Cost Guards

cost guards are alerts that help you monitor usage and spend and take action before things get out of control they are typically used to track activity at the workload level , allowing you to detect unexpected spikes in cost unusual drops in usage (potential outages) sustained increases over time what is a cost guard? a cost guard is a rule that watches usage or cost over a rolling time window and triggers an alert when a condition is met examples spend greater than $1,000 in the last 7 days usage greater than 10,000 requests in the last hour spend less than $10 in the last day (possible outage signal) cost guards are tied to workloads , so you can monitor specific parts of your system independently cost guards page overview navigate to cost → cost guards what you’ll see each cost guard in the list includes name alert type (cost or usage) rule (condition and threshold) workload status (on or off) you can toggle a cost guard off if you want to temporarily pause alerts without deleting it creating a cost guard navigate go to cost → cost guards click create cost guard (top right) step 1 define the alert alert type choose cost (monitors spend), or usage (monitors raw usage volume) name use a clear, descriptive name example image pipeline spend spike description (optional) add context if needed step 2 select a workload choose the workload you want to monitor if the workload does not exist create one using the workloads page cost guards operate at the workload level, so this selection is required step 3 define the rule condition choose whether the alert triggers when the value is greater than (most common, for detecting spikes) less than (useful for detecting drops or outages) threshold value for cost enter a currency amount for usage enter a unit value time window select a rolling window last hour last day last week (7 days) last month (30 days) these are always rolling periods, not fixed calendar intervals step 4 configure notification frequency choose how often alerts are sent once trigger only the first time the condition is met every time trigger on every evaluation that meets the condition at most every x hours throttle notifications to a maximum frequency example no more than once every 24 hours this helps reduce alert noise while still keeping visibility step 5 choose notification channels define how alerts are delivered email send notifications via email can be used for individuals or workload owners webhooks send alerts to an external system useful for automation, such as triggering workflows updating internal systems integrating with monitoring or incident tools save the cost guard click save to activate the cost guard it will immediately begin monitoring based on your configuration when to use cost guards cost guards are most effective when applied to high cost workloads critical production systems newly launched features with uncertain usage patterns systems where unexpected drops indicate issues they are often used by engineering and operations teams to maintain control over system behavior summary cost guards provide a simple way to monitor and control usage and spend they track cost or usage over time trigger alerts based on thresholds operate at the workload level support flexible notification options used correctly, they help you detect problems early and maintain control over your system’s behavior