Review utilization and wasted usage insights
Preview
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The FinOps hubUtilization insights dashboard focuses on insights andrecommendations for workload optimization and waste reduction. In the dashboard,you can view the estimated costs of potentially wasted usage, and take actionon recommendations to reduce waste and optimize your costs.
You might use the FinOps hub Utilization insights dashboard when you want to dothe following:
- View the cost of potentially wasted resources, such as idle, underprovisioned,or overprovisioned resources, and suboptimal configurations.
- Verify that resources in your projects orApp Hub applications are used efficiently.
- Understand and prioritize cost optimization opportunities.
- Collaborate with Google Cloud project owners, solution owners, and DevOps managersto implement changes to optimize workloads and reduce waste.
Limitations
- When viewing insightsBy Service, you can view one service at a time.
- When filtering utilization insights by project, you can view all projectsfor an aggregated view, or select up to 10 projects for a more granular viewof your potential wasted usage.
- Utilization insights are refreshed once a day.
- The waste map and resource recommendations table showcase up to 1000resources and includes the costliest resources based on costs for the last30 days.
- Some resource insights might not have an optimization recommendation.
- When viewing insightsBy Application, you can viewone App Hub application at a time.
- Utilization insights are available for one Cloud Billing accountat a time. The resources used in an App Hub application canbe spread across projects in different organizations and billing accounts.If the projects that make up the application span multiple billing accounts,the utilization insights are limited to the projects that are linked to thebilling account you are viewing, and might only be a partial view ofinsights for the application.
Permissions required to access the FinOps hub Utilization insights
To access the FinOps hub Utilization insights dashboard, you need the samepermissions that are required toaccess to the FinOps hub.
To view the details of a resource recommendation, you need theRecommender Viewer role on your Cloud Billing account. Depending on the type of recommendation,you might also need project permissions to view the details and apply arecommendation.
When viewing insights byApplication, to view metadata about the application,such asOwner,Criticality, andEnvironment, you need theapphub.applications.get permission. You can gain this permission using theApp Hub Viewerpredefined role.
Open the Utilization insights dashboard
To open theUtilization insights dashboard:
In the Google Cloud console, go to the FinOps hub.
At the prompt, choose the Cloud Billing account for which you want toview the FinOps hub.
In theFinOps hub, from thePotential wasted usage chart, clickView utilization insights.
Explore the Utilization insights dashboard
With theUtilization insights dashboard, you can gain better control overyour Google Cloud spending, eliminate waste, and optimize your resourceutilization for maximum cost efficiency.
- The dashboard supports insights for Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine,Cloud Run, Cloud SQL services, and App Hub applications.
- You can view utilization insightsBy Service orBy Application.
- When you first open theUtilization insights dashboard, by default, thepage shows all insightsBy Service for the selected service, for allprojects.
When you are viewing utilization insightsBy Service, you can configurethe dashboard with different service and project selections, one serviceat a time:
- You can select a different service from theServices drop-down.The options available in theServices drop-down are limited to theservices withactive utilization insights.
- You can use theProjects drop-down to focus the page on a smaller setof insights and recommendations. The options available in theProjectsdrop-down are limited to the projects that have resources withactive utilization insights.
When you are viewing insightsBy Application, you can view insights for oneApp Hub application at a time.
- The selected App Hub application might incur usage and costs inmore than one billing account and associated projects. Insights availableby application might be based on partial data, limited to projects andcosts for the Cloud Billing account you are actively viewing.
- Utilization insights by application only supports applications in a folderconfigured for application management. It doesn't support applications in ahost project or single-project boundary.If you want to view cost data by App Hub application, then ensurethat you haveset up App Hub for a folder and created your applications.
Insights provided by Gemini Cloud Assist
If you enabledGemini Cloud Assist in Cloud Billing,you can use the Gemini-provided insights to summarize and sendtop wasted usage insights to your engineering teams to take action andremediate.
If you have more than 10 projects in your billing account with utilizationinsights, you can selectFocus on the top projects to filter the utilization insights by theprojects with the highest amount of potential cost savings.
ClickDraft an email report to prompt Gemini Cloud Assistto generate adraft of the insights and top recommendations.You can copy the content of the report to send it in an email, chat, aticketing system, or any other tool you use.
Utilization summary panel
The values in theUtilization summary panel are updated based on the serviceand projects selected, or based on the selected application.
- Resources with potentially wasted usage: The total number of resources forthe selected service and project(s) that have available utilizationmetrics.
- Estimated cost of wasted usage: For resources with utilization metrics,this is the estimated cost of those resources over the last 30 days forthe selected service and project(s).
Potential savings/month: Savings that might be achieved through applyingrecommendations. Savings don't include existing discounts available throughactive Committed Use Discounts (CUDs).
ClickView recommendations to open theRecommendations dashboard to view all recommendations for the selected service andprojects.
Waste map
The Waste map provides a visual representation of the top costs by estimatedcost of waste. The map can help you to quickly identify the most importantutilization areas to tackle first.
- If you are viewing utilization insights for all projects, the estimated costof waste is aggregated across all projects in the service, broken down bythe optimization categories for the service you are viewing (such asIdle,Overprovisioned,Underprovisioned, andSuboptimal configuration).
- If you are viewing the utilization insights for 1 to 10 projects, the mapprovides a visual representation of the costs in each project broken down bythe optimization categories for the service you are viewing.
- The size of each box corresponds to the cost of resources; largerboxes indicate a higher estimated cost of waste.
- When you hold the pointer over any of the boxes in the waste map, you'llsee a tooltip for the box, with additional details about the values in thebox (such as the optimization category, the estimated cost of the optimizationcategory, the number of resources with potentially wasted usage, and theproject ID).
Resource recommendations table
The resource recommendations table lists up to 1000 resources that areidentified with potentially wasted usage. The table includes the costliestresources for the selected service, based on costs for the last 30 days, andan optimization recommendation for each resource.
Supported services and optimization categories
The Utilization insights dashboard provides recommendations about potentiallywasted usage for the following services and optimization categories:
| Service | Optimization categories |
|---|---|
| Compute Engine |
|
| Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) |
|
| Cloud SQL |
|
| Cloud Run |
|
| App Hub applications |
|
Columns in the resource recommendations table
The following data is available in the resource recommendations table.
By default, the rows in the table are sorted byLast 30 day cost, indescending order – highest cost to lowest cost. You can change the sort orderof the data by clicking on a different column header.
| Column | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Resource | The name of the specific resource that has potentially wasted usage. | my-n1-instance, test-cluster |
| Resource type | The type of resource that has potentially wasted usage. | Instance, Disk, Cluster |
| Service | The Google Cloud service for the specific resource | Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud SQL, Cloud Run |
| Scope | The Google Cloud project ID where the resource is contained. | my-project-id |
| Category | The optimization category for the specific resource and resource type. | Idle, Overprovisioned, Underprovisioned, Suboptimal configuration |
| Last 30 day cost | For each resource identified with potentially wasted usage, this column shows the net cost of each resource over the last 30 days, not including today. The cost is calculated using either the list price or custom contract price (if applicable), and includes any credits applied to the resource, such as committed use discounts (CUDs) and other credits. | $514.11, $98.00 |
| Region | The region where the resource is located. | us-central1, europe-west4, asia-east2 |
| Utilization metric 1 | For the specific resource, the primary metric that is analyzed to determine utilization insights. Metrics are calculated at the 95th percentile (P95) for the last 30 days. In some cases, metrics values won't be present. For example, Cloud Run doesn't provide metrics as it is a managed service. | CPU: 35%, Memory: 100%, No running pods |
| Utilization metric 2 | For the specific resource, the secondary metric that is analyzed to determine utilization insights. Metrics are calculated at the 95th percentile (P95) for the last 30 days. In some cases, metrics values won't be present. | Memory: 20%, CPU 11.72% |
| CUD benefit | 'Yes' indicates that the resource has an active, purchased Committed Use Discount (CUD) and that a portion of the cost was covered with a CUD. 'No' indicates that the resource isn't covered by an active CUD. | Yes or No |
| Recommendations | Specific actions you can take to optimize your cost. If you have the necessary permissions, you can view the recommendation details. If you have the Recommender Viewer role on your Cloud Billing account, you can select a recommendation to get further details and to apply the recommendation. Depending on the type of recommendation, you might also need project permissions to view the details and apply a recommendation. | View recommendation |
Summarize and send with Gemini Cloud Assist
On the FinOps Utilization insights dashboard, you can discover if resources areused efficiently and view high-impact utilization insights based on thepotential costs of wasted resources.
Gemini Cloud Assist provides the top utilizationinsights.
Draft an email with Gemini-generated insights
To help with financial accountability collaboration and data-drivendecision making requirements, Gemini Cloud Assist offers a toolto draft an email report based on the results of the utilization insightsand optimization recommendations. You can send the report in email, chat, ora ticketing system.
In the draft, clickCopy to copy the text and the recommendation linksto your clipboard. You can then paste the text and links into an email,chat, direct message, a ticketing system, or any other tool you use.
Resources
- FinOps hub
- Google Cloud Well-Architected Framework: Cost optimization
- Optimize costs with committed use discounts
- Purchasing spend-based committed use discounts
- Purchasing resource-based committed use discounts
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Last updated 2026-02-19 UTC.