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Billing explains what you spent. External metrics explain why. Connect a usage source in Integrations, then query it next to cloud cost in Advanced Explorer. Use this when you need to:
  • Reallocate shared infrastructure with a technical signal (requests, latency, schema size)
  • Track such as cost per active user or cost per transaction
  • Overlay business activity (orders, sessions, pipeline runs) on the same chart as spend
Add integration page showing the External metric section with AWS, GCP, Datadog, Amplitude, Tsuga, and Google Sheets

Add integration, External metric tiles for AWS, GCP, Datadog, Amplitude, Tsuga, and Google Sheets

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Add an external metric

1

Open Add integration

Go to Integrations and click + Add integration.
2

Pick an External metric tile

The page title is Add integration. The subtitle is Choose a provider to connect billing or external metrics. Tiles are split into Billing and External metric.
3

Validate, then save

Connect screens are two columns: instructions on the left, Connection details on the right. Click Validate. Save connection stays disabled until validation succeeds. Custom metrics has no Validate step: Save connection creates the table.
After you save, the source appears under Integrations > Data sources. Most external metric sources use the External metrics badge. Google Sheets uses the Metrics badge. Custom metrics uses the Custom metrics badge. A Datadog connection shows metrics and, if you enabled CI Visibility, metrics_ci.
Integrations Data sources list showing Docs Datadog, Tsuga, BigQuery, a Google Sheet, and billing datasources

Integrations Data sources list with Datadog, External metrics, and Metrics badges

Query external metrics in Advanced Explorer only. Open Explore your data, then switch Classic to Advanced. Classic greys out non-cost metrics.

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External metric providers

AWS CloudWatch

CloudWatch metrics. Sub-choice on the AWS tile.

GCP Cloud Monitoring

Live GCP metrics. Sub-choice on the GCP tile.

S3 metrics

Parquet files from S3. Sub-choice on the AWS tile.

BigQuery

Any BigQuery table, queried live.

BigQuery jobs (beta)

Reallocate slots to the user who ran the query. On-demand and reservations in one view.

Datadog

Standard metrics. Same connect page as billing.

Datadog CI Visibility

CI and pipeline visibility. Same Datadog connect page.

Amplitude

Active users, new users, WAU, and MAU, queried live.

Tsuga

Live cluster metrics, logs, and traces.

Google Sheets

Numeric columns from a spreadsheet.

Snowflake

Tables from a database on your existing Snowflake integration.

Custom metrics

Hourly points you POST with an organization API key.
GCS Inventory is not on the External metric grid. See GCS Inventory for what to use instead.

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Query after you connect

1

Open Advanced Explorer

Click Explore your data in the sidebar, then switch Classic to Advanced.
2

Add a metric

Click + Add Metric. In the metric picker, use the chips cost, usage, metric, budget, and integrations.
Advanced Explorer metric picker open on Cost, with integrations listing Tsuga and BigQuery

Metric picker chips: cost, usage, metric, budget, and integrations

3

Pick the integration

Open integrations, then choose the source you connected. Helper text describes it as a live external usage metric.
4

Configure the series

For BigQuery, choose a table, then set Date field, Value column, Aggregate (for example SUM), Gap fill (FORWARD FILL, ZERO, or LINEAR), and optional Group by.
Select metric dropdown listing BigQuery tables such as demo_raw.artifact_registry and demo_raw.aws_ec2

BigQuery table picker after you select the BigQuery integration

5

Fix an empty chart

If the chart is empty, pick a different table and change Period. Options include Custom dates, Trailing 7 / 30 / 45 / 90 Days, MTD, QTD, YTD, Last Week, Last Month, Last 3 / 6 / 12 months, and Last Invoice Month.
Advanced Explorer Period menu listing Custom dates, trailing ranges, MTD, QTD, YTD, and Last Invoice Month

Period dropdown with Trailing 45 Days selected

In the demo workspace, demo_raw.artifact_* tables stayed empty at every range. demo_raw.raw_v2 with Trailing 90 Days rendered using date billing_period_end, value billed_cost, SUM, and FORWARD FILL.
Advanced Explorer bar chart of Externalmetric from BigQuery demo_raw.raw_v2 over Trailing 90 Days

External metric chart for demo_raw.raw_v2 with billed_cost SUM and FORWARD FILL

6

Add cost or a formula

Optionally click + Add Metric for Cost, then + Add Formula such as b / a.
See BigQuery for the live table picker and a worked query. See Unit Economics for formula patterns, or cost per active user and shared Cloud SQL allocation for end-to-end examples.

Unit Economics

Combine cost with external metrics in Explorer formulas.

Shared Cost Allocation

Split shared infrastructure using a usage metric.

Explorer

Query cost, usage, and formulas in one chart.

Billing Data

Connect AWS, GCP, Azure, and SaaS invoices first.
Last modified on October 21, 2026