Cost Explorer
Analyze Azure spend across your tenant by drilling subscription to resource group to resource. Compare any time window against its prior period, separate ongoing resource spend from reservations and other purchases, and forecast where the current month will land.
What You'll Learn
This documentation covers using the Cost Explorer view end to end:
- Navigate the four-column layout from subscriptions down to a single resource and its meters
- Pick date ranges, toggle Resources vs. Purchases, and filter by tag, name, type, or location
- Read the detail panel in Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Forecast modes
- Understand defaults, partial-data flags, multi-currency behavior, and historical resources
- Share a filtered view by URL, and cross-link into the Inventory Explorer
Key Capabilities
Three-Click Drill-Down
Move from tenant total to a single resource and a single meter without leaving the page. Subscriptions, resource groups, and resources sit in three columns; the fourth column is the detail panel.
Flexible Time Windows
Pick a preset (Current Month, Previous Month, Last 30 Days, Last 60 Days) or define a custom range up to 6 months back. Every window is automatically compared against its prior period.
Forecasts and Confidence
In Current Month, the detail panel projects month-end spend from the last 7, 30, or 60 days of activity and labels the projection HIGH, MEDIUM, or LOW confidence based on how consistent recent spend has been.
Tag, Type, and Location Filters
Filter the entire explorer by resource name, type, location, or tag without losing your selection. Tag filters support equals, exists, and missing, with an AND/OR mode toggle when more than one tag filter is active.
Meter-Level Breakdown
For an individual resource, switch to Meter or Sub-meter granularity to see Azure billing meters as separate chart lines and a sortable table. Click a legend entry to toggle a line, double-click to isolate it.
Documentation Sections
A single comprehensive guide covers everything you can do in the Cost Explorer view.
Related Features
- Cost Anomaly Detection — sibling page that surfaces unexpected spend changes and links back into the Cost Explorer for the affected resource.
- Resource Explorer — the View in Explorer button on any detail panel jumps to the same entity in the inventory.
- Dashboard Cost Widgets — cost cards on the dashboard click through to the Cost Explorer for the relevant subscription or resource.
Want to learn more about what Cost Explorer can do?
Check out the feature page for benefits, use cases, and highlights.
View Feature Page