Overview
Cloud Cost Management (CCM) Forecasts help you predict future cloud costs based on historical spending patterns. Use forecasts to anticipate cost trends, plan budgets more effectively, and make data-driven decisions about resource allocation.
Forecasts are available in:
- Budgets: View forecasted costs directly on budget cards to see if you’re projected to go over budget.
With Forecasts, you can:
- Anticipate spending trends based on your historical data to predict future costs.
- Visualize projected costs alongside actual spending to identify patterns and understand cost trends.
- Use forecast data to set realistic budget targets and avoid cost overruns.
- See if forecasted costs are projected to exceed your budget targets to track budget health.
How forecasting works
Cloud Cost Management leverages advanced algorithms to deliver accurate cost predictions. The forecasting model analyzes your historical spending data to identify patterns and trends in your cloud costs, including:
- Recurring costs that happen on a predictable schedule (such as weekly or monthly cycles).
- Whether your costs are increasing, decreasing, or staying stable over time.
- Changes in spending that correspond to specific periods or events.
Flexible forecasting options
Forecasts can be generated for various time horizons and rollup intervals to match your planning needs:
- Forecast periods: Predict costs for the next billing period, current month, current year, or a custom date range based on your historical spending data.
- Rollup intervals: View forecasts at daily, weekly, or monthly intervals depending on your analysis requirements.
Data requirements
To generate accurate forecasts, CCM requires:
- At least 31 consecutive days of cost data: This ensures the model has sufficient information to identify meaningful patterns.
- Recent data: The model uses up to the last 100 days of your cost history to generate predictions.
If you have newly created resources or services, forecasts become available once sufficient historical data is collected.
View forecasts in budgets
Navigate to Cloud Cost > Plan > Budgets in Datadog to view forecasts in your budget summaries.
Budget cards automatically display forecast information when available, showing projected costs for each budget period.
If forecasted costs are projected to exceed your budget, the budget status indicates Projected Over to help you take action before going over budget.
To view detailed forecast information:
- From the Budgets page, click View Performance on any budget to open the detailed budget view.
- In the budget performance view, toggle Show Forecast to enable forecasting.
- The budget performance chart displays:
- Actual costs: Your current spending shown in solid colors
- Forecasted costs: Predicted costs shown with a hatched pattern extending beyond your actual costs
- Forecasted Past: A vertical line indicating where the forecast begins
Further reading
Additional helpful documentation, links, and articles:
