Kubernetes cost allocation by namespace, team and workload
Break EKS, GKE and AKS costs down by cluster, namespace and workload, and roll them up to teams.
Runs in
Claude · Slack
First optimization recommendation
The next day
ROI
Pays for itself with the first recommendation you act on
Playbook
What the agent does
From what Costory notices to what you decide. Costory suggests the next step in conversation, and you decide whether to go ahead.
Costory notices
Every day, for every cluster and namespace.
Costory investigates
01
Pick a method
EKS: AWS Split Cost Allocation Data or AWS-managed usage metrics. GKE: native GKE cost allocation labels. AKS and other clusters: Kubecost or OpenCost exports.
02
Use consistent labels
team, app, env, cluster and namespace labels route costs to owners.
03
Build the view
Cost by cluster, namespace, workload and waste indicator, from the Kubernetes dashboard template.
04
Share it
Send recurring reports to each team's channel.
Where you see it
Claude
You decide
Platform decides how idle capacity is shared; teams own their namespaces.
Why it matters
Kubernetes hides who uses what behind nodes and node pools. Without workload-level allocation, the cluster is a black box in every cost review.
Who it’s for
Platform teams, Kubernetes owners
Where it runs
Claude · Slack
What you get
What lands in front of your team
Workload-level cost
See which deployments drive cluster spend.
Idle shown separately
Waste is visible instead of spread silently.
Chargeback-ready
Roll namespaces up to teams for monthly packs.
Sources and assistants
What it connects
Data sources
Example prompts
Or drive it yourself
Explore
Break down last month's EKS cost by namespace and team. Which namespaces grew the most?
Chargeback
Build a chargeback-ready EKS view by team label with idle cost shown separately.
FAQ
Questions about this playbook
What if our tagging is incomplete?
Costory's Virtual Dimensions allocate with rules on accounts, projects, names and partial tags, so you don't need perfect tagging to start. Shared and untagged cost is reallocated dynamically using the metrics you already have (Datadog, Tsuga, BigQuery, Snowflake and more), and the allocation stays consistent as usage moves.
How long does this playbook take to set up?
Connecting your billing data and the Costory MCP takes under 30 minutes with Terraform or CloudFormation. The playbook itself takes minutes: pick the scope, the trigger and the Slack channel. The first billing data lands the next day, and the agent starts from there.
Can we adjust what the agent does?
Yes. You choose the trigger, the scope (team, service, environment), the channel and the format, and you can pause or change it at any time.
Does Costory change anything in our cloud accounts?
No. Costory reads billing exports and the metrics you connect, and has no write access to your cloud. Actions it takes create Costory objects only: alerts, reports, dashboards and events. Your team stays in control of every change.
Step-by-step guide in the Costory docs
Related playbooks
Run these alongside it
Costory notices
Daily, as Datadog usage and the EKS bill refresh.
Dynamic cost reallocation for EKS using Datadog usage
Split shared EKS cluster costs across teams in proportion to what each team's workloads actually use, measured in Datadog.
See the playbook
Costory notices
Idle capacity in a node pool stays above your threshold.
Find over-requested Kubernetes workloads and right-size requests
Measure the gap between requested and available CPU and memory, convert it to cost, and get request changes per deployment.
See the playbook
Costory notices
The 11th of every month, after month n-1 is frozen.
Monthly chargeback pack by cost center, ready for finance
A monthly, frozen view of allocated cost per cost center, exported to BigQuery or shared as a PDF for finance.
See the playbook
Put this playbook on call
Included in every plan, from €250/month. 30-day free trial: connect in under 30 minutes, get your first optimization recommendation the next day.
First optimization recommendation
The next day
ROI
Pays for itself with the first recommendation you act on
Setup
About 30 minutes
Data residency
EU
Access
Read-only on your cloud