Azure Rate Card Configuration

Kubecost needs access to the Microsoft Azure Billing Rate Card API to access accurate pricing data for your Kubernetes resources.

You can also get this functionality plus external costs by completing the full Azure billing integration.

Creating a custom Azure role

Start by creating an Azure role definition. Below is an example definition, replace YOUR_SUBSCRIPTION_ID with the Subscription ID where your Kubernetes cluster lives:

{
    "Name": "KubecostRole",
    "IsCustom": true,
    "Description": "Rate Card query role",
    "Actions": [
        "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/vmSizes/read",
        "Microsoft.Resources/subscriptions/locations/read",
        "Microsoft.Resources/providers/read",
        "Microsoft.ContainerService/containerServices/read",
        "Microsoft.Commerce/RateCard/read"
    ],
    "AssignableScopes": [
        "/subscriptions/YOUR_SUBSCRIPTION_ID"
    ]
}

Save this into a file called myrole.json.

Next, you'll want to register that role with Azure:

az role definition create --verbose --role-definition @myrole.json

Creating an Azure service principal

Next, create an Azure service principal.

az ad sp create-for-rbac --name "KubecostAccess" --role "KubecostRole" --scope "/subscriptions/YOUR_SUBSCRIPTION_ID" --output json

Keep this information which is used in the service-key.json below.

Supplying Azure service principal details to Kubecost

Option 1: Via a Kubernetes Secret (Recommended)

Create a file called service-key.json and update it with the Service Principal details from the above steps:

{
    "subscriptionId": "<Azure Subscription ID>",
    "serviceKey": {
        "appId": "<Entra ID App ID>",
        "displayName": "KubecostAccess",
        "password": "<Entra ID Client Secret>",
        "tenant": "<Entra Tenant ID>"
    }
}

Next, create a Secret for the Azure Service Principal

When managing the service account key as a Kubernetes Secret, the secret must reference the service account key JSON file, and that file must be named service-key.json.

kubectl create secret generic azure-service-key -n kubecost --from-file=service-key.json

Finally, set the kubecostProductConfigs.serviceKeySecretName Helm value to the name of the Kubernetes secret you created. We use the value azure-service-key in our examples.

Option 2: Via Helm values

In the Helm values file:

kubecostProductConfigs:
  azureSubscriptionID: <Azure Subscription ID>
  azureClientID: <Entra ID App ID>
  azureTenantID: <Entra Tenant ID>
  azureClientPassword: <Entra ID Client Secret>
  azureOfferDurableID: MS-AZR-0003P
  azureBillingRegion: US
  currencyCode: USD
  createServiceKeySecret: true

Or at the command line:

helm upgrade --install kubecost kubecost/cost-analyzer -n kubecost \
  --set kubecostProductConfigs.azureSubscriptionID=<Azure Subscription ID> \
  --set kubecostProductConfigs.azureClientID=<Entra ID App ID> \
  --set kubecostProductConfigs.azureTenantID=<Entra Tenant ID> \
  --set kubecostProductConfigs.azureClientPassword=<Entra ID Client Secret> \
  --set kubecostProductConfigs.azureOfferDurableID=MS-AZR-0003P \
  --set kubecostProductConfigs.azureBillingRegion=US
  --set kubecostProductConfigs.currencyCode=USD
  --set kubecostProductConfigs.createServiceKeySecret=true

Azure billing region, offer durable ID, and currency

Kubecost supports querying the Azure APIs for cost data based on the region, offer durable ID, and currency defined in your Microsoft Azure offer.

Those properties are configured with the following Helm values:

kubecostProductConfigs.azureBillingRegion
kubecostProductConfigs.azureOfferDurableID
kubecostProductConfigs.currencyCode

Be sure to verify your billing information with Microsoft and update the above Helm values to reflect your bill to country, subscription offer durable ID/number, and currency.

Creating a custom Azure role

Creating an Azure service principal

Supplying Azure service principal details to Kubecost

Option 1: Via a Kubernetes Secret (Recommended)

Option 2: Via Helm values

Azure billing region, offer durable ID, and currency

See also