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Cloud26 October 20265 min read

Kubernetes cost allocation: finding which team spent what

A Kubernetes cluster is a shared pool, so the cloud bill does not say which team or product caused it. Allocation means attributing the cluster’s cost back to its users in a way people accept.

In this post
  1. The basics
  2. The pitfalls
  3. Use the numbers
  4. Sources and further reading

The basics

  • Label every workload with team, service and environment, and enforce it at admission.
  • Attribute cost by the resources each pod requests, and compare it to what it actually uses.
  • Share the cost of common services, such as the control plane and ingress, by an agreed rule.

The pitfalls

  • Unlabelled workloads pile up in an “unallocated” bucket.
  • Requests set far above real use waste capacity for everyone.
  • Idle capacity has to belong to someone.

Use the numbers

  1. Show each team its own cost.
  2. Flag the largest gaps between requested and used resources.
  3. Set requests from measured use.
  4. Review after each change.

Sources and further reading

  1. Kubernetes documentation. Resource management for pods and containers. kubernetes.io/docs.

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