Budgets

Budgets let you define spend limits for any scope, track progress against those limits, and alert your team when spend is approaching or exceeding the budget.

When to use it

• You want to enforce spend limits for a team, project, environment, or account.
• You need early warning before a budget is breached.
• You want to track actual vs. budgeted spend over time.

Open Budgets

Go to Cost Management > Budgets from product navigation.

Create a budget

1. Click Add budget (or the equivalent create action).
2. Enter a budget name and select a scope — account, Perspective, service, or tag-based.
3. Set the budget period (monthly, quarterly, or annual) and the budget amount.
4. Configure alert thresholds — for example, alert at 75% and 100% of budget.
5. Set alert recipients, or configure delivery in Settings > Notification Settings.
6. Review and save.

Review a budget

Select a budget from the list to open its detail view:

• Actual spend — how much has been spent in the current period
• Budget progress — spend as a percentage of budget
• Variance — difference between actual and budgeted spend
• Forecast — projected spend for the full period, based on current burn rate
• Status — on track, at risk, or exceeded

Don't rely on today's spend alone

A budget can be within target today but forecasted to exceed by month-end. Always review the forecast alongside the current spend.

Best practices

• Set budgets at a scope that has clear ownership — a team, a cost center, or a product.
• Use Perspectives or tags to define the budget scope accurately.
• Configure early-warning thresholds (e.g., 80%) to give teams time to course-correct.
• Retire or update budgets when organizational structures change.
• Reconcile budget scope with Cost Explorer using the same filters for consistency.

Troubleshooting

Budget creation requires budget permissions. If you can view budgets but cannot create or edit them, ask an administrator to check your role. See Login and access issues.