Xplorr Quick Start Guide: First Cloud Cost Data in 15 Minutes

import { Steps } from ‘@astrojs/starlight/components’;

Xplorr Quick Start Guide

This guide gets you from zero to seeing your cloud cost data in Xplorr. The whole process takes about 15 minutes: 2 minutes to sign up, 5 minutes to connect a cloud account, and 10-30 minutes for the first data sync.

Before You Start

You need:

An email address (work email recommended — your domain determines your organization)
Admin or billing access to at least one AWS, Azure, or GCP account
15 minutes

Step-by-Step Setup

Create your Xplorr account (~2 minutes)

Go to console.xplorr.io and click Sign Up. Enter your email, set a password, and verify your email address via the confirmation link.

After verification, you land on an empty dashboard. That’s expected — you haven’t connected a cloud account yet.
Connect your first cloud account (~5 minutes)

Go to Settings > Cloud Accounts and click Add Account. Pick your cloud provider:
- AWS — Create an IAM role with read-only Cost Explorer permissions. Full AWS guide
- Azure — Register a Service Principal with Reader role on your subscription. Full Azure guide
- GCP — Create a service account with Billing Viewer access and a BigQuery billing export. Full GCP guide
The guided setup in the console walks you through each step. If you want details, follow the dedicated guide for your provider.
Wait for the first sync (~10-30 minutes)

After you click Connect, Xplorr starts pulling your billing data. You’ll see a banner at the top of the dashboard:

“Your data is syncing. This usually takes 10-30 minutes for the initial pull.”

The time depends on how much billing history you have. A new account with a few months of data syncs in under 10 minutes. An account with years of history across many services can take up to 30 minutes.

You’ll receive an email when the sync completes. You can also check the status at Settings > Cloud Accounts — look for the green “Connected” badge and last sync timestamp.
Explore the dashboard

Once the sync finishes, your dashboard shows:
- Total spend for the current month across all connected accounts
- Cost trend — a daily chart for the last 30 days
- Top services — your most expensive cloud services ranked by cost
- Anomalies — any detected cost spikes (if your account has enough history for baseline)
- Recommendations — idle resources, right-sizing opportunities, savings plan suggestions
Click into any section for more detail. Use the date picker and filters to drill down by account, service, region, or tags.
Optional: Connect Claude via MCP

If you use Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or Claude.ai, you can query your cost data with natural language.

Go to Settings > API Tokens and click Create Token. Copy the token (starts with xplorr_).

Add the Xplorr MCP server to your Claude config:
```
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "xplorr": {
      "url": "https://mcp.xplorr.io/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer xplorr_your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}
```
Then ask Claude: “What are my top 10 most expensive AWS services this month?”

See the full MCP setup guide for platform-specific instructions.

Common First Steps After Setup

Set a budget. Go to Budgets > New Budget and create a monthly budget for your account. Start with a round number close to your current spend. Budget alerts guide
Connect more accounts. If you have multiple AWS accounts, Azure subscriptions, or GCP projects, add them all to get a unified view. For AWS, connecting the management (payer) account pulls data for all member accounts.
Invite your team. Go to Settings > Team and invite colleagues. They’ll see the same data scoped to your organization.

Troubleshooting

“Your data is syncing” stays for more than an hour. Go to Settings > Cloud Accounts and check the status. If it shows “Error”, click into the account for details. The most common cause is a permissions issue — the IAM role, Service Principal, or service account doesn’t have the right access.

Dashboard shows $0 or no data. AWS Cost Explorer data can lag up to 24 hours. If you just enabled Cost Explorer for the first time, wait a day. For Azure and GCP, ensure the billing export or cost management API is enabled on your subscription/project.

Email verification link expired. Go to console.xplorr.io, try to log in, and click “Resend verification email.”

What’s Next

Connect AWS — Detailed IAM role setup with exact policy JSON
Connect Azure — Service Principal configuration step-by-step
Connect GCP — Service account and BigQuery billing export
Budget Alerts — Set up spend notifications before you overspend
MCP Server — Use Claude to query your costs in natural language