Cost Analysis: Compare Any Two Periods or Two Accounts
Cost Analysis
Section titled “Cost Analysis”Cost Analysis compares spend between two periods, or between two accounts, and shows what drove the difference. Open Cost Management → Cost Analysis in the console.
It has two tabs: Periods and Accounts. Until 28 September 2026 the account comparison lived on a separate Compare page; its old address opens the Accounts tab.
Periods
Section titled “Periods”By default the page compares month to date with the same days last month. Month to date runs from the 1st to the last complete day.
To compare anything else, choose Custom range, set a start and end date, and pick what to compare it with:
| Compare with | Comparison period |
|---|---|
| Previous period | The same number of days, ending the day before your range starts |
| Same days last month | Both dates moved back one month. The 31st becomes the last day of a shorter month. |
| Custom range | A second start and end date you choose, which may be longer, shorter, earlier or later |
Dates are whole calendar days in UTC, and both ends are included. A range can be up to 400 days and cannot end in the future.
The page then shows, for both periods:
- Selected period, Comparison period and Change cards
- Spend by provider
- Daily cost trend, the two periods overlaid day by day
- Spend by service, largest changes first
- Service level comparison, sortable by cost or by change
- Account breakdown when more than one account is in scope
The period is kept in the page address, so a link to it opens the same comparison, and a saved view remembers it.
Days still arriving
Section titled “Days still arriving”Providers keep writing cost for the last two days. Totals that stop at the last complete day do not include them. If you pick a range that reaches into those days, the page says so, and the totals for those days will rise as the data lands.
Accounts
Section titled “Accounts”Choose two accounts and one date range, then click Compare to see the two side by side: totals, the daily trend and spend by service.