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Cost per feature shows what each part of your product costs to run, so you can weigh it against what the feature earns or how much it is used. Time: 30 to 60 minutes for a first version.

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Before you start

  • At least one cloud or AI provider connected. See Integrations overview.
  • A way to tell features apart in your billing data. Any of these works, and you can mix them:
    • a feature or component tag or label on resources
    • services or resource names that belong to one feature, such as a dedicated database or function
    • separate accounts, projects or namespaces per feature
  • A rough idea of how shared infrastructure is used by each feature, for the cost no tag can separate.

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Build the model

1

Choose where the features live

If features are how your business reports, add them under the product group of your Financial Operating Model, so budgets, goals and unit economics can use them. If you are exploring, create an ad-hoc model instead: open Attribution, select the create icon and choose Create ad-hoc model.
2

Add a node for each feature

Open the editor and ask Atlas, for example:
Under Product, add nodes for Search, Reporting and Exports. Attribute spend tagged feature=search to Search, feature=reporting to Reporting, and the Lambda functions starting with export- to Exports.
To do it by hand, select Manual Editor, add a child node per feature, then open each node’s Billing tab and add the filters that pick out its spend. See Edit and publish a model.
3

Add a node for shared cost

Add a node such as Shared platform and attribute the infrastructure every feature uses to it: shared clusters, databases, networking, observability.
4

Share the platform across features

Add a showback with Source set to Node, Source node set to Shared platform, and the feature nodes as Target nodes. Choose Proportional to share it in line with each feature’s direct spend, or Fixed weights if you know a better split, such as share of requests or compute time.
5

Publish

Check Coverage and look at what is left in Unattributed, then select Publish.

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Read cost per feature

  • On the attribution view, choose the Cost surface to see each feature’s spend for the date range and its trend.
  • In Analytics, turn on Include allocations to include the shared platform cost each feature carries.
  • Add the model to a dashboard for a standing view.
To go a step further, divide a feature’s cost by how much it is used, for example cost per search or cost per report. Create a unit economic with Cost from set to the feature node and Divide by set to a usage metric for that feature.

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Check your numbers

  • Features plus Shared platform plus Unattributed should add up to the parent node.
  • A feature that shows no cost usually means its filter does not match: check the tag key and value, which are case sensitive in most providers.

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