billing Zones.
- What is Azure Cost Management?
- Additional Azure Cost Optimization Tools.
- Advanced Cost Data Analysis in Azure. Power BI. Power BI Data Connector. Cost Management exports. Usage Details API. ...
- Azure Cost Optimization with Spot.io.
- Determine the reason you need a cost analysis. The way you use a cost analysis can vary based on your reason for doing so. ...
- Evaluate cost. ...
- Compare to previous projects. ...
- Define all stakeholders. ...
- List the potential benefits. ...
- Subtract the cost from the outcome. ...
- Interpret your results.
How do you complete a cost analysis? ›
- Step 1: Understand the cost of maintaining the status quo. ...
- Step 2: Identify costs. ...
- Step 3: Identify benefits. ...
- Step 4: Assign a monetary value to the costs and benefits. ...
- Step 5: Create a timeline for expected costs and revenue.
An Azure subscription is tied to a single account, the one that was used to create it and is also used for billing. Resources can be supplied as instances of the many Azure products and services under the subscription. Free, pay-as-you-go, and member offers are the three primary types of subscriptions accessible.
What is the Azure Pricing Calculator? ›Microsoft Azure Calculator is a tool that allows users to estimate the cost of using various Azure services, such as virtual machines, storage, and networking. The calculator can be used to create customized scenarios, compare costs across different services, and generate detailed cost reports.
Which tool helps you estimate the cost you will increase or Azure? ›The Azure Pricing Calculator can help you understand the costs of moving workloads to the Azure cloud. It estimates Azure pricing once all your data and applications are in Azure.
Who can use Azure Cost Management? ›Who Can Use Azure Cost Management? All Azure users and partners can use Azure Cost Management features free. Users from other cloud providers like AWS and GCP can also access Cost Management features.
Where is cost management in Azure? ›Cost Management is available from within the Billing experience. It's also available from every subscription, resource group, and management group in the Azure portal. The availability is to ensure everyone has full visibility into the costs they're responsible for.
What are costmanagement billing features used for? ›Cost Management + Billing helps you understand your Azure invoice (bill), manage your billing account and subscriptions, monitor and control Azure spending and optimize resource use.
Which service can give you cost recommendations on Azure? ›Azure Advisor helps you optimize and reduce your overall Azure spend by identifying idle and underutilized resources. You can get cost recommendations from the Cost tab on the Advisor dashboard.
Which Azure management tool analyzes resources and provides recommendations to optimize? ›Azure Advisor offers actionable recommendations to help you optimise your Azure resources for reliability, security, operational excellence, performance, and cost.
Which is the tools provided by Microsoft to access Azure storage? ›Azure Storage Explorer – cloud storage management. Microsoft Azure.
What are monitoring tools used in Azure? ›
Microsoft combined three unique services—Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, and Application Insights—under the umbrella of Azure Monitor to provide powerful end-to-end monitoring of your applications and the components they rely on. Log Analytics and Application Insights are now features of Azure Monitor.