> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.monk.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Cost Tracking

> Real-time cost tracking and breakdowns

## What It Does

Monk tracks the cost of your entire infrastructure in real-time. Ask for current costs, projections, or comparisons. Monk knows the price of every resource across all cloud providers and integrations.

## How It Works

### Cost Knowledge Base

Monk maintains up-to-date cost information for cloud resources.

**What Monk tracks:**

* **Cloud provider pricing** - Current rates from AWS, GCP, Azure, DigitalOcean, Hetzner
* **Resource uptime** - How long each resource has been running
* **Integration pricing** - Costs for [databases](/features/databases), [essential services](/features/essential-services), and [APIs](/features/apis) that implement cost estimation
* **Usage-based pricing** - Data transfer, storage, API calls where applicable

<img src="https://mintcdn.com/monk-d20f97b6/fN3nVa9N1ULwm6lv/assets/Cloud_cluster_cost.gif?s=f9d54365f12bd6b4522ba38d19e4c0bf" alt="Cluster cost calculated by Monk" height="200" className="rounded-lg" data-path="assets/Cloud_cluster_cost.gif" />

Monk continuously updates its pricing database to ensure accuracy.

### Real-Time Cost Queries

Ask Monk for cost information anytime via chat in your [IDE](/features/vscode-integration).

**Current costs:**

```
You: What's the current cost of running this system?

Monk: Current infrastructure cost breakdown:
      - 4x AWS t3.medium instances: $0.33/hour ($240/month)
      - PostgreSQL RDS (db.t3.medium): $0.068/hour ($50/month)
      - Redis ElastiCache (cache.t3.micro): $0.017/hour ($12/month)
      - Application Load Balancer: $0.025/hour ($18/month)

      Total: $0.44/hour ($320/month)
```

**Different time units:**

```
You: How much per day?

Monk: Current daily cost: $10.56
```

```
You: Cost per week?

Monk: Current weekly cost: $73.92
```

```
You: Show me cost per second

Monk: Current cost: $0.000122/second
```

Monk can express costs in any time unit: second, hour, day, week, month.

### Cost Projections & Estimates

You want to know future costs. Ask Monk to project.

**Monthly projections:**

```
You: Project the monthly cost

Monk: Based on current usage:
      - Monthly projection: $320
      - Assumes 24/7 operation
      - Does not include usage-based charges (data transfer, API calls)
```

**Estimate before changes:**

```
You: How much would it cost to add 2 more instances?

Monk: Cost estimate with 2 additional t3.medium instances:
      - Current: $0.44/hour ($320/month)
      - With 2 more: $0.60/hour ($440/month)
      - Increase: $0.16/hour ($120/month, +37.5%)
```

You know the cost impact before you make infrastructure changes. That's it. No spreadsheets, no manual calculations.

### Integration Cost Support

Many [integrations](/integrations) implement Monk's cost estimation interface.

**Supported:**

* **Cloud-managed databases** - RDS, Cloud SQL, Azure Database, DigitalOcean Managed Database
* **Cloud storage** - S3, Cloud Storage, Azure Blob, DigitalOcean Spaces
* **Managed caches** - ElastiCache, Memorystore, Redis Cloud
* **Third-party services** - MongoDB Atlas, Redis Cloud, Neon, and more

**Coverage varies:**

* Core cloud resources (VMs, storage, networking) - Fully tracked
* Popular managed services - Some tracked
* Specialized integrations - Varies (we're working to cover all of them)

<Info>
  **Integration cost tracking:** Coverage is continuously improving. Check with
  Monk to see if a specific service supports cost estimation, or refer to
  [Integrations](/integrations) for details.
</Info>

### Cost Comparison (Hypothetical Resources)

Here's where it gets interesting. Monk understands costs of resources **you're not even using**.

Want to know if switching clouds or regions would save money? Just ask.

```
You: How much would this cost on DigitalOcean instead of AWS?

Monk: Current AWS cost: $0.44/hour ($320/month)
      Equivalent DigitalOcean Droplets: $0.28/hour ($205/month)
      Savings: $115/month (36% cheaper)
```

```
You: What if we moved to us-west-2 instead of us-east-1?

Monk: Same infrastructure in us-west-2:
      Cost: $0.46/hour ($335/month)
      Difference: +$15/month (5% more expensive)
```

```
You: Compare cost of running this on GCP vs Azure

Monk: Current (AWS): $320/month
      GCP equivalent: $295/month (-$25/month)
      Azure equivalent: $340/month (+$20/month)
```

**Use cases:**

* **Before deployment** - Compare clouds to choose the most cost-effective
* **Migration planning** - See if [migrating](/features/workload-migration) would save money
* **Region selection** - Pick the cheapest region for your needs
* **Optimization** - Evaluate alternatives to reduce costs

## Coming Soon

<Info>Proactive cost analysis — 24/7 monitoring, optimization proposals, autonomous execution, budget alerts — is on the roadmap. [Vote on what to prioritize](https://monk.io/roadmap).</Info>

Here's what that'll look like:

```
Monk: Cost analysis complete. I found 3 optimization opportunities:

      1. API servers running at 20% average CPU
         → Downsize from t3.medium to t3.small
         → Savings: $120/month

      2. Database idle 18 hours/day
         → Switch to smaller instance during off-peak
         → Savings: $25/month

      3. Redis cache hit rate only 40%
         → Reduce cache size by 50%
         → Savings: $6/month

      Total potential savings: $151/month (43%)

      Approve these changes?

You: Yes, do it
```

No manual cost analysis, no spreadsheets. Monk handles it autonomously.

## Related Features

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Cloud Infrastructure" icon="cloud" href="/features/cloud-provisioning">
    The resources Monk tracks costs for.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Workload Migration" icon="arrows-rotate" href="/features/workload-migration">
    Migrate to a cheaper cloud when the numbers say so.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>