> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.costory.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Cost Metrics

> How we compute the different metrics on top of your billing data

# Cost Metrics

* **Cost (Billed Cost)**: The amount you actually pay at the end of the month, after all discounts and credits have been applied.
* **Effective Cost**: The billed cost with upfront fees for Savings Plans and Reserved Instances spread (amortized) evenly across the commitment period, instead of being charged as a lump sum. This gives you a smoother, more representative view of daily costs.
* **List Cost**: The cost calculated from public on-demand prices, what you would have paid without any negotiated discounts or commitments. Use this as a benchmark to measure how much you're saving compared to standard pricing.
* **Contracted Cost**: The cost under your negotiated <Tooltip tip="Enterprise Discount Program, an AWS program where large customers commit to a minimum total spend in exchange for a blanket discount." cta="See Glossary" href="/docs/glossary#edp">EDP</Tooltip> or special pricing, excluding all <Tooltip tip="AWS's flexible commitment-based pricing. You commit to a consistent $/hour for 1 or 3 years and get discounted rates." cta="See Glossary" href="/docs/glossary#savings-plans">Savings Plan</Tooltip> discounts and credits. This isolates the effect of actual usage changes from discount movements.
  <Tip>
    We advise to track Contracted Cost for your engineering team since it only
    depends on actual usage. Tracking Billed Cost can be misleading because of
    Savings Plan reassignments and credits you receive during the year.
    [Learn why Contracted Cost is the right metric for engineering teams](/docs/savings-plan-cost-fluctuation)
  </Tip>

## AWS

| AWS Cost Explorer Metric / Field | Costory Equivalent | Adjustments    | Meaning                                                                                                        |
| -------------------------------- | ------------------ | -------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Net Unblended Cost               | Cost (Billed Cost) | Taxes excluded | Matches the amount on your AWS invoice after all applied discounts and credits.                                |
| Net Amortized Cost               | Effective Cost     | Taxes excluded | Same as billed cost but with upfront RI/Savings Plan fees spread evenly across the covered period.             |
| (No AWS equivalent)              | List Cost          | Taxes excluded | Cost calculated from AWS public list prices × usage quantity. Ignores all EDP, RI, and Savings Plan discounts. |
| (No AWS equivalent)              | Contracted Cost    | Taxes excluded | Cost under your negotiated EDP or special pricing, excluding all Savings Plan discounts and credits.           |

## GCP

| GCP Billing Field                  | Costory Equivalent | Adjustments    | Meaning                                                                                                                      |
| ---------------------------------- | ------------------ | -------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Cost including all credits and CUD | Cost (Billed Cost) | Taxes excluded | Total cost including all credits (promotions, SUD, CUD, reseller margin). Matches your GCP invoice.                          |
| Cost including all credits and CUD | Effective Cost     | Taxes excluded | Same as billed cost. GCP does not separate amortized vs non-amortized costs.                                                 |
| cost\_at\_list                     | List Cost          | Taxes excluded | Cost calculated from GCP public list prices. Only applies to regular cost rows, not credits.                                 |
| (No GCP equivalent)                | Contracted Cost    | Taxes excluded | Cost excluding promotions, SUD, subscription benefits, reseller margin, and CUD credits. Commitment costs are also excluded. |

## Azure

| Azure Cost Management Field | Costory Equivalent | Adjustments    | Meaning                                                                                                                                           |
| --------------------------- | ------------------ | -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Actual Cost (costInUsd)     | Cost (Billed Cost) | Taxes excluded | Matches the amount on your Azure invoice. Uses the "actual" cost export.                                                                          |
| Amortized Cost (costInUsd)  | Effective Cost     | Taxes excluded | Same as billed cost but with upfront reservation and savings plan fees spread evenly across the covered period. Uses the "amortized" cost export. |
| PayG Cost (paygCostInUsd)   | List Cost          | Taxes excluded | Cost calculated from Azure pay-as-you-go rates before any discounts.                                                                              |
| Actual Cost (costInUsd)     | Contracted Cost    | Taxes excluded | Same as billed cost. Azure does not provide a separate contracted rate equivalent.                                                                |

<Note>
  For Azure, Contracted Cost is identical to Billed Cost because Azure does not expose a separate contracted or negotiated rate in its billing exports. This means the Contracted Cost advantage (isolating usage changes from discount movements) does not currently apply to Azure.
</Note>

## Datadog

| Datadog Billing Field | Costory Equivalent | Adjustments | Meaning                                                                                                           |
| --------------------- | ------------------ | ----------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| billed\_cost          | Cost (Billed Cost) | None        | The amount billed by Datadog for the usage period.                                                                |
| effective\_cost       | Effective Cost     | None        | Same as billed costs, but your commitments that can be amortized are spread out per day based on the actual usage |
| billed\_cost          | List Cost          | None        | Same as billed cost. Datadog does not provide separate list pricing.                                              |
| billed\_cost          | Contracted Cost    | None        | Same as billed cost. Datadog does not distinguish contracted vs standard pricing.                                 |