Savings tracker

Overview

Savings tracker lets you compare the cloud costs of a cost management group across two time periods and identify unrealized savings opportunities. It shows total spend for each period, an Opportunity Profile radar chart across optimization categories, and a detailed category-level breakdown of period-over-period changes.

Business value

Savings tracker turns optimization recommendations into a measurable before-and-after comparison. Instead of manually cross-referencing billing data across months, teams can see at a glance how much unrealized savings potential shifted between two periods, and which optimization category (Rightsizing, Reservations, or Other Recommendations) is driving that change.

Prerequisites

A cost management group with cost data for at least the two calendar months you want to compare.

Required permissions

Savings tracker is visible in the Cost management group's Context menu ( ⋮ ) only for users with sufficient permissions.

All other users will not see the Savings tracker option in the Context menu ( ⋮ ) of a cost management group.

How it works

Savings tracker compares unrealized savings across two calendar months you choose. Select Period A as the baseline and Period B as the comparison period; the two months do not need to be consecutive.

Choose how costs are measured using the Cost type control: Amortized cost spreads upfront reservation fees evenly across the usage period, while Actual cost reflects charges exactly as billed. If the two periods are billed in different currencies, Savings tracker automatically converts one period's values to the other's so all figures are directly comparable.

The results panel shows three things. Total cost cards display the total spend for each period across the entire cost management group. The Opportunity Profile radar chart plots unrealized savings as a percentage of total spend across five optimization categories, with two overlapping polygons (one per period) showing which categories have gained or lost savings potential. The Detailed breakdown table provides exact values for each category in both periods, plus the change in percentage points (pp): a positive change (▲) means more unrealized savings, a neutral change (—) means no movement, and a negative change (▼) means fewer unrealized savings. These figures represent opportunities detected by Turbo360 that have not yet been applied.

The full view can be exported as a PDF at any time using Download as PDF in the top-right corner of the panel.

Steps

Open Savings tracker from the cost management group's context menu in the tree view, then configure your comparison.

Open Savings tracker

1. Go to Cost Analyzer and locate the cost management group you want to analyze.
2. Click the Context menu ( ⋮ ) next to the group in the tree view.
3. Select Savings tracker.

Configure and view results

1. Select the two calendar months to compare using the Period A and Period B controls.
2. Select the Cost type: Amortized cost or Actual cost.
3. Review the Total cost cards, Opportunity Profile radar chart, and Detailed breakdown table.
4. Click Download as PDF to export the full view.

Example scenario

Comparing May 2026 against June 2026 using Amortized Cost:

Every category shows a decline in unrealized savings from May to June, indicating that the recommendations available in May were largely acted on before June.

Limitations

• Detailed breakdown data for a newly created cost management group usually appears within an hour of creation; it is not available immediately.
• After the initial load, cost data refreshes once every 24 hours. Infrastructure changes such as resizing instances or purchasing reservations are reflected at the next refresh, not immediately.
• The Opportunity Profile and Detailed breakdown are limited to five fixed optimization categories: Advanced Rightsizing, Advanced Reservations, Basic Rightsizing, Basic Reservations, and Other Recommendations.

Troubleshooting

1. Savings tracker shows no data on a newly created cost group
   Cause: Detailed breakdown data usually takes up to an hour to populate after a cost management group is created.
   Fix: Wait up to an hour and reload the panel.

2. A recent infrastructure change isn't reflected in the results
   Cause: Data refreshes once every 24 hours after the initial load; changes such as resizing instances or purchasing reservations only appear at the next refresh cycle.
   Fix: Wait for the next 24-hour refresh, then reload.

3. Savings tracker doesn't appear in the Context menu ( ⋮ )
   Cause: The signed-in user's role doesn't include the required permissions.
   Fix: Confirm the user has one of the built-in roles (Account owner, Contributor, Reader) or a custom role with at least Read access on Analysis plus Read access on the relevant feature permissions (Rightsizing, Reservations, or Other Recommendations).

4. Period A and Period B figures don't appear directly comparable
   Cause: The two periods are billed in different currencies.
   Fix: This is expected. Savings tracker automatically converts one period's values into the other period's currency. Confirm which currency is being used as the comparison baseline.

FAQs

1. Do Period A and Period B need to be consecutive months?
   No. You can select any two calendar months for comparison; they don't need to be adjacent.

2. What does a neutral (—) change mean in the Detailed breakdown?
   It means there was no movement in unrealized savings for that category between the two selected periods.

3. Can I export the Savings tracker view?
   Yes. Use Download as PDF in the top-right corner of the panel to generate a PDF of the full view immediately.

Related articles

• Other recommendations
• Hybrid benefits
• Spot instances
• Basic recommendations for Rightsizing
• Basic recommendations for Reservations
• Impact tracker