Overview
Billing details is a document type in Azure Documenter that provides a detailed breakdown of costs incurred for each resource, resource group, location, and resource type across your Azure subscriptions for a specified billing period.
Business value
- Break down Azure spend at the resource and resource-type level for accurate cost allocation across departments or projects
- Include optional cost charts to visualize spending patterns by resource group, location, and resource type
- Set a billing date range for any period up to 90 days to match internal reporting or billing cycles
Prerequisites
Required permissions
| Role | Permission level | Access |
|---|---|---|
| Account owner, Owner, Contributor | — | Full access to the Documentation section |
| Custom role | Read | View documents generated under Documentation |
| Custom role | Manage | View, generate, and manage documents under Documentation |
How it works
The Billing details document is organized per subscription and covers the billing period and currency configured when the document was generated.
Expense tables
For each subscription, the document provides the following expense tables:
- Resource group expenses: total cost incurred per resource group
- Resource expenses: cost incurred per individual resource
- Location expenses: cost incurred per Azure region
- Resource type expenses: cost incurred per Azure resource type
- Tag expenses: cost incurred grouped by resource tags; shown as "Unable to retrieve" if tag data is unavailable in Azure
- Service name expenses: cost incurred per Azure service name (e.g., SQL Database, Azure App Service, Virtual Network)
Each table shows the entity name alongside the Cost Incurred (USD) for the billing period.
Billing information charts
When Include cost charts is enabled, the document also includes a Billing Information section with pie charts visualizing the cost split for the billing period:
- Resource cost split-up
- Resource type cost split-up
- Location cost split-up
- Resource group cost split-up
- Tag cost split-up
- Service name cost split-up
Steps
Use the following steps to generate a Billing details document. Navigate to Azure Documenter to get started.
- Click New configuration. The Configure your document wizard opens.
- In Step 1 — Basics, enter a configuration name. Under Choose document type, select Billing details. Configure the following options:
- Billing range: the billing period for the report
- Currency: Default or USD
- Include cost charts: when enabled, the document includes pie chart visualizations for each cost dimension
- In Step 2 — Service principal, select the service principal and configure the subscription scope. Click Next.
- Complete Steps 3–6 (Branding, Publish settings, Schedule, Notifications) as required. Click Next after each step.
- In Step 7 — Review, confirm your configuration and click Finish.
Once generation is complete, a URL is created for the document, and you can download it using the Download link.
Example scenario
Contoso's cost management team needs to allocate Azure spend to internal departments each billing cycle. They generate a Billing details document for the Production subscription with a 30-day billing range and Include cost charts enabled. They use the resource group expense table for cross-department allocation and share the pie charts with the finance team for a visual overview.
Troubleshooting
-
Resource expenses table shows many resources with zero cost
Cause: some resource types report zero cost for the billing period even when active; for example, free-tier resources, resources billed through a parent resource, or resources with no consumption during the period.
Fix: this is expected behavior. Focus on resources with non-zero cost for allocation purposes. -
Tag expenses shows "Unable to retrieve"
Cause: Azure was unable to return tag-based cost data for the selected subscriptions during generation.
Fix: verify that resource tags are configured in Azure and regenerate. -
Document generation fails or returns incomplete data
Cause: the service principal lacks billing read permissions on the selected subscriptions.
Fix: verify the service principal has at least Reader access on all selected subscriptions, then regenerate.
FAQs
-
Who can access the Documentation section by default?
Account owner, Owner, and Contributor roles have full access by default; no additional configuration is required. -
What's the difference between Read and Manage for Documentation?
Read lets a user view documents generated under Document Types. Manage lets a user view, generate, and manage them. -
Can I include cost charts in the Billing details document?
Yes. Enable the Include cost charts option in Step 1 — Basics when creating a configuration.