Unit Economics¶
Unit Economics measures cloud cost relative to a business activity or output — for example, cost per customer, per transaction, per API request, or per active user.
When to use it¶
- You want to understand whether cloud efficiency is improving as your product scales.
- You need to price a product or service based on infrastructure cost per unit.
- You want to show business leaders a cloud cost metric they can relate to.
Open Unit Economics¶
Go to Cost Management > Unit Economics from product navigation.
Tabs¶
| Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Overview | Cost per unit across all configured metrics |
| Business Views | Cost mapped to configured business outcomes |
| Applications | Cost per unit for individual applications |
| AI Workloads | Cost per unit for AI and ML workloads |
| Recommendations Impact | Value of optimization actions measured in unit terms |
Set up a unit metric¶
- Select or configure a unit source (a metric feed that counts the unit of work).
- Choose a supported unit label: Employees, Transactions, API requests, GB processed, Active users, Workflows completed, or Custom metric.
- Optionally link to a value measure: Revenue, Budget, Avoided cost, Productivity value, SLA value, or Risk reduction.
- Review the generated cost-per-unit trend over time.
Monitor source health¶
The unit metric is only as reliable as the source feeding it. Check these fields regularly:
- Source Status — is the data feed active?
- Last Received — when did the last data point arrive?
- Coverage — what percentage of the period has data?
- Missing Periods — are there gaps that might skew the trend?
A sudden change in cost per unit may be a data quality issue rather than a real efficiency change.
Best practices¶
- Keep the unit definition stable across periods — changing what counts as a "unit" mid-year breaks trend comparisons.
- Do not compare scopes with different allocation or source coverage.
- Investigate missing periods before interpreting a change in cost per unit.
- Start with one clear metric before adding more.
Troubleshooting¶
If data appears missing or health indicators show errors, check that the metric source is actively sending data and that the integration is connected. See Missing or delayed data.