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Analyze Cost Allocation data

  • Latest Dynatrace
  • Explanation
  • Published May 26, 2026

Once you've configured Cost Allocation tags (see Set up Cost Allocation), use this page to read and export the data.

To analyze Cost Allocation data, you can:

  • Use Dynatrace environment-specific dashboards, notebooks, or DQL, as described in Analyze in Dynatrace.
  • Export data to an external tool, as described in Export Cost Allocation data via Account Management.

Overview

Cost Allocation data is written to Grail as billing usage events with dt.cost.costcenter and dt.cost.product attributes. You can analyze it inside Dynatrace with the pre-made dashboard or custom DQL, or export it for finance-team reporting in tools like Excel or Power BI.

Use cases

  • View total allocated spend per cost center or product on a single dashboard.
  • Build DQL queries to slice consumption by capability and allocation tag.
  • Export allocation data via Account Management or the API for chargeback reporting.
  • Troubleshoot missing or misattributed allocation data.

Analyze in Dynatrace

Cost Allocation data is stored in Dynatrace Grail as billing usage events. These events can be analyzed:

  • In Dashboards Dashboards and Notebooks Notebooks. Dynatrace provides a built-in Dashboard, DPS Cost Allocation usage & costs. Examples from this dashboard are provided below.
  • Via DQL queries. Example DQL queries are provided below.

Visit the Dynatrace DPS Cost Allocation community to see how other Dynatracers analyze their Cost Allocation data.

Analyze in Dashboards

To analyze Cost Allocation data you can use the Dynatrace pre-made dashboard.

Get the dashboard

The dashboard is available:

  • In the built-in environment.
  • As a JSON file that you can download from the Dynatrace GitHub repository, at Cost Allocation overview dashboard. Then upload the file to any other Dynatrace environment, see Upload a dashboard.

Limitations

  • The costs shown in the demo dashboard are based on manual cost assignments as provided in the DQL query.

  • The dashboard does not automatically account for included trace amounts. Therefore, the costs shown are actually higher than what you will be billed for. They're not automatically cross-checked with your rate card.

  • This dashboard currently does not display costs related to queries, Automation Workflows, and AppEngine Function invocations. To view Cost Allocation data for these DPS capabilities, see Configure user-based Cost Allocation for queries, Automation Workflow, and AppEngine Functions.

  • The pre-made dashboard is enough to get you going right away, but it is really intended as just a starting point. Please adapt the dashboard to fit to your needs and use-case scenarios.

Use DQL queries

This section provides various DQL queries that you can use to achieve specific use cases.

Fetch all Billing Usage Events in full detail (including Cost Allocation fields)
fetch dt.system.events
| filter event.kind == "BILLING_USAGE_EVENT"
Fetch all Billing Usage Events for all supported host-related capabilities and show only their capability, Host ID, and Cost Allocation fields
fetch dt.system.events
| filter event.kind == "BILLING_USAGE_EVENT"
| fieldsKeep event.type, dt.entitiy.host, dt.cost.costcenter, dt.cost.product
Check if any Cost Allocation fields are already configured
fetch dt.system.events
| filter event.kind == "BILLING_USAGE_EVENT"
| summarize count = count(), by:{event.type,dt.cost.costcenter}

Export Cost Allocation data

If you want to view Cost Allocation data in a separate tool, such as Excel or Power BI, you can export the data.

You can export Cost Allocation data via Account Management or the API.

DPS licensing consumption and related costs are based on 15-minute increments. Reports are generated daily, so you won't be able to see usage accrued in the previous <24 hours.

Export Cost Allocation data via Account Management

In Account Management, you can download some or all Cost Allocation data from your current DPS subscription.

  1. Go to Account Management.
  2. Select License > Cost Management > Cost Allocation > Download Cost Allocation report.
  3. Select the Commitment period for the relevant subscription.
  4. Select the timeframe from which data should be exported: enter the appropriate dates for From and To.
  5. Select Request download.
  6. An email will be sent to the email account of the logged-in user. The email is sent from noreply@dynatrace.com, so you might want to check your whitelist to make sure that you can receive emails from this account. It contains a download link for the CSV file, which is valid for 24 hours.

Export Cost Allocation data via the API

All Cost Allocation data can be retrieved via the API.

Before using the API, you need to generate an Account Management API Token as described in Authentication for the Account Management API. Additionally, your user will need the permission View usage and consumption: account-uac-read.

Use the following API call to retrieve Cost Allocation data. Parameters are described in Dynatrace Platform Subscription API - GET cost allocation.

GET /v1/subscriptions/{subscription-uuid}/cost-allocation?field={field}\&environment-id={environment-id}

An example response is provided in the code block below.

{
  "records": [
      { "date": "2024-04-01", "capability": "FULLSTACK_MONITORING","key": "department-A", "costs": 10, "usage": 2000 },
      { "date": "2024-04-01", "capability": "FULLSTACK_MONITORING","key": "department-B", "costs": 40, "usage": 8000 },
      { "date": "2024-04-01", "capability": "LOGS", "key": "department-A", "costs": 70, "usage": 700 },
      { "date": "2024-04-01", "capability": "LOGS", "key": "department-B", "costs": 20, "usage": 200 },
      { "date": "2024-04-01", "capability": "FULLSTACK_MONITORING", "key": "department-E", "costs": 10, "usage": 2000 },
      { "date": "2024-04-01", "capability": "FULLSTACK_MONITORING", "key": "department-F", "costs": 50, "usage": 10000 },
      { "date": "2024-04-01", "capability": "FULLSTACK_MONITORING", "key": null, "costs": 60, "usage": 12000 },
      { "date": "2024-04-01", "capability": "LOGS", "key": null, "costs": 10, "usage": 100 },
      { "date": "2024-04-02", "capability": "FULLSTACK_MONITORING", "key": "department-A", "costs": 10, "usage": 2000 },
      { "date": "2024-04-02", "capability": "FULLSTACK_MONITORING", "key": "department-B", "costs": 40, "usage": 8000 },
      { "date": "2024-04-02", "capability": "FULLSTACK_MONITORING", "key": "department-C", "costs": 70, "usage": 14000 },
      { "date": "2024-04-02", "capability": "LOGS", "key": null, "costs": 500, "usage": 5000 }
         // more daily records


         ],
         "nextPageKey": "...",
         "environmentId": "tenant-A",
         "field": "COSTCENTER"
}

Troubleshooting

If you can't find Cost Allocation data:

  • Make sure you have a Dynatrace Platform Service (DPS) SaaS license.

  • Check your OneAgent version. Cost Allocation is supported for versions 1.291+.

  • Confirm that host tags are in the allow list.

    • Are all tag names correct?
    • Are all tags in Infrastructure & Operations Infrastructure & Operations also in the allow list?
    • If any used tags are not in the allow list, add them as described in Set up Cost Allocation. Make sure that they're set on the OneAgent directly (i.e., via the command line), and not in the browser.

  • Did you perform a restart? When in doubt, restart OneAgent or your Kubernetes pod(s). Then wait up to 30 minutes and try again.

Related topics

  • Set up Cost Allocation
  • Account Management
  • Account Management API
  • DQL best practices
Related tags
Dynatrace Platform