How Orbit calculates cost
Before you read a number in Orbit, it helps to know which number it is. Orbit normalizes every provider's bill into FOCUS, so the same measure means the same thing across AWS, Azure, and GCP. FOCUS is the FinOps Open Cost & Usage Specification, the industry standard for cloud cost data.
Cost measures
When you build an Insight, the Show me dropdown lets you pick a measure. The cost measures are:
| Measure | What it means |
|---|---|
| Total cost (effective) | Your true cost after all discounts, commitments, and amortization. This is the default and the basis for budgets and allocation. Aligns with FOCUS EffectiveCost. |
| Billed cost | What the provider actually invoiced for the period (FOCUS BilledCost). |
| List cost | The public, on-demand price with no discounts applied. It is useful for measuring negotiated savings. |
| Contracted cost | Cost at your negotiated/contracted rates. |
| Usage cost (no credits) | Usage charges before credits are applied. |
| Discount amount | The delta between list and effective, which is how much your discounts saved. |
| Credits (negative) | Credits applied in the period, shown as a reduction. |
| Effective savings rate | Effective cost as a share of list cost: a single "how good is our rate" number. |
| Billed vs effective (amortization) | Compares billed to effective so you can see the amortization of upfront commitments. |
Two non-dollar measures round out the list:
| Measure | What it means |
|---|---|
| Usage quantity | The metered amount (hours, GB, requests). |
| Line count | The number of billing line items. It is handy for spotting fragmentation. |
| Unit cost (per consumed unit) | Cost divided by usage quantity. |
Effective cost is the default
Unless you choose otherwise, Orbit shows Total cost (effective). This is deliberate. Effective cost is the number a team can act on, and it's what Budgets, Virtual Tag allocation, and the FinOps boards are computed from.
Data freshness
- Cost data lands within about 24 hours of a billing period being available from the provider.
- Amounts for the current period are partial and update daily until the provider closes the bill.
- Resource inventory that powers the CMDB refreshes on the same daily cycle.
If an Orbit number doesn't match your AWS/Azure/GCP console, check which measure you're comparing. Consoles often show billed or list cost, while Orbit defaults to effective.