Glossary

This glossary defines CloudZero-specific terms used throughout the product and documentation. Each term is introduced in context on its feature page; this glossary collects them in one place for quick reference. For industry terms like FinOps and cloud financial management, see the FinOps Foundation terminology.

A

Adaptor

A script you write in any programming language that converts a vendor's cost or usage data into Common Bill Format (CBF) and sends it to CloudZero. Adaptors power Custom Cost Data Sources with AnyCost for vendors CloudZero does not connect to natively.

AI Hub

CloudZero's AI-powered interface for asking questions about your costs in plain English. AI Hub connects to your CloudZero data through an MCP Server and returns answers that link spend to teams, products, and business outcomes. For details, see Set Up AI Hub.

AI Signals

Real-time visibility into what your organization spends on AI. AI Signals captures prompt costs as they happen and reconciles usage against your provider billing. For details, see Real-Time AI Spend with AI Signals.

Allocation Dimension

A Dimension that splits shared costs across multiple elements when a cost cannot be categorized from metadata alone. CloudZero supports even splits, proportional splits based on existing spend, and telemetry-based splits using usage data you provide. For details, see Splitting Shared Costs.

Analytics

CloudZero's dashboarding and reporting engine. Build Dashboards to track spending trends, share cost breakdowns with stakeholders, and deliver recurring reports automatically via email, webhook, S3, or SFTP. Analytics provides 13 months of data. For details, see Overview of Dashboards with Analytics.

Anomaly Detection

Automatic monitoring that identifies unexpected changes in your cloud spend down to an hourly granularity. Global monitoring starts the moment you connect, with no configuration required. CloudZero detects global anomalies across all spend and can also monitor specific Views for targeted alerts. For details, see Anomaly Detection.

AnyCost

The product name for CloudZero's Custom Cost Data Sources framework. AnyCost lets you bring cost or usage data from any vendor into CloudZero using an Adaptor and Common Bill Format (CBF). Once connected, custom costs appear across the platform alongside your cloud, SaaS, and AI spending. For details, see Custom Cost Data Sources with AnyCost.

B

Budget

A monthly spending target linked to a View. When spend approaches or crosses a threshold you define, CloudZero sends an alert through the View's notification channels. You can also create Forecasts alongside Budgets to track projected spend separately. For details, see Budgets.

C

Cloud Provider Dimensions

Dimensions derived automatically from your billing data, including account, service, region, instance type, and AI usage. These appear under the Cloud Provider Dimensions category in the Explorer Group By selector and require no configuration. See also Organization Dimensions. For details, see Grouping, Filtering, and Time Range.

Common Bill Format (CBF)

A standard data format for sending cost data from any source into CloudZero. You convert your vendor's data into CBF using an Adaptor and deliver it via the REST API or an S3 bucket. For details, see Common Bill Format.

Connection

A link between CloudZero and a cost data source (cloud provider, SaaS platform, AI platform, or custom source). All native connections are read-only. For details, see Cloud Providers.

Cost Impact

The difference between expected cost (based on historical spending patterns) and actual cost over an anomaly period. Cost impact appears on anomalies and Insights to quantify the financial significance of a finding. For details, see Anomaly Detection.

Cost of Change

The increase or decrease in spend compared to the previous period of the same length. Cost of Change appears alongside Total Cost in the Explorer cost table and in Cost Trends comparisons. For details, see Explorer Overview.

Cost Trends

The comparison toggle in Explorer that shows period-over-period cost changes. When enabled, the cost table displays Cost of Change values alongside each element. For details, see Grouping, Filtering, and Time Range.

Cost Type

A calculation applied to your billing data that changes how spend is displayed. Each Cost Type shows the same underlying costs from a different angle: what you were invoiced, what your team consumed, or what you would have paid at on-demand rates. The default is Real Cost. For details, see Cost Types.

CostFormation

CloudZero's YAML-based language for defining Dimensions. Write rules as code, version control your definitions, and automate publishing with the API. CostFormation is one of two ways to build Dimensions; for a visual, no-code option, see Dimension Studio. For details, see Allocate through YAML with CostFormation.

D

Dashboard

A collection of visualization and text tiles displayed together on one page, built inside Analytics. CloudZero provides standard Dashboards out of the box; you can also create custom Dashboards. Each Dashboard can be public (visible to everyone) or private (visible only to the creator). For details, see Overview of Dashboards with Analytics.

Dimension

A category you define that assigns every cost to a value (called an element). For example, an Environment Dimension with elements like Production, Staging, and Development, or a Team Dimension with elements for each engineering team. Dimensions work across the platform, and CloudZero builds them from metadata already in your bill; tags are optional, not required. Dimensions can also normalize inconsistent tag variations (such as env, ENV, and Environment) into a single category. For details, see How to Build a Dimension.

Dimension Studio

CloudZero's visual editor for creating and managing Dimensions in the browser without writing any code. Dimension Studio includes a built-in Code Editor for editing YAML directly when needed. For details, see Allocate Visually with Dimension Studio.

E

Element

A value within a Dimension. For example, Production and Staging are elements of an Environment Dimension. Each element contains the costs assigned to it by rules. Costs that do not match any rule appear under Not In Dimension. For details, see How to Build a Dimension.

Explorer

CloudZero's primary interactive cost visualization tool. Explorer brings together spend from all connected providers into one view. Group costs by any Dimension, filter to specific subsets, and drill down from a total monthly spend to a single resource. Explorer shows 100% of your cloud spend across all connected providers. For details, see Explorer Overview.

F

Filter Assist

An AI-powered feature in Explorer that configures your query from a plain English question. Type a question like "Show our OpenAI spend by team for the last 3 months" and Filter Assist sets the grouping, filters, time range, granularity, and Cost Type automatically. For details, see Grouping, Filtering, and Time Range.

Forecast

A projected spending target linked to a View, tracked alongside Budgets. Forecasts use the same workflow as Budgets and appear alongside them on the Budgets page. For details, see Budgets.

G

Global Anomaly

An anomaly detected automatically across your organization's total cloud spend. Global anomaly detection monitors your total cloud spend, requires no configuration, and is always on. By default, all users with Admin permissions receive global anomaly alerts by email. See also View Anomaly. For details, see Anomaly Detection.

Global View

The default View that every organization starts with. The Global View covers 100% of your cloud spend and cannot have filters applied. Its Dimension determines how CloudZero displays cost data across the platform, including weekly and monthly trend notifications. For details, see Views.

Group

A rule type that lets you name elements explicitly and define the conditions that match costs to them. Use Group rules when you want business-friendly names like Production or Finance Team. For details, see How to Build a Dimension.

GroupBy

A rule type that creates elements automatically from source values. Use GroupBy rules when elements should reflect your data dynamically, like one element per account or per service. For details, see How to Build a Dimension.

Grouping Dimension

A Dimension that categorizes costs using rules and conditions, without splitting or reallocating any costs. Most Dimensions are Grouping Dimensions. See also Allocation Dimension. For details, see Create a Grouping Dimension.

I

Insight

A finding you log about cost trends or optimization opportunities while investigating costs in Explorer. Each Insight links back to where it was discovered, tracks cost impact and status, and appears in Optimize for your team to reference and act on. For details, see Insights.

L

Labs

CloudZero's early-access program where you can turn on new features before they are generally available. Everything is opt-in, nothing is on by default, and you can turn any feature off at any time. For details, see Try New Features with Labs.

M

MCP Server

CloudZero's Model Context Protocol server that connects AI Hub to your cost data. The MCP server provides cost query and analysis tools to any MCP-compatible AI tool. For details, see MCP Server Reference.

Metadata

A rule type that matches substrings within source values and creates elements from the matched content. Use Metadata rules when resource names or tags contain embedded identifiers you want to extract. For details, see How to Build a Dimension.

N

Namespace

A container that makes your Dimension definitions modular. Instead of one large definitions file, separate definitions by team, project, or workflow. Each namespace has its own version history, and publishing applies to one namespace at a time. Every organization starts with a default namespace called User:Defined. For details, see Organize Dimensions with Namespaces.

Not In Dimension

The default element for costs that do not match any rule in a Dimension. Not In Dimension appears in Explorer and across the platform so that 100% of spend is always accounted for. You can set a default value to assign unmatched costs to a named element instead. For details, see How to Build a Dimension.

Notification channel

A Slack channel or email address configured on a View to receive cost alerts and updates. Each View supports one Slack channel and one or more email addresses. Notification channels deliver weekly and monthly cost trends, budget alerts, and anomaly alerts.

O

Optimize

CloudZero's cost savings engine. Optimize analyzes your billing data, resource utilization, and configuration details to generate actionable recommendations across AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes. Optimize also tracks Insights and realized savings. For details, see Automatic Recommendations with Optimize.

Organization Dimensions

Dimensions your organization defines, such as team, product, environment, or customer. These appear under the Organization Dimensions category in the Explorer Group By selector. See also Cloud Provider Dimensions. For details, see Overview of Cost Organization with Dimensions.

P

Principal Dimension

The Dimension a View uses to group costs. When you select a View in Explorer, it loads the View's Principal Dimension into the Group By selector. The UI labels this field Principal Dimension in the View configuration panel. For details, see Views.

R

Real Cost

The default Cost Type in CloudZero. Real Cost shows only the spend that engineers can directly affect by filtering out taxes, support fees, and other overhead. For details, see Cost Types.

Recommendation

A specific optimization opportunity identified by Optimize. Each recommendation names the affected resource, the estimated savings, and how to address it. CloudZero generates recommendations when a resource matches a recommendation type's criteria. For details, see Working with Recommendations.

Recommendation type

A pattern Optimize evaluates to find savings opportunities, such as rightsizing an over-provisioned compute instance or purchasing a reservation to cover on-demand spend. You can enable or disable recommendation types in the Configure Catalog tab. For details, see Manage recommendation types.

Rule

Logic in a Dimension that assigns costs to elements by checking a source value against a condition. CloudZero evaluates rules from top to bottom, assigning each cost to the first matching rule. Three rule types are available: Group, GroupBy, and Metadata. For details, see How to Build a Dimension.

S

Source

A data attribute from your cost data used in Dimension rules. Sources include account names, resource tags, services, regions, Kubernetes namespaces, and any other metadata CloudZero has ingested. You can also reference other Dimensions as a source to build on existing logic. For the full list, see the CostFormation Reference.

T

Telemetry stream

A data channel for sending business metrics to CloudZero via the API or CSV upload. Telemetry streams provide the usage data for unit cost calculations and telemetry-based cost allocation. For details, see Send unit cost and allocation data.

U

Unit cost

Spend divided by a unit metric. For example, cost per customer, cost per transaction, or cost per API call. CloudZero supports breaking unit costs across multiple Dimensions simultaneously (cost per order per team per product), not just a single ratio. Unit costs are available in Analytics Dashboards and AI Hub. For details, see Unit Economics.

Unit metric

A measurement from your business, such as daily active users, orders processed, API calls, or transactions. You send unit metrics to CloudZero through a telemetry stream. CloudZero divides your cloud spend by the unit metric to produce the unit cost. For details, see Unit Economics.

V

View

A preset combination of a Dimension (labeled Principal Dimension in the UI), filters, and notification channels. Views give each team quick access to the costs they are responsible for. CloudZero automatically monitors each View's costs and sends updates and anomaly alerts via Slack, email, or both. For details, see Views.

View Anomaly

An anomaly detected within the scope of a specific View. When you enable anomaly notifications for a View, CloudZero monitors that View's Principal Dimension and its individual elements for unexpected cost changes. See also Global Anomaly. For details, see Anomaly Detection.

VS Code Extension

A VS Code extension for writing, validating, and publishing Dimension definitions from your editor. The extension provides autocompletion, inline validation, and one-click publishing. For details, see VS Code Extension.