Usage and Configuration-Based Cost Estimation

Cloudability Governance can estimate costs directly from your Terraform configuration. In addition to configuration-based estimates, you can optionally provide usage-based input parameters for specific resources. These inputs help generate more accurate and tailored cost projections based on your anticipated consumption. For services that require usage data — such as AWS Lambda, SQS, and others — a default usage value will be used when no custom input is provided. If you supply your own expected usage values, they will always override the defaults.

Terraform Community / GitHub Actions

If you are using GitHub Actions or the Terraform Community edition:

• Cloudability Governance is triggered by a Github action defined for the repository. The expected usage input can be specified through a file usage.json and specified as an input to the IBM/ibm-cloudability-governance/actions/cost-estimation Github Action. You can find an example here: https://github.com/IBM/ibm-cloudability-governance/blob/main/example-workflows/single-deployment/workflow.yaml#L95

HCP Terraform / Terraform Enterprise (TFE)

If you are using HCP Terraform / Terraform Enterprise:

• Cloudability Governance is triggered by a Run Task associated with a specific workspace defined in HCP Terraform.

• If a "usage.json" file is present in the workspace's configured working directory, Cloudability Governance will automatically detect and applies the usage values from this file during cost estimation.

• The file name must match the name "usage.json".

This ensures that usage-based inputs are consistently applied whenever cost estimation is performed for that workspace.

Example of usage.json

{
  "version": "0.1",
  "resource_usage": {
    "aws_instance.costguard_demo_ec2_1": {
      "os": "linux_unix"
    },
    "aws_instance.costguard_demo_ec2_2": {
      "term_type": "compute_savings_plan",
      "purchase_option": "partial_upfront",
      "lease_contract_length": "3yr"
    }
  }
}

version: "0.1" # Version of the schema
resource_usage: # All resource usage values should be listed here
  # The resource is identified as <terraform_resource_name>.<resource_identifier>
  aws_instance.costguard_demo_ec2:
    # Each field represents a specific attribute and its expected usage
    # <attribute_field_name>:<expected_value>
    os: "linux_unix"
  aws_instance.costguard_demo_ec2_2:
    term_type: "compute_savings_plan"
    purchase_option: "partial_upfront"
    lease_contract_length: "3yr"

Estimates are displayed as PR comments, providing insights into monthly costs based on usage inputs.

Compute Resources

aws_instance

count:
  desc: Number of instances to launch
term_type:
  values: ["compute_savings_plan", "ec2_savings_plan", "standard_reserved_instance", "convertible_reserved_instance"]
  desc: Type of pricing model
purchase_option:
  values: ["all_upfront", "partial_upfront", "no_upfront"]
  desc: Payment option for reserved instances
lease_contract_length:
  values: ["1yr", "3yr"] or ["1_year", "3_year"]
  desc: Duration of lease in years

aws_launch_template

count:
  desc: Number of instances to launch
term_type:
  values: "reserved" or "on_demand"
  desc: Type of pricing model
purchase_option:
  values: ["all_upfront", "partial_upfront", "no_upfront"]
  desc: Payment option for reserved instances
lease_contract_length:
  values: ["1yr", "3yr"] or ["1_year", "3_year"]
  desc: Duration of lease in years

Database Resources

aws_db_instance

term_type:
  values: "reserved" or "on_demand"
  desc: Type of pricing model
purchase_option:
  values: ["all_upfront", "partial_upfront", "no_upfront"]
  desc: Payment option for reserved instances
lease_contract_length:
  values: "1" or "3"
  desc: Duration of lease in years

aws_rds_cluster

acu_per_hour:
  desc: Aurora Capacity Units per hour for Aurora Serverless V2
aurora_storage_gb:
  desc: Amount of Aurora storage in GB for Aurora Serverless V2

aws_dynamodb_table

storage_gb:
  desc: Amount of data stored in the table in GB
strongly_consistent_reads_per_month:
  desc: Number of strongly consistent read requests per month
eventually_consistent_reads_per_month:
  desc: Number of eventually consistent read requests per month
transaction_reads_per_month:
  desc: Number of transactional read requests per month
standard_writes_per_month:
  desc: Number of standard write requests per month
transaction_writes_per_month:
  desc: Number of transactional write requests per month
average_item_byte_size:
  desc: Average size of items stored in bytes

aws_elasticache_cluster, aws_elasticache_replication_group

term_type:
  values: "reserved" or "on_demand"
  desc: Type of pricing model
purchase_option:
  values: ["all_upfront", "partial_upfront", "no_upfront", "heavy_utilization"]
  desc: Payment option for reserved instances
lease_contract_length:
  values: "1" or "3"
  desc: Duration of lease in years

aws_redshift_cluster

term_type:
  values: "on_demand", "reserved"
  desc: Type of pricing model
backup_storage_gb:
  desc: Backup storage beyond included amount in GB
spectrum_data_scanned_tb:
  desc: Amount of data scanned by Redshift Spectrum in TB
managed_storage_gb:
  desc: Amount of managed storage in GB
data_transfer_gb:
  desc: Amount of data transferred in GB
utilization_hours:
  desc: Number of hours the cluster is utilized per month

aws_dms_replication_config

avg_dcu:
  desc: Average Data Capacity Units for DMS Serverless replication (default minimum is 1)

Storage Resources

aws_ebs_volume

count:
  desc: Number of volumes to create
iops:
  desc: Provisioned IOPS (only for io1, io2 volume types)
throughput:
  desc: Throughput in MiB/s (only for gp3 volume type)

aws_ebs_snapshot

count:
  desc: Number of snapshots
write_churn_rate:
  desc: Fraction of volume size written between snapshots (e.g. 0.01 = 1%)
snapshot_interval_days:
  desc: Number of days between snapshots

aws_fsx_lustre_file_system

compression_factor:
  desc: Data compression ratio for storage optimization
backup_storage_gb:
  desc: Amount of backup storage in GB

aws_s3_bucket

standard_storage:
  storage_gb:
    desc: Amount of data stored in standard storage class in GB
  rw_requests:
    desc: Number of read-write API requests per month for standard storage
  ro_requests:
    desc: Number of read-only API requests per month for standard storage
  select_data_returned_gb:
    desc: Amount of data returned by S3 Select in GB
  select_data_scanned_gb:
    desc: Amount of data scanned by S3 Select in GB
standard_ia_storage:
  storage_gb:
    desc: Amount of data stored in standard IA storage class in GB
  rw_requests:
    desc: Number of read-write API requests per month for standard IA storage
  ro_requests:
    desc: Number of read-only API requests per month for standard IA storage
  select_data_returned_gb:
    desc: Amount of data returned by S3 Select in GB
  select_data_scanned_gb:
    desc: Amount of data scanned by S3 Select in GB
  lifecycle_transition_requests:
    desc: Number of lifecycle transition requests
  retrieval_data_gb:
    desc: Amount of data retrieved in GB
glacier_da_storage:
  storage_gb:
    desc: Amount of data stored in Glacier Deep Archive in GB
  avg_object_size_mb:
    desc: Average object size in MB
  rw_requests:
    desc: Number of read-write API requests per month
  lifecycle_transition_requests:
    desc: Number of lifecycle transition requests
  restore_standard_requests:
    desc: Number of standard restore requests
  restore_bulk_requests:
    desc: Number of bulk restore requests
  data_standard_retrieval_gb:
    desc: Amount of data retrieved via standard retrieval in GB
  data_bulk_retrieval_gb:
    desc: Amount of data retrieved via bulk retrieval in GB
glacier_ir_storage:
  storage_gb:
    desc: Amount of data stored in Glacier Instant Retrieval in GB
  rw_requests:
    desc: Number of read-write API requests per month
  ro_requests:
    desc: Number of read-only API requests per month
  lifecycle_transition_requests:
    desc: Number of lifecycle transition requests
  retrieval_data_gb:
    desc: Amount of data retrieved in GB
  select_data_returned_gb:
    desc: Amount of data returned by S3 Select in GB
  select_data_scanned_gb:
    desc: Amount of data scanned by S3 Select in GB
glacier_fr_storage:
  storage_gb:
    desc: Amount of data stored in Glacier Flexible Retrieval in GB
  avg_object_size_mb:
    desc: Average object size in MB
  rw_requests:
    desc: Number of read-write API requests per month
  lifecycle_transition_requests:
    desc: Number of lifecycle transition requests
  restore_standard_requests:
    desc: Number of standard restore requests
  restore_bulk_requests:
    desc: Number of bulk restore requests
  restore_expedited_requests:
    desc: Number of expedited restore requests
  data_standard_retrieval_gb:
    desc: Amount of data retrieved via standard retrieval in GB
  data_bulk_retrieval_gb:
    desc: Amount of data retrieved via bulk retrieval in GB
  data_expedited_retrieval_gb:
    desc: Amount of data retrieved via expedited retrieval in GB
intelligent_tiering_storage:
  storage_gb:
    desc: Amount of data stored in Intelligent-Tiering in GB
  avg_object_size_mb:
    desc: Average object size in MB
  frequent_access_percent:
    desc: Percentage of data in frequent access tier
  infrequent_access_percent:
    desc: Percentage of data in infrequent access tier
  archive_instant_access_percent:
    desc: Percentage of data in archive instant access tier
  archive_access_percent:
    desc: Percentage of data in archive access tier
  deep_archive_access_percent:
    desc: Percentage of data in deep archive access tier
  rw_requests:
    desc: Number of read-write API requests per month
  ro_requests:
    desc: Number of read-only API requests per month
  lifecycle_transition_requests:
    desc: Number of lifecycle transition requests
  select_data_returned_gb:
    desc: Amount of data returned by S3 Select in GB
  select_data_scanned_gb:
    desc: Amount of data scanned by S3 Select in GB
one_zone_ia_storage:
  storage_gb:
    desc: Amount of data stored in One Zone-IA in GB
  rw_requests:
    desc: Number of read-write API requests per month
  ro_requests:
    desc: Number of read-only API requests per month
  lifecycle_transition_requests:
    desc: Number of lifecycle transition requests
  retrieval_data_gb:
    desc: Amount of data retrieved in GB
  select_data_returned_gb:
    desc: Amount of data returned by S3 Select in GB
  select_data_scanned_gb:
    desc: Amount of data scanned by S3 Select in GB
express_one_zone_storage:
  storage_gb:
    desc: Amount of data stored in Express One Zone in GB
  rw_requests:
    desc: Number of read-write API requests per month
  rw_request_size_gb:
    desc: Total size of read-write requests in GB
  ro_requests:
    desc: Number of read-only API requests per month
  ro_request_size_gb:
    desc: Total size of read-only requests in GB

aws_efs_file_system

storage_gb:
  desc: Total storage capacity in GB
standard_storage_reads_gb:
  desc: GB read from standard storage per month (elastic throughput mode only)
standard_storage_writes_gb:
  desc: GB written to standard storage per month (elastic throughput mode only)
ia_storage_percent:
  desc: Percentage of total storage in Infrequent Access tier (0-100)
ia_tiering_gb:
  desc: GB moved to IA tier per month
ia_reads_gb:
  desc: GB read from IA tier per month
archive_storage_percent:
  desc: Percentage of total storage in Archive tier (Multi-AZ elastic only, 0-100)
archive_tiering_gb:
  desc: GB moved to Archive tier per month (Multi-AZ elastic only)
archive_reads_gb:
  desc: GB read from Archive tier per month (Multi-AZ elastic only)

Messaging Resources

aws_sns_topic

monthly_requests:
  desc: Number of API requests per month
monthly_storage:
  desc: Amount of data stored for message archive in GB

aws_sns_topic_subscription

monthly_notifications:
  desc: Number of notifications delivered per month

aws_sqs_queue

monthly_requests:
  desc: Number of API requests per month

Serverless Resources

aws_lambda_function

monthly_requests:
  desc: Number of function invocations per month
request_duration_ms:
  desc: Average duration of each invocation in milliseconds

aws_lambda_provisioned_concurrency_config

monthly_requests:
  desc: Number of function invocations per month
request_duration_ms:
  desc: Average duration of each invocation in milliseconds

Big Data Resources

aws_emrserverless_application

job_runtime_hour:
  desc: Number of hours the EMR Serverless application runs

aws_emrcontainers_job_template

job_runtime_hour:
  desc: Number of hours the EMR Containers job runs
job_vcpu:
  desc: Number of vCPUs allocated to the job
job_memory_gb:
  desc: Amount of memory allocated to the job in GB

aws_emr_cluster

core_node_utilization:
  desc: Percentage utilization of core nodes (0-100)
master_node_utilization:
  desc: Percentage utilization of master nodes (0-100)

aws_emr_instance_fleet

instance_utilization:
  desc: Percentage utilization of instances in the fleet (0-100)

aws_emr_instance_group

instance_utilization:
  desc: Percentage utilization of instances in the group (0-100)

aws_opensearch_domain

data_instances:
  term_type:
    values: "on_demand" or "reserved"
    desc: Pricing model for data instances
  purchase_option:
    values: ["all_upfront", "partial_upfront", "no_upfront"]
    desc: Payment option for reserved data instances
  lease_contract_length:
    values: ["1yr", "3yr"]
    desc: Duration of lease for reserved data instances
master_instances:
  term_type:
    values: "on_demand" or "reserved"
    desc: Pricing model for dedicated master instances
  purchase_option:
    values: ["all_upfront", "partial_upfront", "no_upfront"]
    desc: Payment option for reserved master instances
  lease_contract_length:
    values: ["1yr", "3yr"]
    desc: Duration of lease for reserved master instances
ultrawarm_instances:
  managed_storage_gb:
    desc: Amount of UltraWarm managed storage in GB
cold_storage:
  managed_storage_gb:
    desc: Amount of cold storage in GB

aws_opensearchserverless_collection

avg_index_ocu_count:
  desc: Average number of indexing OpenSearch Compute Units (OCUs)
avg_query_ocu_count:
  desc: Average number of search/query OpenSearch Compute Units (OCUs)
storage_gb_per_month:
  desc: Amount of data stored per month in GB

Event Processing Resources

aws_schemas_schema

ingestion_count:
  desc: Number of schema ingestion operations per month

aws_pipes_pipe

event_count:
  desc: Number of events processed through the pipe per month

aws_cloudwatch_event_bus

event_count:
  desc: Number of events processed through the event bus per month

aws_cloudwatch_event_archive

archive_processing:
  desc: Amount of data processed for archiving in GB
archive_storage:
  desc: Amount of archived data stored in GB

Monitoring Resources

aws_cloudwatch_metric_alarm

avg_metrics_retrieved:
  desc: Average number of metrics retrieved per alarm per month

Security Resources

aws_secretsmanager_secret

average_duration_in_days:
  desc: Average number of days the secret is stored per month (prorated billing)
monthly_requests:
  desc: Number of API requests per month

aws_kms_key

monthly_symmetric_requests:
  desc: Number of symmetric encryption/decryption requests per month
monthly_asymmetric_requests_except_rsa2048:
  desc: Number of asymmetric requests per month (excluding RSA 2048)
monthly_asymmetric_rsa2048_requests:
  desc: Number of RSA 2048 asymmetric requests per month
monthly_generatedatakeypair_ecc_requests:
  desc: Number of ECC key pair generation requests per month
monthly_generatedatakeypair_rsa_requests:
  desc: Number of RSA key pair generation requests per month

aws_kms_external_key

monthly_symmetric_requests:
  desc: Number of symmetric encryption/decryption requests per month
monthly_asymmetric_requests_except_rsa2048:
  desc: Number of asymmetric requests per month (excluding RSA 2048)
monthly_asymmetric_rsa2048_requests:
  desc: Number of RSA 2048 asymmetric requests per month
monthly_generatedatakeypair_ecc_requests:
  desc: Number of ECC key pair generation requests per month
monthly_generatedatakeypair_rsa_requests:
  desc: Number of RSA key pair generation requests per month

aws_kms_replica_key

monthly_symmetric_requests:
  desc: Number of symmetric encryption/decryption requests per month
monthly_asymmetric_requests_except_rsa2048:
  desc: Number of asymmetric requests per month (excluding RSA 2048)
monthly_asymmetric_rsa2048_requests:
  desc: Number of RSA 2048 asymmetric requests per month
monthly_generatedatakeypair_ecc_requests:
  desc: Number of ECC key pair generation requests per month
monthly_generatedatakeypair_rsa_requests:
  desc: Number of RSA key pair generation requests per month

aws_kms_replica_external_key

monthly_symmetric_requests:
  desc: Number of symmetric encryption/decryption requests per month
monthly_asymmetric_requests_except_rsa2048:
  desc: Number of asymmetric requests per month (excluding RSA 2048)
monthly_asymmetric_rsa2048_requests:
  desc: Number of RSA 2048 asymmetric requests per month
monthly_generatedatakeypair_ecc_requests:
  desc: Number of ECC key pair generation requests per month
monthly_generatedatakeypair_rsa_requests:
  desc: Number of RSA key pair generation requests per month

aws_wafv2_web_acl

monthly_requests:
  desc: Number of web requests evaluated per month
request_sizing_weights:
  16KB:
    desc: Weight for requests up to 16KB body size (0-1)
  32KB:
    desc: Weight for requests up to 32KB body size (0-1)
  48KB:
    desc: Weight for requests up to 48KB body size (0-1)
  64KB:
    desc: Weight for requests up to 64KB body size (0-1)
shield_protected:
  values: true or false
  desc: Whether AWS Shield Advanced protection is enabled

Networking Resources

aws_vpn_connection

data_processing_month_gb:
  desc: Amount of data processed through VPN connection in GB per month

aws_ec2_transit_gateway_vpc_attachment

data_processing_month_gb:
  desc: Amount of data processed through transit gateway in GB per month

aws_ec2_client_vpn_network_association

active_users:
  desc: Number of concurrent VPN users
hrs_active_per_month:
  desc: Number of hours the VPN connection is active per month

aws_vpc_endpoint (gateway)

gateway_endpoint:
  endpoint_az_count:
    desc: Number of availability zones for the endpoint
  processed_bytes_per_hour_gb:
    desc: Amount of data processed per hour in GB

Load Balancing Resources

aws_elb (Classic Load Balancer)

data_gb:
  desc: Total GB of data processed by the Classic Load Balancer per month

aws_lb (Application Load Balancer)

application:
  average_new_connections_per_second:
    desc: Average new connections per second
  average_connection_duration_seconds:
    desc: Average connection duration in seconds
  average_processed_bytes_per_hour_gb_ec2:
    desc: Average processed bytes per hour in GB for EC2 targets
  average_processed_bytes_per_hour_gb_lambda:
    desc: Average processed bytes per hour in GB for Lambda targets
  average_requests_per_second:
    desc: Average requests per second
  average_rules_processed:
    desc: Average number of rules processed per request
  on_outposts:
    values: true or false
    desc: Whether the ALB is deployed on AWS Outposts
  reserved_lcu_hours:
    desc: Reserved LCU capacity hours (billed in full)

aws_lb (Network Load Balancer)

network:
  average_new_tcp_connections_per_second:
    desc: Average new TCP connections per second
  average_tcp_connection_duration_sec:
    desc: Average TCP connection duration in seconds
  average_processed_bytes_tcp_per_hour_gb:
    desc: Average processed bytes for TCP per hour in GB
  average_new_udp_flows_per_second:
    desc: Average new UDP flows per second
  average_udp_flow_duration_sec:
    desc: Average UDP flow duration in seconds
  average_processed_bytes_udp_per_hour_gb:
    desc: Average processed bytes for UDP per hour in GB
  average_new_tls_connections_per_second:
    desc: Average new TLS connections per second
  average_tls_connection_duration_sec:
    desc: Average TLS connection duration in seconds
  average_processed_bytes_tls_per_hour_gb:
    desc: Average processed bytes for TLS per hour in GB
  reserved_nlcu_hours:
    desc: Reserved NLCU capacity hours (billed in full)

aws_lb (Gateway Load Balancer)

gateway:
  availability_zone_count:
    desc: Number of availability zones
  new_connections_per_second:
    desc: New connections per second
  average_connection_duration_seconds:
    desc: Average connection duration in seconds
  processed_bytes_per_hour_gb:
    desc: Processed bytes per hour in GB
  reserved_glcu_hours:
    desc: Reserved GLCU capacity hours (billed in full)

Container Resources

aws_ecs_service

external_instances:
  desc: Number of external instances
fargate_utilization:
  desc: Percentage utilization of Fargate tasks (0-100)
external_instances_utilization:
  desc: Percentage utilization of external instances (0-100)
managed_instances_utilization:
  desc: Percentage utilization of managed instances (0-100)

aws_ecs_capacity_provider

managed_instance_type:
  desc: Instance type for managed capacity provider (e.g. t3.medium)
managed_instance_count:
  desc: Number of managed instances
managed_scaling_instance_count:
  desc: Number of instances for managed scaling

AWS Glue Resources

aws_glue_job

job_runtime_min:
  desc: Duration of each job run in minutes
monthly_invocations:
  desc: Number of job invocations per month
default_max_capacity:
  desc: Default maximum DPU capacity for the job

aws_glue_crawler

no_of_dpus:
  desc: Number of DPUs allocated to the crawler
crawl_duration_min:
  desc: Duration of each crawl in minutes
monthly_invocations:
  desc: Number of crawl invocations per month

aws_glue_trigger

monthly_invocations:
  desc: Number of trigger invocations per month

aws_glue_catalog_database, aws_glue_catalog_table

catalog_object_count:
  desc: Number of objects stored in the Data Catalog
catalog_access_request_count:
  desc: Number of access requests to the Data Catalog per month
table_statistics_job:
  workers_count:
    desc: Number of DPU workers for table statistics jobs
  duration_min:
    desc: Duration of each statistics job in minutes
  monthly_invocations:
    desc: Number of statistics job invocations per month
table_optimization_job:
  workers_count:
    desc: Number of DPU workers for table optimization jobs
  duration_min:
    desc: Duration of each optimization job in minutes
  monthly_invocations:
    desc: Number of optimization job invocations per month

storage_transactions:
  desc: Number of monthly storage transactions for the VM's OS disk

utilization:
  desc: Expected utilization factor between 0 and 1 (e.g. 0.5 = 50% of max capacity)

utilization:
  desc: Expected utilization factor between 0 and 1 for autoscaling node pools (e.g. 0.5 = 50% between min and max node count)

storage_transactions:
  desc: Number of monthly storage transactions (applies to Standard HDD and Standard SSD)

storage_gb:
  desc: Amount of data stored in GB
throughput_serverless:
  desc: Throughput consumption for serverless mode (in RU/s units)

backup_storage_gb:
  desc: Amount of backup storage in GB beyond included amount
commitment_type:
  values: "reserved"
  desc: Commitment pricing type
commitment_length:
  values: "1_year" or "3_year"
  desc: Duration of the reserved commitment

backup_storage_gb:
  desc: Amount of backup storage in GB beyond included amount
commitment_type:
  values: "reserved"
  desc: Commitment pricing type
commitment_length:
  values: "1_year" or "3_year"
  desc: Duration of the reserved commitment

analytics_logs_gb:
  desc: Monthly ingestion volume for Analytics Logs in GB
basic_logs_gb:
  desc: Monthly ingestion volume for Basic Logs in GB
auxiliary_logs_gb:
  desc: Monthly ingestion volume for Auxiliary Logs in GB
platform_logs_gb:
  desc: Monthly ingestion volume for Platform Logs in GB

analytics_logs_gb:
  desc: Monthly data ingestion volume for Analytics Logs in GB

data_processed_gb:
  desc: Amount of data processed per month in GB (for AZFW_Hub SKU only)

tier:
  values: "Flex Consumption"
  desc: Function app hosting tier
memory_mb:
  desc: Memory allocation in MB
monthly_active_executions:
  desc: Number of active executions per month
monthly_active_exec_seconds:
  desc: Total active execution seconds per month
execution_time_ms:
  desc: Average execution time in milliseconds
monthly_executions:
  desc: Total number of executions per month

monthly_active_executions:
  desc: Number of active executions per month
monthly_active_exec_seconds:
  desc: Total active execution seconds per month
always_ready_baseline_sec:
  desc: Always-ready baseline seconds per month
always_ready_exec_sec:
  desc: Always-ready execution seconds per month
always_ready_exec_count:
  desc: Always-ready execution count per month