Workloads
Workloads are Amberflo’s way of representing internal systems or components that you want to attribute usage and cost to.
They provide a structured way to answer a simple question:
Where is this usage happening, and what is it costing us?
What is a Workload?
A workload represents a unit of infrastructure or functionality within your system.
Examples include:
- An image generation pipeline
- A customer support chatbot
- A recommendation engine
- A background processing job
- GPU clusters or compute resources
- Any service or system that drives usage
Workloads are not tied to customers. They are internal constructs used to organize and analyze usage and cost.
How Workloads Fit into the System
Workloads are used during metering.
When you send usage data, you can attach a workload identifier. That usage is then:
- Attributed to that workload
- Rated into cost using your cost models
- Aggregated into spend views
The same usage data can also be used for billing. You are not forced to separate them.
You can:
- Use metering only for cost tracking
- Use metering only for billing
- Use the same meter for both cost and billing
Workloads sit on the cost side, but they work with the same underlying usage data.
Workloads Page Overview
Navigate to the Workloads page to view and manage your workloads.
What You’ll See
Each row in the table represents a workload and includes:
- Workload Name
- Current Spend (Month-to-Date)
- Created Date
Expanding a Workload
Click on a workload row to expand it.
You will see:
- A list of previous months
- Spend totals for each month
Drill Into Monthly Spend
Click on a specific month to view detailed cost data.
This opens a breakdown similar to an invoice, where you can see:
- All usage attributed to that workload
- How that usage was rated into cost
- The components contributing to total spend
This is how you move from high-level totals to detailed cost analysis.
Creating a Workload
Navigate
- Go to the Workloads page
- Click Create Workload (top right)
Required Fields
A workload consists of two fields:
- Name A human-readable label Example: Image Generation Pipeline
- Workload ID A unique identifier used in meteringConstraints:
- Letters, numbers, hyphens, underscores only
- No spaces
Click Save once complete.
How Workloads Are Used in Metering
The Workload ID is critical.
When you send usage data to a meter, you include this ID as part of the workload dimension.
Example flow:
- Create a workload with ID image_pipeline
- Send usage with workload = image_pipeline
- Amberflo attributes that usage to the workload
- Cost is calculated and aggregated under that workload
Without this linkage, usage cannot be attributed to internal systems.
Why Workloads Matter
Workloads allow you to:
- Understand which parts of your system drive cost
- Compare spend across different services or pipelines
- Identify high-cost components
- Track trends over time
- Make informed optimization decisions
This is typically used by engineering and infrastructure teams to:
- Analyze system efficiency
- Monitor cost growth
- Prioritize optimization efforts
Summary
Workloads are the foundation for internal cost attribution.
They:
- Represent parts of your infrastructure
- Receive attributed usage through metering
- Aggregate cost based on your rate models
- Enable detailed analysis through spend views
If you want to understand how your system consumes resources and where your costs come from, workloads are where that starts.