> ## 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 control

> See what a cluster will cost before you create it, and what each one costs once it runs

Infrastructure bills tend to arrive after the decision that caused them. Monk puts the number first: estimates appear before a cluster is created or grown, usage is reported per cluster afterwards, and you can set email alerts for when spending passes a threshold.

Your cloud provider bills the machines directly. Monk bills its subscription by plan and adds no fee on clusters. Estimates show the provider cost.

## What you can do

### Estimate before you create or grow

Every plan that creates machines shows its estimated cost in the local dashboard before you approve it. You can also ask for an estimate for any node specification: provider, region, instance type, node count, disk and GPUs. Nothing is provisioned.

**How:** Ask Monk. You approve the plan in the local dashboard. See [Costs and billing alerts](/guides/costs).

### See what a cluster costs now

Ask for the current price of a running cluster.

**How:** Ask Monk. See [Costs and billing alerts](/guides/costs).

### Track usage per cluster

Usage reports cloud cost for each cluster this month. For an organization you can look up earlier months too. The Plan page in the web dashboard shows your plan, credits and this month's cloud cost by cluster.

**How:** Ask Monk, or open Clusters and Plan in the web dashboard. See [Cost and usage](/concepts/cost-and-usage).

### Compare providers

Ask for an estimate on each provider and region you are considering, then compare the numbers before you pick.

**How:** Ask Monk. See [Costs and billing alerts](/guides/costs) and [Choose a cloud](/guides/choose-a-cloud).

### Get billing alerts

Monk can email you about clusters that run for a long time. You turn the alert on or off and choose the address.

**How:** Ask Monk (you approve the change in the local dashboard), or use Settings in the web dashboard. See [Costs and billing alerts](/guides/costs).

## Try it

```
/monk compare the estimate on DigitalOcean and on AWS
```

## Good to know

* Estimates are advisory. They cover the resources in the plan, and may not include data transfer or managed services such as Atlas or RDS, which their providers bill separately.
* Your provider's invoice is the final number.
* Deploying an existing app creates a second environment next to the original. Both cost money until you retire one.
* Billing alerts are emails about long-running clusters. They are not spending limits.

## Related

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Costs and billing alerts" icon="receipt" href="/guides/costs">
    Ask about and control spending
  </Card>

  <Card title="Choose a cloud" icon="cloud" href="/guides/choose-a-cloud">
    Compare providers and regions
  </Card>

  <Card title="Cost and usage" icon="dollar-sign" href="/concepts/cost-and-usage">
    What you pay for and how it is estimated
  </Card>

  <Card title="Web dashboard" icon="table-columns" href="/concepts/web-dashboard">
    Clusters and Plan pages
  </Card>
</CardGroup>


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