Forecasting

Overview

Cloud Cost Management (CCM) Forecasts help you predict future cloud costs based on historical spending patterns. Use forecasts to anticipate cost trends, plan budgets more effectively, and make data-driven decisions about resource allocation.

Forecasts are available in:

• Reports: Enable the forecast toggle on Cost reports and Budget reports to visualize predicted costs.
• Budgets: View forecasted costs directly on budget cards to see if you’re projected to go over budget.

With Forecasts, you can:

• Anticipate spending trends based on your historical data to predict future costs.
• Visualize projected costs alongside actual spending to identify patterns and understand cost trends.
• Use forecast data to set realistic budget targets and avoid cost overruns.
• See if forecasted costs are projected to exceed your budget targets to track budget health.

How forecasting works

Cloud Cost Management uses forecasting algorithms to generate cost to generate cost predictions. The forecasting model analyzes your historical spending data to identify patterns and trends in your cloud costs, including:

• Recurring costs that happen on a predictable schedule (such as weekly or monthly cycles).
• Whether your costs are increasing, decreasing, or staying stable over time.
• Changes in spending that correspond to specific periods or events.

Flexible forecasting options

You can generate forecasts for various time horizons and rollup intervals to match your planning needs:

• Forecast periods: Predict costs for the next billing period, current month, current year, or a custom date range based on your historical spending data.
• Rollup intervals: View forecasts at daily or monthly intervals depending on your analysis requirements.

Data requirements

To generate accurate forecasts, CCM requires:

• At least 64 consecutive days of cost data: This helps ensure the model has sufficient information to identify meaningful patterns. If fewer days are available, the model pads the remaining days with zeros to generate a forecast.
• Recent data: The model uses up to the last 64 days of your cost history to generate predictions.

Bits and custom forecasts

The forecast that Datadog generates automatically from your historical spend is called the Bits forecast. Because it is trend-based, it projects past patterns forward but cannot account for planned business events, such as a product launch, migration, or seasonal demand.

In budgets, you can override the Bits forecast with your own monthly values, called a custom forecast. Datadog overlays your custom forecast on the Bits forecast, so your overrides take precedence wherever you set them. Budgets and budget monitors use the forecast with your overrides by default.

To set custom forecast values, see Customize your budget forecast.

View forecasts in reports

Navigate to Cloud Cost > Analyze > Reports in Datadog to enable forecasts on Cost reports and Budget reports.

Cost reports

1. Open or create a Cost report.
2. In the left panel, toggle Show forecast to enable forecasting.
3. Select the forecast period from the Until end of dropdown (next period, current month, current year, or a custom range).
4. Choose a rollup interval (daily, weekly, or monthly).

The report displays:

• Forecast toggle and controls: Enable forecasting, select the time period, and pick the rollup interval.
• Historical costs: Your actual spending shown in solid colors.
• Forecasted costs: Predicted costs shown with a hatched pattern.
• Forecast summary card: Shows the total forecasted cost for the selected period.

Budget reports

1. Create a report or open an existing Budget report.
2. In the left panel, toggle Show forecast to enable forecasting.
3. Select the forecast period from the Until end of dropdown (next period, current month, current year, or a custom range).

The report displays:

• Forecast toggle and controls: Located in the left panel to enable forecasting and select the time period.
• Historical costs: Your actual spending shown in solid colors.
• Forecasted costs: Predicted costs shown with a hatched pattern.
• Forecast summary card: Shows the total forecasted cost for the selected period.

View forecasts in budgets

Navigate to Cloud Cost > Plan > Budgets in Datadog to view forecasts in your budget summaries.

Budget cards automatically display forecast information when available, showing projected costs for each budget period.

If forecasted costs are projected to exceed your budget, the budget status indicates Projected Over to help you take action before going over budget.

To view detailed forecast information:

1. From the Budgets page, click View Performance on any budget to open the detailed budget view.
2. In the budget performance view, toggle Show Forecast to enable forecasting.
3. The budget performance chart displays:
   • Actual costs: Your current spending shown in solid colors.
   • Forecasted costs: Predicted costs shown with a hatched pattern extending beyond your actual costs.
   • Forecasted Past: A vertical line indicating where the forecast begins.

By default, Datadog combines the automatic Bits forecast with any custom forecast values you set in budgets. To override the Bits forecast with your own monthly values, see Customize your budget forecast.

Further reading

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