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Dashboard widgets are saved cost views. Each widget can use Explorer-style metrics, formulas, filters, group-bys, comparison periods, and event context.

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Widget types

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Chart types

Choose the chart type based on the question the widget should answer.
Chart type selector showing Line, Bar, Donut, Waterfall, and Table visualization options in Costory

Chart type selector with Line, Bar, Donut, Waterfall, and Table options

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Waterfall charts

Waterfall charts show which services, accounts, teams, or products drove a cost increase or decrease between two periods. Use them during budget reviews, migration reviews, and cost-change explanations.
Cost Waterfall chart breaking down an AWS cost increase by service

Cost Waterfall shows which groups contributed most to a cost change

Pair waterfall charts with events when you need to explain whether a deploy, migration, purchase, or business change happened near the cost movement.

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Doughnut charts

Doughnut charts show proportional spend for a selected period. Use them for high-level split views such as cost by provider, business unit, environment, or product.

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Tables

Table widgets show the data behind a chart. Use them when reviewers need exact values, sorting, or exportable cost breakdowns. Tables can include:
  • Selected-period cost
  • Reference-period cost when comparison is enabled
  • Absolute change
  • Relative change
  • Cost, usage, budget, or formula values

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Budget vs actual widgets

Use a budget widget when you want to compare an approved with actual spend.
1

Edit the dashboard widget

Open the dashboard, click the widget action menu, and select Edit widget.
2

Add the budget metric

Click Add Metric, open the budget tab, and choose the budget version you want to analyze.
3

Add related cost

Open the action menu for the budget metric and click Add related cost. Costory adds a cost metric scoped to the budget definition.
4

Break actual spend down

Set Group By on the related cost metric to the dimension you use for ownership, such as team, squad, or product line.
5

Save the widget

Click Save.
Costory dashboard widget editor showing a budget metric with related actual cost grouped by squad

A dashboard widget comparing a budget target with actual spend grouped by squad

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Color palettes

Each chart widget can use one of four color palettes. Switch palettes to keep visuals readable across stacked bars, line charts, and grouped breakdowns. The setting lives in the widget editor’s chart display options.
Chart color palette options in a dashboard

Choose a chart color palette

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Export widget SQL to BigQuery

BigQuery data exports let you query the same cost data shown in a dashboard widget from your own BigQuery project. Use this when you want to reuse dashboard logic in Looker, notebooks, dbt, or custom SQL without rebuilding filters.
Copy SQL query action on a dashboard widget

Copy SQL query from a dashboard widget

1

Set up the BigQuery destination

Ask an Organization Admin to grant your BigQuery user or service account read access to the Costory export table under Integrations > Destinations. See BigQuery Data Exports for setup.
2

Open the dashboard widget

Open the dashboard that contains the widget you want to query outside Costory.
3

Copy the SQL

Open the widget action menu and click Copy SQL query.
4

Run the query

Paste the SQL into BigQuery, Looker, or a notebook that can query BigQuery.
The copied SQL reflects the widget configuration, including metric, filters, group-by, and date range.

Create and organize dashboards

Add widgets to dashboards and organize them for teams.

Dashboard templates

Start with pre-built FinOps widgets.

Unit Economics

Add usage metrics and formulas to the queries behind widgets.

BigQuery Data Exports

Set up the destination used by SQL export.
Last modified on June 30, 2026