Kubecost helps teams understand and manage Kubernetes infrastructure costs — whether you’re trying to catch idle resources, track spend by team, or justify infra budgets to finance.

But how much does Kubecost itself cost—and what should you expect at different levels of usage? In this guide, we’ll break down how Kubecost works, its pricing tiers, the difference between self-hosted and cloud-hosted deployments, and how to keep your Kubecost bill under control.

How does Kubecost work?

Kubecost runs directly inside your Kubernetes cluster, where it scrapes real-time cost data from cloud billing APIs, Kubernetes metrics, and usage metadata. It maps spend down to the pod, namespace, deployment, and label level—giving engineers immediate visibility into where resources are being consumed and what they cost.

At its core, Kubecost uses Prometheus to gather usage metrics and then applies pricing models—custom or cloud-based (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure)—to calculate costs. It supports both on-demand and discounted pricing inputs, such as Reserved Instances and Savings Plans, for more accurate reporting.

Kubecost integrates natively with Kubernetes APIs and can be deployed via Helm or YAML, either as a self-hosted solution or through a managed cloud-hosted version. Once deployed, users can generate detailed cost allocation reports, receive cost-saving recommendations, and set up alerts to monitor budget thresholds.

Kubecost architecture diagram
Kubecost architecture: whether you’re using Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), or self-managed clusters

Kubecost Features and Use Cases

Let’s take a quick look at the key features of IBM Kubecost. 

Feature

What It Does

Cost Allocation

Cost allocation by namespace, label, deployment, service, etc.

Cost Monitoring

Real-time visibility into Kubernetes spend at the pod and cluster level

Saved Reports

Allows users to save and share pre-configured cost reports

Alerting

Sends cost-related alerts based on thresholds or usage anomalies

Multi-Cluster Visibility

Aggregates cost data across multiple clusters

Data Export & APIs

Enables CSV/API export of data

Metric Retention Options

Stores usage/cost data for historical analysis

Governance Features (RBAC)

Restricts access to cost views and reports by role

Overview of Kubecost Pricing Models

Kubecost, now part of IBM’s Apptio portfolio, offers three primary pricing tiers to accommodate various organizational needs. 

While the Free tier is suitable for small teams or test environments, production-grade usage quickly moves into paid territory, where costs can ramp up fast depending on your cluster size.

Foundations, Enterprise Self-Hosted & Enterprise Cloud Tiers

1. Foundations (Free Tier)

Designed for individuals or small teams seeking basic Kubernetes cost visibility.

  • Supports unlimited clusters up to 250 cores
  • 15-day metric retention
  • Unlimited users
  • Compatible with EKS, AKS, GKE, on-premises, and more
  • Reconciliation with your cloud service provider bill for price accuracy
  • Provides cost optimization insights and automation

2. Enterprise Self-Hosted

  • Includes all features of the Foundations tier
  • Unified, multi-cluster view
  • Supports unlimited clusters at any scale
  • Unlimited metric retention
  • Support for custom pricing
  • Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
  • Enterprise integrations
  • Dedicated support and professional services

3. Enterprise Cloud (SaaS)

  • Includes all features of the Enterprise Self-Hosted tier
  • Updates and configuration managed by Kubecost
  • Dedicated domain for your team
  • Reduced maintenance and technical overhead
  • Kubecost-managed High Availability and Disaster Recovery
  • Bring your own identity provider
  • Automated scaling and resource management

Self-Hosted vs. Cloud-Hosted Pricing

Kubecost can be deployed either in your own environment (self-hosted) or via their managed SaaS offering (cloud-hosted).

  • Self-hosted gives you full control over deployment and data residency, but comes with operational overhead—your team is responsible for updates, scaling, availability, and security. It’s often preferred by teams that already have infrastructure management processes in place.
  • Cloud-hosted offloads the operational burden and is fully managed by Kubecost, but typically comes with higher recurring costs and reduced control. It’s positioned as a plug-and-play option but may be less cost-efficient at scale.

Let’s compare the pros and cons with a quick table:

Feature

Self-Hosted

Cloud-Hosted

Deployment

Installed in your Kubernetes cluster

Managed by Kubecost as a SaaS service

Control

Full control over environment, updates, and data

Minimal control—Kubecost manages everything

Operational Overhead

High – requires internal resources for ops

Low – infrastructure and updates are managed

Data Residency

Stays within your infrastructure

Hosted in Kubecost’s cloud environment

Pricing

Based on node count

Based on usage + SaaS management fees

Security/Compliance

Depends on internal setup

Managed security, but may limit customization

Availability

Your responsibility

Handled by Kubecost

Support Model

Community (Free) or dedicated (Enterprise)

Business and Enterprise support tiers

Best For

Teams with in-house infra expertise

Teams that want simplicity and fast onboarding

Kubecost on AWS Marketplace

Kubecost is available through the AWS Marketplace. If you’re running workloads on Amazon EKS or using other AWS services to deploy and manage billing through a single platform, this may be a good option. 

Pay-As-You-Go Pricing

Kubecost offers a usage-based pricing model on AWS Marketplace. One reported example cited $3.42 per container hour, but actual rates may differ. This flexible approach is ideal for variable workloads, allowing teams to scale up or down without long-term commitment. Subscriptions can be canceled at any time.

Annual Contract Pricing

Kubecost offers a usage-based pricing model on AWS Marketplace. One reported example cited $3.42 per container hour, but actual rates may differ. This flexible approach is ideal for variable workloads, allowing teams to scale up or down without long-term commitment. Subscriptions can be canceled at any time.

When to Choose AWS Marketplace

Buying Kubecost through the AWS Marketplace may make sense if:

  • You need fast, turnkey deployment directly into an existing AWS environment.
  • You prefer a procurement process that doesn’t involve separate vendor contracts.
AWS Marketplace Pricing

That said, the convenience of Marketplace comes with trade-offs—particularly for sustained usage, where pay-as-you-go rates may end up costing more than node-based licensing outside the Marketplace.

Best Practices for Spending Less on Kubecost

Kubecost can help you get visibility into resource allocation and reduce Kubernetes infrastructure waste—but if you’re not careful, the tool itself can become a major line item. Before committing to a paid tier, it’s worth scoping your current requirements, thinking through future use cases, and considering whether you’ll eventually need broader cloud visibility, FinOps reporting, or automation beyond Kubernetes. And don’t forget to factor in the operational overhead of managing the Kubecost agent.

Here are tactical ways to reduce your Kubecost bill without sacrificing visibility.

1. Don’t Monitor More Than You Need

Kubecost charges based on node count (self-hosted) or container hours (Marketplace). To control costs, deploy it only where it’s needed:

  • Exclude low-priority dev and staging environments
  • Skip short-lived CI/CD or ephemeral workloads
  • Scope deployments to specific namespaces or clusters

Many teams overmonitor by default—so make sure your Helm or YAML deployment is scoped only to the namespaces or clusters where cost insights are actually used.

Kubecost dashboard

2. Stick With the Free Tier If You Can

The Free tier supports up to 250 cores, unlimited clusters, and 15 days of metric retention. If you’re a small team or only need short-term visibility (e.g. for an audit, cost review, or short-term project), the Free plan may be enough.

Even some larger teams can operate within the Free tier by disabling multi-cluster views and reducing Prometheus retention settings.

3. Avoid Marketplace Overages

On the AWS Marketplace plan ($3.42/container hour), unmanaged workloads can drive unexpected costs. To prevent overages:

  • Use autoscaling or scheduled shutdowns for idle containers
  • Monitor usage thresholds and set budget alerts
  • Consider switching to an annual prepaid plan if usage is stable

Be especially cautious with long-running or non-critical containers left running after business hours.

4. Reevaluate Feature Usage

Enterprise and Business tiers include premium features—some essential, others optional. Evaluate what you’re using:

  • SAML/SSO and RBAC are important for compliance but unnecessary for smaller teams with simple access controls.
  • Unlimited metric retention helps for long-term trend analysis, but many teams operate fine with shorter windows.
  • Multi-cluster views streamline reporting for platform teams, but may be overkill for teams with a single main cluster.
  • Saved reports and scheduled exports are only useful if they’re part of a routine process—not if they’re ignored.
  • Dedicated support is critical for SLA-driven teams, but many users rely effectively on Kubecost’s community channels.

If features aren’t being used consistently, it may be worth negotiating a smaller plan or exploring alternatives.

5. Consider Lower-Cost Alternatives for Kubernetes Cost Management

Kubecost can be effective for surfacing Kubernetes costs—but in some cases, the price tag may outweigh the benefit. It might be worth considering some Kubecost alternatives to reduce your bill. 

In one real-world case, an engineering team was spending over $70,000 per year just to monitor three production clusters—and that didn’t even include the operational overhead of managing Kubecost agents. After adding the annual Enterprise contract, their total rose to $100,000 per year. And all of that spend was for visibility alone.

In contrast, the same organization ran nOps across all of their clusters for just $182 in a single month. nOps provided unified cost monitoring for all resource usage plus full automation: rightsizing, scheduling, Spot management, and commitment orchestration.

Kubecost across production clusters
Kubecost cost ~$8k for 3 clusters
nOps costs for all clusters
nOps cost only $93 for 9 clusters in Bring Your Own Prometheus setup

If you’re spending five or six figures just to understand your spend, it’s worth asking whether another platform could do more—at a fraction of the cost.

Monitor Kubernetes Costs with nOps

Kubecost offers solid visibility into Kubernetes costs, but that’s only part of the picture.

If you’re managing multiple cloud providers, running non-containerized workloads, or using AI infrastructure like Amazon Bedrock or Vertex AI, Kubecost won’t capture the full scope of your cloud spend. It also doesn’t automate savings—you’ll need additional tools to handle tasks like EC2 rightsizing, Reserved Instance management, Spot orchestration, or idle resource cleanup.

Why engineering and FinOps teams choose nOps:

  • One contract: No need to patch together multiple vendors or agents.
  • One source of truth: Centralized visibility across AWS and Kubernetes workloads.
  • Unified data model: Cloud, container, and cost data tied together for accurate, actionable insights.
  • Built-in automation: Optimization engines share data—so rightsizing, scheduling, and commitment management compound instead of conflict.

nOps Platform: An Overview

Understand your Kubernetes costs and leverage automation with complete confidence by booking a demo today!

nOps was recently ranked #1 with five stars in G2’s cloud cost management category, and we optimize $2 billion in cloud spend for our customers.