You can view summary cost data, utilization data, and cost optimizationrecommendations for Google Cloud services on the Optimization page to help youto optimize costs in your projects andApp Hub applications.

You can also use Gemini for Google Cloud, an AI-poweredcollaborator, to help you to optimize costs.

Cost data and utilization metrics can help developers and platformadministrators in your organization to make informed decisions aboutoptimization opportunities.

This document is for developers and platform administrators who have permissionsto view resource cost and utilization data provided by theApp Optimize API.

If you manage billing accounts or budgets in Cloud Billing, refer to thefollowing information to help you with cost optimization:

• Cloud Billing cost optimization documentation,provides information about using FinOps Hub andGemini Cloud Assist in Cloud Billing.
• Cloud Billing export to BigQuery lets youperform a more detailed cost analysis in BigQuery or visualizecost data in tools such asLooker Studio.

About resource costs

This section describes information about costs that the App Optimize APIprovides to the Optimization page and Gemini Cloud Assist.

Costs organized by product

Cloud Billing and the App Optimize API categorize product-related costsdifferently. Cost data that the API provides to the Optimization page andGemini Cloud Assist is organized logically by product.Cloud Billing groups SKUs for resource usage intoservices.A service in Cloud Billing might be a subset of a Google Cloudproduct or might include SKUs from multiple Google Cloud products. TheseCloud Billing services are unrelated toApp Hub services.

For example, the costs for Compute Engine and GKE productsare equivalent to multiple Cloud Billing services.

Product on the Optimization page	Service in Cloud Billing
Compute Engine	Compute Engine and VM Manager
GKE	Compute Engine and GKE
Persistent Disk	Compute Engine

TheNetworking service includes SKUs for many networkingproducts such as Cloud Load Balancing, Cloud NAT, Cloud VPN,Private Service Connect, and Performance Dashboard. TheOptimization page categorizes these costs by product, but Cloud Billingonly provides a single Networking service and doesn't have defined servicesfor each networking product.

You can search the list ofGoogle Cloud SKUs to learn more abouthow SKUs are categorized in Cloud Billing.

Cost values

Costs are based on your contract prices, before anycommitted-use discounts (CUDs) or other credits are applied. Foran application, costs include all resources that are fullyused by the application and doesn't include costs for resources that areshared across applications.

Cost data availability

Google Cloud products report usage and cost data toCloud Billing processes at varying intervals. As a result, youmight see a delay between your use of Google Cloud services and theusage and costs displayed on the Optimization page or returned byGemini Cloud Assist. Typically, your costs are available withina day, but can sometimes take more than 24 hours.

Limitations and known issues

• Costs for Compute Engine VMs, Compute Engine MIGs, andGKE clusters don't include network charges for data egress orPersistent Disk usage. These costs are reported separately.

• Only some products supportresource-level costs.

• On the Optimization page, you can't view or filter resources by location whenyou are viewing data for an application.

• Costs for an application are only available if all application resource costsare in the same currency. If an application has resources associated withdifferent billing accounts, the billing accounts must all be configured forthe samecurrency.

Before you begin

The App Optimize API uses Cloud Billing to retrieve cost data andCloud Monitoring for utilization metrics. To get cost and utilizationdata, you need access to Monitoring data and configurationinformation, as well as the ability to view Cloud Billing data.

1. To view data on the Optimization page,Ensure that Cloud Hub is set up.

2. To use Gemini Cloud Assist,Ensure that Gemini Cloud Assist is set up.

Note: Cloud Hub only supports applications in a folder configured forapplication management. It doesn't support applications in ahost project or a single-project boundary.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to view data in Cloud Hub, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles on the project (project view) or managementproject for a folder (application view):

• View most application and project data:Cloud Hub Operator (roles/cloudhub.operator)
• View resource cost data: (roles/viewer) or a custom role with thebilling.resourceCosts.get permission
• View recommendations: Recommender Viewer (roles/recommender.viewer)
• Use Gemini Cloud Assist:Gemini Cloud Assist User (roles/geminicloudassist.user)

For more information about granting roles, seeManage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

You might also be able to get the required permissions throughcustom roles or otherpredefined roles.

Making changes based on your analysis of costs, such as applying arecommendation from Active Assist or changing the billing option forCloud Run, requires additional permissions or coordination with amember of your organization who has the required permissions.

View costs and utilization

The Optimization page displays the following information:

• The total cost and cost trend for a selected project or application.
• The top five resources or application workloads with the highest costalong with their cost change.
• The five most expensive resources or workloads with lowest utilization.

When you view data for a selected project or application, you can filter thepage to display specific products.

For information about which costs are included in displayed cost data, seeAbout costs.

To view costs and utilization:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to theOptimization page:

   Go to Optimization

2. Select theproject or application that you want toview:

   • To view data for applications, choose the folder that is configured forapplication management. Folders configured for application managementhave an special icon (). The managementproject for the folder also has a special icon() and the project name is in theformatFOLDER-NAME-mp. If you choose themanagement project instead of the folder, then the project pickerautomatically changes the selection to the folder.

   • To view data for an individual project, choose the projectthat contains the resources you want to view.

3. To filter data for a specific product, location, or historical time range,select an option from theProduct,Location, or time range filters.You can view up to 30 days of data.

   The Optimization page shows the following information:

   • Cost trend: Total costs for the selected filters.

     

     

     • Total gross cost: displays the total cost of usage for the selectedfilters.
     • Cost change: displays the change in gross cost. The change iscalculated based on the time period you selected. For example, ifyou select7 days and the current date is April 30, 2025, thechange percentage is a comparison between data from April 23 to April29 and data from April 16 to April 22. The start of the billing dayis at midnight in the US and Canadian Pacific Standard Time (UTC-8)time zone when Pacific Standard Time is in effect. When Pacific DaylightTime is in effect, the start of the billing day is at midnight in theUS and Canadian Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7) time zone.

   • Resources by cost and utilization: This section lists top resourcesto consider for further investigation. Costs associated with products thataren't supported are classified asOther.

     For a project: displays the top five resources with the highest costand cost change and the top five resources with high cost and lowestutilization. Resources for a product that aren't supported are classifiedasOther.

     

     • To further explore costs, click a specific resource name to view detailsfor that resource.
     • To view more detailed cost information, clickView details in Cost Explorer. The view in Cost Explorer isfiltered to show the same project, product, location, and time range asthe Optimization page.

     For an application: displays the top five workloads and services withthe highest cost and cost change and the top five workloads and serviceswith high cost and lowest utilization.

     

     • To further explore costs, click a specific workload or service name toview details for that workload or service.
     • To view more detailed cost information, clickView details in Cost Explorer. The view in Cost Explorer is filteredto show the same application, product, location, and time range as theOptimization page.

For more information about using Cost Explorer, seeOptimize costs with Cost Explorer.

Since utilization is only one aspect of cost for Google Cloudservices, we recommend that you use data on the Optimization page in thecontext of other cost-optimization features and best practices that areavailable for the services you use. For example, Compute Engine,Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), and Cloud Run providescommitted use discounts. Cloud Run also lets you choose fromdifferentbilling options based on how you use your instances.

View recommendations

Active Assist generates recommendations and insights to help youoptimize your Google Cloud resources. The Optimization page inCloud Hub displays the top 5 cost optimization recommendationsfor the selected project or application.

For information about cost recommenders and how they work, see theRecommenders page. The Optimization page displayscost recommendations from all cost recommenders except for thecommitted use discounts recommender.

To view recommendations:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to theOptimization page:

   Go to Optimization

2. Select theproject or application that you want toview:

   • To view data for applications, choose the folder that is configured forapplication management. Folders configured for application managementhave an special icon (). The managementproject for the folder also has a special icon() and the project name is in theformatFOLDER-NAME-mp. If you choose themanagement project instead of the folder, then the project pickerautomatically changes the selection to the folder.

   • To view data for an individual project, choose the projectthat contains the resources you want to view.

   TheTop 5 optimization recommendations table displays the followinginformation:

   • Resource (for projects) orWorkload (for applications) - Theresource or workload that the recommendation applies to.
   • Cost - The cost for the selected time period in the filter bar.The default is 7 days. Consider choosing 30 days as the time period so thatit's easier to compare costs with theMonthly savings column.
   • Monthly savings: The highest amount of money you can potentially saveif you apply the cost savings recommendations.
     • Cost savings are an estimate that is calculated using data from thelast month, regardless of the time period selected in the filter bar.
     • Cost savings are based on your contract prices, before any committed usediscounts or other credits are applied
     • Actual cost savings can vary.

3. To view additional recommendations, clickView all recommendations in Active Assist Recommendations.

   • If a project is selected in the project picker, Active Assistdisplays all recommendations for the project.
   • Active Assist does not support displaying data for afolder or an App Hub application. If you know which projectcontains the resource that you are interested in optimizing, select theproject from the project picker.

Optimize costs with Gemini assistance

Preview

This feature is subject to the "Pre-GA Offerings Terms" in the General Service Terms section of theService Specific Terms. Pre-GA features are available "as is" and might have limited support. For more information, see thelaunch stage descriptions.

This section describes how to use Gemini Cloud Assist to helpyou optimize costs. If Gemini Cloud Assist is set up for yourproject or folder, you can access its chat capabilities from any page in theGoogle Cloud console.

As an early-stage technology, Gemini for Google Cloud products can generate output that seems plausible but is factually incorrect. We recommend that you validate all output from Gemini for Google Cloud products before you use it. For more information, seeGemini for Google Cloud and responsible AI.

For information about which costs are included in responses to your prompts,seeAbout costs.

Learnhow and when Gemini for Google Cloud uses your data.

Open Gemini Cloud Assist chat

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to any page—for example, theOptimizationpage.

   Go to Optimization

2. Select theproject or application that you want toview:

   • To view data for applications, choose the folder that is configured forapplication management. Folders configured for application managementhave an special icon (). The managementproject for the folder also has a special icon() and the project name is in theformatFOLDER-NAME-mp. If you choose themanagement project instead of the folder, then the project pickerautomatically changes the selection to the folder.

   • To view data for an individual project, choose the projectthat contains the resources you want to view.

3. In the Google Cloud console toolbar, clicksparkOpen or close Gemini Cloud Assist chat.

   TheCloud Assist panel opens.

Enter a prompt

In Gemini Cloud Assist chat, you can get assistance by usingnatural languageprompts (questions or statements).

Use the following information to help you write your prompts:

• You can only ask a question about one project or application at a time.
• You can specify date ranges, such as2025-10-1 to 2025-10-31.
  • If you don't specify a date range, the default date range is the previous 7days.
  • Prompts for data from the previous week set the date range to the lastMonday to Sunday period.
  • Prompts for data from the previous month set the date range to the lastcalendar month.
• For applications, you must specify the application name in your prompt,even if you are viewing a page in Google Cloud console that is showing datafor a selected application. The application name is the unique identifierfor the application, such asweb-store. If you use the display name for theapplication, such as "Web store", Gemini Cloud Assist mightparse your prompt incorrectly.
• Gemini Cloud Assist uses data from the App Optimize API forcost-related questions about utilization, the same API that provides data forthe Cloud Hub Optimization page.Gemini Cloud Assist can answer general questions aboututilization and performance using the Cloud MonitoringAPI.

The following table lists some example prompts.

Prompt	Type of response
"How much did I spend on this project last month?"	A summary of costs in the last calendar month for the selected project.
"How much did my GKE clustermy-cluster-id cost me last month?"	A summary of costs for the clustermy-cluster-id in the last calendar month.
"Show me my costs in us-central1."	A summary of resource costs in the selected project in the regionus-central1 over the last 7 days.
"What were the least cost efficient resources last month for my appmy-favourite-app?"	A list of the least cost efficient resources in the applicationmy-favourite-app in the last month.
"What are my most overprovisioned resources that are costing me the most?"	A list of the most overprovisioned resources in the selected project in the last 7 days.

What's next

• Explore opportunities for cost savings and optimization inFinOps hub.
• Perform in-depth cost analysis withCloud Billing reports.
• Learn cost optimization best practices in the documentGoogle Cloud Architecture Framework: Cost optimization.