Scenario modeling for CUD recommendations is generally available

Scenario modeling for committed use discount (CUD) recommendations is now generally available (GA). You can simulate scenarios for both spend-based and resource-based CUDs, and customize recommendations to purchase a commitment that maximizes your savings.

For more information, see Simulate scenarios for CUDs savings.

Billing account permissions now streamline access to Google payments profiles and payments accounts

We've launched a billing IAM permissions update that simplifies and streamlines Cloud Billing account access to the associated Google payments profiles and accounts, for users who have the billing.accounts.updatePaymentInfo permission on their Cloud Billing account.

Prior to this update: While working in the Cloud Billing console, to access and edit the associated Google payments profile and account information, all Cloud Billing account users needed two sets of permissions:

• Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions on the Cloud Billing account to access and manage the billing account.
• Edit or Admin access permissions on the associated Google payments profile in order to add and edit payment methods, make a manual payment, and update payments profile info such as the business name, address, tax info, and payments account settings.

After this permissions update: Cloud Billing account users with the billing.accounts.updatePaymentInfo permission on the billing account can access and edit Google payments profile and account information directly from the Cloud Billing console, without needing additional permissions on the payments profile itself. This includes users with the Billing Account Administrator role (roles/billing.admin) and those granted this permission via a custom role.

Note that this permissions update applies only to Cloud Billing accounts associated with an Organization (or Business) Google payments profile type. You can verify your account type on the Payment settings page in the Cloud Billing console.

With the billing.accounts.updatePaymentInfo permission on the billing account, users can do the following:

• View payments history and documents related to the associated Google payments profile.
• Add and edit payment methods on a self-serve (online) billing account.
• Make a manual payment to a self-serve (online) billing account.
• Update payments profile info such as the business name, address, tax info, and payments account settings.

Billing account users with the billing.accounts.updatePaymentInfo permission won't have the Manage users or Admin with all permissions level of access on the Google payments profile. To fully manage a payments profile and gain Manage users and Admin permissions, billing account users still require additional Google payments user permissions granted on the associated payments profile.

CUD recommendations support more machine types

Resource-based CUD recommendations for cores and RAM now support additional machine series. For a complete list, see Resource-based CUDs supported by recommendations.

You can access these recommendations using the FinOps hub user interface, programmatically using the Recommender API, or when you export recommendations to BigQuery.

View granular cost data from Pub/Sub snapshot, subscription, and topic usage in Cloud Billing exports to BigQuery

You can now view granular Pub/Sub cost data in the Google Cloud Billing detailed export. Use the resource.name or resource.global_name field in the export to view and filter your detailed snapshot, subscription, and topic usage.

Review the schema of the Detailed cost data export.

Anomaly Detection is generally available

View and manage cost spikes that deviate from your typical spend patterns using the Anomalies dashboard, which is generally available. Each anomaly includes a detailed root cause analysis that identifies the top services, regions, and SKUs that contributed to the spike.

With this launch, we've added the following features to Anomaly Detection:

• Auto-generated anomaly thresholds that update daily based on your usage patterns.
• Deviation percentage as a new threshold for you to configure for your anomalies.
• Email alerts automatically set up for Billing administrators to help you proactively manage your costs.

Learn more about using Anomaly detection to manage costs.

Personalized saved reports are available in cost Reports.

For customers who have enabled Gemini Cloud Assist in Cloud Billing, your custom saved reports that you open frequently now appear in the reports carousel, for quick access. Previously, the reports carousel only provided access to Google-created preset reports.

For more information, see the following topics in the Reports dcoumentation:

• Save and share report views
• Use preset reports for quick configuration

Spend-based committed use discount (CUD) metadata export to BigQuery (public preview)

You can now access spend-based CUD metadata programmatically through a BigQuery export. This data provides a comprehensive, daily snapshot of spend-based CUDs, which you can join with other billing data exports for improved CUD reporting and management.

Learn more about the CUD metadata export.

Tags data for regional Secret Manager secret usage is available in both the Standard usage cost export and the Detailed usage cost export.

Tags for Global secrets have been available since August 8, 2024. With this update, you can now tag Regional secrets as well.

To learn more about Tags, see Tags overview. To learn about using Tags in your cost data exported to BigQuery, see about tags and query examples with tags.

New fields added to Cloud Billing data exports to BigQuery

To prepare for expanding the spend-based committed use discounts (CUD)s program, we added new data fields to the schema for Cloud Billing standard and detailed data exports to BigQuery. These new fields add more information about the prices charged for your Google Cloud usage and consumption models.

To learn more, see Billing data and SKU updates for spend-based CUDs.

New, enhanced forecasting model for increased accuracy in cost reports

Cloud Billing forecasts now better account for seasonality trends, data irregularities, and missing data, using an enhanced forecasting model that leverages AI to factor in various scenarios, such as the following:

• Intelligent handling of transient effects caused by known business events - for example, a new workload migration causing a usage spike.
• Deeper understanding of seasonality - for example, various recurring patterns, such as daily, weekly and monthly cycles in your cloud spend; or for retailers, increases in usage during holiday seasons.
• Adapting to trends to remain relevant in changing environments - for example, new AI spend.

These enhancements, powered by our new machine learning engine, translate to increased forecasting accuracy. By capturing complex trends, multiple seasonalities, and handling data anomalies more intelligently, you'll see a marked improvement in the precision of your cost forecasts.

For more information about the forecasted costs in reports, see View you forecasted costs.

Find and eliminate waste using FinOps hub 2.0 with Gemini Cloud Assist (preview)

FinOps hub 2.0 adds a new dashboard, Utilization insights, designed to help you quickly identify and reduce cloud waste to get the most value from Google Cloud. You can do the following with FinOps hub's Utilization insights dashboard:

• Assess estimated costs from underutilized resources (for example, idle, overprovisioned, underprovisioned and suboptimal configurations).
• Use the visual Waste map to find the top waste drivers by projects and waste category, helping you focus your optimization efforts.
• Leverage data-driven recommendations to optimize key services (Compute Engine, Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Cloud SQL, and Cloud Run) and App Hub applications.

Use Gemini Cloud Assist in FinOps hub to save time and simplify collaboration. If you have enabled Gemini Cloud Assist in Billing, Gemini generates summaries of top wasted usage insights and drafts email reports of utilization insights that you can share with your engineering teams for quicker remediation.

For more information about the FinOps hub Utilization insights dashboard, see:

• Review utilization and wasted usage insights

For more information about Gemini Cloud Assist features in FinOps hub, see:

• Gemini Cloud Assist in Cloud Billing
• Set up Gemini Cloud Assist in Cloud Billing

Feature

App Hub applications are now integrated with billing reports and the FinOps hub, to let you analyze costs by application. This integration provides detailed cost analysis for your specific applications, so FinOps and DevOps can see the cost of their applications and get recommendations on how to optimize their cloud efficiency.

• In cost Reports, you can configure your report to Group by Application, or filter on Applications.
• In the Cost table report, you can filter on Applications.
• In the Cost breakdown report, you can filter on Applications.
• In the FinOps hub Utilization insights dashboard, you can view insights by App Hub Application, to see the estimated costs of potentially wasted usage, and find recommendations to reduce waste and optimize your costs.

Cloud Billing supports Dark theme in the Google Cloud console (in preview)

Dark theme is now available in the Billing section of the Google Cloud console (preview). To enable the Dark theme, in the Google Cloud console, click Settings > Preferences > Appearance. Choose Dark theme and click Save.

Improved consistency in resource-based committed use discount (CUD) string names across experiences.

We have improved consistency by standardizing CUD string names across the various experiences. This update helps provide a seamless experience in resource-based CUD purchase flows, recommendations, analysis, and the FinOps hub.

Google Cloud Marketplace now uses the agency model for marketplace services for UK, FR, and DE customers.

As part of this change, customers will receive separate invoices for Google Cloud and third-party vendor transactions in the Cloud Marketplace.

For more information, see Split invoicing for agency model transactions and Marketplace Agency Account Migration FAQ.

Tags data for BigTable instances is available in both the Standard usage cost export and the Detailed usage cost export.

To learn more about Tags, see Tags overview. To learn about using Tags in your cost data exported to BigQuery, see more about tags and query examples with tags.

Simulate scenarios in FinOps hub to maximize your savings from resource-based CUDs

In the FinOps hub, we added support for resource-based CUD recommendations as a starting point to simulate various usage scenarios, and customize the recommendation to purchase a CUD that maximizes your savings.

Learn about simulating scenarios for resource-based CUDs.

View and manage unexpected costs with Anomaly Detection (in preview)

You can now view and manage cost spikes that deviate from your historical spend patterns using the Anomalies dashboard (preview). Each anomaly comes with a detailed root cause analysis that identifies the top services, regions, and SKUs that contributed to the spike.

Learn more about using Anomaly Detection to manage costs.

Avoid charges for underutilized Compute Engine reservations in the FinOps hub

You can now get recommendations to modify or delete your underutilized, on-demand reservations for Compute Engine resources when you haven't consumed your specified threshold of resources for at least 7 days.

Learn about reservation recommendations
View and apply underutilized reservation recommendations

Use Gemini AI assistant to find or create Billing Reports (preview)

Gemini Cloud Assist in Cloud Billing Reports provides FinOps-focused AI assistance to create the cost reports you need to analyze your cost trends and to summarize key insights from the cost reports.

Gemini Cloud Assist in Cloud Billing Reports helps you to:

• Use saved reports: Quickly access existing reports to analyze your spending.
• Create new reports: Configure custom reports with AI assistance to get the exact data you need.
• Summarize reports: Get AI-powered summaries of your reports to quickly understand key cost trends and insights.

Enable the Gemini for Google Cloud API in a project to turn on Gemini Cloud Assist in Cloud Billing Reports.

For more information about Gemini Cloud Assist features in Cloud Billing Reports, see:

• Gemini Cloud Assist in Cloud Billing
• Set up Gemini Cloud Assist in Cloud Billing
• Analyze billing data and cost trends with Reports

The Carbon footprint dashboard in the FinOps hub now includes market-based emissions data (preview)

Scope 2 market-based emissions data (preview) for the Carbon footprint dashboard are now available in the FinOps hub. The market-based emissions metric represents purchased electricity, incorporating Google's annual renewable energy purchases. You can use the data in the Carbon footprint dashboard to optimize your cloud spend and reduce your carbon impact.

• To learn more about the methodology and the difference between location-based and market-based emission metrics, see the carbon footprint documentation.

• Learn more about the FinOps hub.

Tags data for Secret Manager secret usage is available in both the Standard usage cost export and the Detailed usage cost export.

To learn more about Tags, see Tags overview. To learn about using Tags in your cost data exported to BigQuery, see about tags and query examples with tags.

Feature

View granular cost data from Secret Manager secret usage in Cloud Billing exports to BigQuery

You can now view granular Secret Manager secret cost data in the Google Cloud Billing detailed export. Use the resource.name or resource.global_name field in the export to view and filter your detailed log bucket usage.

Review the schema of the Detailed cost data export.

Track credits for your spend-based milestone credit programs (contract pricing)

If you have a custom pricing contract, you might be enrolled in spend-based milestone credit programs, where you earn promotional credits for spending specific amounts on Google Cloud.

In the Google Cloud console, you can now track the promotional credits for your spend-based milestone programs. The promotional credits that you receive act as a payment method, and are automatically applied to your costs.

Learn about tracking spend-based milestone credits.

You can now view granular AlloyDB for PostgreSQL usage in the Cloud Billing Detailed export to BigQuery

You can now view granular AlloyDB for PostgreSQL cluster, instance, and backup data in the Google Cloud Billing detailed export. Use the resource.global_name and resource.name fields in the export to view and filter your detailed AlloyDB cluster, instance, and backup usage.

Review the schema of the Detailed cost data export.

Feature

Tags data for AlloyDB for PostgreSQL cluster, instance, and backup usage is available in both the Standard usage cost export and the Detailed usage cost export.

To learn more about Tags, see Tags overview. To learn about using Tags in your cost data exported to BigQuery, see about tags and query examples with tags.

Simulate scenarios in FinOps hub to maximize your savings from spend-based CUDs

In the FinOps hub, you can now use a spend-based CUD recommendation as a starting point to simulate various usage scenarios, and customize the recommendation to purchase a CUD that maximizes your savings.

Learn about simulating scenarios for spend-based CUDs.

View your Carbon Footprint in the FinOps hub

In the FinOps hub, you can now view the estimated greenhouse gas emissions for your Google Cloud usage by visiting the Carbon Footprint dashboard.

Learn about Carbon Footprint data.

Avoid getting charged for idle Compute Engine reservations in the FinOps hub

You can now get recommendations to modify or delete your idle, on-demand reservations for Compute Engine resources when you haven't consumed any resources for at least 7 days.

Learn about idle reservation recommendations.

You can now view granular cost data for more Google Cloud services

• You can now view granular Cloud Logging log bucket cost data in the Google Cloud Billing detailed export. Use the resource.global_name field in the export to view and filter your detailed log bucket usage.
• You can now view granular Managed Microsoft Active Directory cost data in the Google Cloud Billing detailed export. Use the resource.name or resource.global_name field in the export to view and filter your detailed domain usage.
• You can now view granular Dataproc Metastore cost data in the Google Cloud Billing detailed export. Use the resource.name or resource.global_name field in the export to view and filter your detailed service usage.
• You can now view granular Cloud Deploy cost data in the Google Cloud Billing detailed export. Use the resource.name or resource.global_name field in the export to view and filter your detailed delivery pipeline usage.
• You can now view granular Cloud Data Fusion cost data in the Google Cloud Billing detailed export. Use the resource.name or resource.global_name field in the export to view and filter your detailed instance usage.

Review the schema of the Detailed cost data export.

The Cost Estimation API is deprecated

To get estimates for your planned Google Cloud workloads, use the Google Cloud pricing calculator.

Generate a SQL query to BigQuery from your Cloud Billing Reports (in preview)

In the cloud console, on the Billing Reports page, you use the report settings and filters to refine the data returned to your report. If you have enabled Cloud Billing data export to BigQuery, you can analyze your exported billing data using SQL queries. In Billing Reports, you can now click a button to generate a SQL query in BigQuery that is configured to use the equivalent Billing Report settings and filters to query your exported billing data. When run against your exported billing data, the generated query returns the equivalent results in BigQuery as the results in the Billing Report.

• Learn more about Billing Reports
• Learn more about Billing data export to BigQuery
• Learn more about generating a SQL query from a billing report

Commitment recommendations in the FinOps hub now include a Recommended quantity column, so you can see more information about recommendations at a glance.

Learn more about using the FinOps hub to optimize your costs.