Cloud Cost Notification Preferences
import { Steps } from ‘@astrojs/starlight/components’;
Cloud Cost Notification Preferences
Section titled “Cloud Cost Notification Preferences”Xplorr sends notifications to keep you informed about cost changes, sync results and alerts. Each person chooses which optional emails they receive; Slack messages go to your organization’s channel.
Email notifications
Section titled “Email notifications”Each optional email can be turned on or off per person, on your Profile page. All of them are on by default except sync results, which are off until you turn them on (since 7 October 2026).
| Notification | When it fires | Who receives it |
|---|---|---|
| Cost anomalies | A service spends well above its baseline, or the month runs ahead of forecast. Spike detection runs every 6 hours, the forecast check daily at 10:00 UTC. | Active admins |
| Budget alerts | A budget crosses one of its thresholds, or is projected to go over before the period ends | Active admins |
| Credit alerts | A credit grant is projected to run out, or to expire with some of it unused, within 30 and then 7 days | Active admins |
| Alert rule emails | An alert rule that lists your address as a recipient is triggered | The addresses on the rule |
| Sync results | One email after each sync run with every account’s result, including failures. Off by default. | Active admins and members who turned it on |
| Weekly digest | Every Monday at 09:00 UTC: last week’s spend, top services, anomalies and savings | Active users |
| Monthly report | A PDF cost report for last month, on the 3rd | Admins |
| Scheduled reports from others | A report someone else scheduled with you as a recipient | The report’s recipients |
| AI budget warning | At most once a month, when your organization has used 80 percent of its monthly AI budget. Checked every hour. | Active admins |
| Getting started emails | A short series of tips while your organization has no cloud account connected | New organizations |
Some emails are always sent and cannot be turned off: email verification, password resets, invitations, security notices, service notices from the Xplorr team, and test alerts you send yourself.
Commitment alerts (a reservation or savings plan ending within 30 and then 7 days, or running under its utilization threshold) appear with your anomalies in the console. They are not emailed.
Slack notifications
Section titled “Slack notifications”Slack messages go to your organization, not to individuals. They are posted through the Xplorr Slack app when it is connected, to the workspace’s default channel, or otherwise to the organization’s Slack webhook:
| Notification | When it fires |
|---|---|
| Anomaly alert | Every detected anomaly, whatever its severity |
| Budget alert | When spend crosses a budget threshold, or is projected to go over |
| Alert rule trigger | When an alert rule fires (a rule can carry its own webhook) |
| Credit alert | 30 and 7 days before a grant’s projected run out or unused expiry |
| Daily digest | Every day at 09:00 UTC; see Daily Cost Digest |
| Weekly summary | Every Monday at 09:00 UTC, with the Slack app; see Weekly Executive Summary |
| AI budget warning | Once a month at 80 percent of the monthly AI budget, to the organization’s Slack webhook |
Sync failures are reported by email, not to Slack.
Setting up a Slack webhook
Section titled “Setting up a Slack webhook”-
In Slack, go to api.slack.com/apps and create a new app (or use an existing one).
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Go to Incoming Webhooks and toggle it on.
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Click Add New Webhook to Workspace and pick the channel where you want Xplorr notifications.
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Copy the webhook URL. It looks like:
https://hooks.slack.com/services/T00000000/B00000000/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX -
In the Xplorr console, go to Settings and find Slack Notifications.
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Paste the webhook URL into Org-level webhook URL and click Save.
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Click Send test message. You should see a test message appear in your Slack channel.
Per-user notification preferences
Section titled “Per-user notification preferences”Each person controls their own emails on their Profile page, under notification preferences:
- Toggle each optional email on or off
- Preferences apply to one organization; if you belong to several, set them in each
- Every optional email also carries a one click unsubscribe link for its type
- Slack notifications are organization wide and are not affected by personal preferences
Suggested configuration by role
Section titled “Suggested configuration by role”| Role | Cost anomalies | Budget alerts | Weekly digest | Sync results |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering lead | On | On | On | Off |
| Finance / FinOps | Off | On | On | Off |
| Platform / SRE | On | Off | Off | On |
| Executive | Off | Off | On | Off |
Anomaly, budget and credit emails only reach admins, so a member’s toggle for those has no effect until they are an admin.
Notification timing
Section titled “Notification timing”- Anomaly alerts: detection runs every 6 hours; each anomaly is sent as soon as it is detected
- Budget alerts: thresholds are checked daily at 08:00 UTC (with a second pass at 09:00 UTC); forecast alerts at 11:00 UTC
- Alert rules and credit alerts: checked daily at 08:00 UTC
- Daily digest (Slack): every day at 09:00 UTC
- Weekly digest (email) and weekly summary (Slack): every Monday at 09:00 UTC
- Sync results: after each sync run; the scheduled sync runs daily at 02:00 UTC
Common mistakes
Section titled “Common mistakes”- Turning sync result emails on for everyone. They arrive after every sync, even when every account succeeded. Turn them on only for the people who fix sync problems; everyone else sees a failed sync on the sync status badge in the console (see Data Health).
- Not configuring Slack for on-call teams. Email notifications can sit unread for hours. If your SRE team needs to respond to anomalies quickly, Slack is the right channel.
- Expecting a member to get budget or anomaly emails. Those go to admins only.
Can I send notifications to multiple Slack channels? The daily digest and weekly summary can go to several channels; see Channel Routing. Anomaly, budget, alert rule and credit alerts go to one channel: the Slack app’s default channel or the organization webhook. Alert rules can each carry their own webhook.
Can I get SMS or PagerDuty notifications? Not natively. Use a PagerDuty and Slack bridge on the channel Xplorr posts to.
Why didn’t I get an anomaly alert? Check that you are an admin and that cost anomaly emails are on in your profile. Also check the anomaly thresholds in Anomaly Detection: small absolute changes are ignored.
Can I change the weekly digest day? No. The weekly digest and weekly summary go out on Mondays at 09:00 UTC for every organization.
Where are invoices and payment emails? Invoices for the Growth plan are in the Stripe portal: an admin opens Billing, then Manage billing. Organizations that joined during the private beta get at least 30 days notice by email before their plan changes. See Billing.
Does this work in Microsoft Teams? Not yet. The Teams bot is being built; see Microsoft Teams.
Key takeaways
Section titled “Key takeaways”- Keep anomaly and budget alerts on for admins: these are the highest-signal notifications.
- Set up Slack for team visibility; use email for individual tracking.
- Use per-person preferences to avoid alert fatigue.
- Send a test message after setting up the Slack webhook to confirm it reaches the right channel.