topic Need the cost explorer in Administration & Architecture

Need the cost explorer

littlewat — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 09:36:24 GMT

We would like each workspace admin to be able to easily check the cost of their own workspace for free.

Currently, we have a Usage dashboard, but it shows account-level costs and requires a SQL Warehouse to view. This means that additional costs are incurred just to check the costs, which is not ideal.

On the other hand, AWS Cost Explorer allows us to view costs easily and for free.

Could you consider providing a similar feature in Databricks, like AWS Cost Explorer, that allows workspace admins to easily and freely monitor their workspace costs?

Re: Need the cost explorer

Raman_Unifeye — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 10:06:27 GMT

@littlewat - Unfortunately, there is no Warehouse level 'Absolute' Free cost explorer.

Nearest to this - you could build Dashboard queriying system.billing.usage & system.access.audit tables which can be accessed by workspace admin.

Suggest to raise a Feture request to Databricks!!

Re: Need the cost explorer

nayan_wylde — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 15:33:24 GMT

Databricks currently does not provide a free, workspace‑level cost viewer—all usage/cost dashboards are account‑level and require a SQL Warehouse, which does create cost.
So your request is valid and aligns with what many customers want.

Here are few options you can try:

Option 1 — Use AWS Cost Explorer with Workspace Tags (Best free solution)
If your Databricks workspace has a workspace tag (e.g., WorkspaceName, Environment, Owner), then AWS Cost Explorer can break down costs per workspace successfully.
--Free
--No SQL warehouse
--Workspace admins only see their workspace if IAM permissions are scoped

Option 2 — Use the Databricks Billable Usage API directly (No SQL warehouse)

https://docs.databricks.com/api/account/billableusage/download

You can run this on a jobs compute with a tiny cluster → cost is extremely low, and you avoid the SQL Warehouse.

Option 3 — Use System Tables (if enabled)

Solution that @Raman_Unifeye provided above.