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💰 Cost Metric

unusd.cloud lets you choose which AWS Cost Explorer metric is used for all spend calculations across your organization. This is useful if your company has negotiated pricing with AWS through an Enterprise Discount Program (EDP) or uses Reserved Instances and Savings Plans.

Available Metrics

Metric AWS API Name Best For
Net Unblended Cost (default) NET_UNBLENDED_COST On-demand equivalent pricing, standard billing view
Net Amortized Cost NET_AMORTIZED_COST Organizations with EDP discounts, Reserved Instances, or Savings Plans

Net Unblended Cost

This is the default metric. It represents the actual charges for each resource at on-demand rates, minus any credits and refunds. This is the most common view and matches what most users see in their AWS billing console.

Net Amortized Cost

This metric distributes upfront and recurring reservation fees across the usage period. It also reflects Enterprise Discount Program (EDP) pricing. If your company has negotiated a 20% discount with AWS for the next 3 years, enabling this metric will show costs that reflect that discount.

Net Amortized Cost includes:

  • Enterprise Discount Program (EDP) contract pricing
  • Reserved Instance amortization (upfront fees spread across the term)
  • Savings Plan amortization
  • Credits and refunds excluded

How to Enable

  1. Go to Settings in your unusd.cloud dashboard
  2. Scroll to the Cost Display section
  3. Toggle Use Amortized Cost Metric to on
  4. Click Save Settings

The setting applies to your entire organization, not individual accounts.

What Changes

After enabling amortized cost, the following values will reflect the new metric on the next scan:

  • Month-to-date (MTD) spend
  • Top 5 services by cost
  • Monthly and annual cost calculations in reports
  • EC2-Other cost breakdown

Historical scan data is not affected. Each scan stores which metric was used, so you can see the transition in your analytics timeline.

Limitations

Spend forecasts always use Unblended Cost. The AWS Cost Explorer GetCostForecast API does not support NET_AMORTIZED_COST on linked accounts. Forecasted spend will continue to use UNBLENDED_COST regardless of your setting. This is an AWS API limitation.

Per-resource cost estimates are not affected. Individual resource prices (e.g., EC2 instance monthly cost, EBS volume price) come from AWS Pricing APIs, not Cost Explorer. These values remain the same regardless of the cost metric setting.

When to Use Amortized Cost

Consider enabling amortized cost if:

  • Your organization has an active Enterprise Discount Program (EDP) with AWS
  • You have significant Reserved Instance or Savings Plan commitments
  • Your FinOps team reports costs using amortized metrics
  • You want unusd.cloud spend figures to match your internal cost allocation

If you are unsure, the default Net Unblended Cost is a safe choice for most organizations.

For additional help, contact support@unusd.cloud or visit our documentation.