Question: How to Check Costs in the Azure Portal

Answer

To check costs in the Azure portal, you need to navigate to the Cost Management + Billing section and use the cost analysis tools provided. Here are the detailed steps:

1. Sign in to the Azure Portal:

   • Start by signing in to the Azure portal with your credentials.

2. Navigate to Cost Management + Billing:

   • In the Azure portal, go to the search bar and type "Cost Management + Billing" or navigate to it from the left-hand menu.
   • Select Cost Management + Billing to open the cost management dashboard.

3. Select Your Scope:

   • Choose the appropriate scope for your cost analysis, such as a subscription, resource group, or management group. This will help you filter costs to the specific area you are interested in.

4. Access Cost Analysis:

   • Within the Cost Management + Billing section, select Cost Management and then Cost analysis. This will open the cost analysis dashboard where you can view and analyze your costs.

5. View Costs by Different Dimensions:

   • You can view costs by various dimensions such as service, resource, location, and more. For example, to view costs by service, select Cost by service and group by Service tier. To view costs by resource, select Cost by resource.

6. Set Granularity:

   • You can set the granularity to view costs on a daily or monthly basis. This helps in understanding if there are specific times when costs are higher.

7. Filter Costs:

   • Use filters to narrow down your cost analysis. For instance, you can filter by Service name to see costs for a specific service like Azure DevOps or Azure Monitor.

8. Review Invoice Details:

   • To view your invoice details, select the Invoice details view in the cost analysis section. This will show you the charges as seen on your invoice, allowing you to compare invoiced charges with usage data.

9. Automate Cost Analysis:

   • You can automate the delivery of cost analysis information by subscribing to daily cost analysis emails or setting up budget alerts to notify you of significant spending increases.

By following these steps, you can effectively check and analyze costs in the Azure portal, helping you manage and optimize your Azure expenses.