Cost Recommendations

The Cost Recommendations page surfaces Azure cost optimization opportunities, highlighting and prioritizing savings recommendations to bring clarity to cloud spend. This page provides comprehensive tools to analyze, manage, and act on cost optimization opportunities.

Note

The Cost Recommendations feature requires the COST_DETAILS feature to be enabled.

Page Overview

The Cost Recommendations page displays optimization opportunities with detailed savings calculations, resource-level insights, and actionable tasks.

Tabs (MSP Only)

For MSP (Managed Service Provider) users, the page includes two tabs:

• Calculated — Recommendations generated automatically by vBox’s cost analysis engine
• Advanced — Additional recommendations and optimization strategies

MSP Feature

The tabbed interface is available only for MSP users. Standard users see the Calculated recommendations directly.

Cost Savings Summary Widget

The summary widget at the top of the page provides a high-level overview of potential savings:

Metric	Description
Total Savings	Combined potential savings from all recommendations
Non-Optimized Spent	Current cost of resources that could be optimized
Optimized Spent	Projected cost after applying recommendations
Recommendation Count	Total number of optimization opportunities
Cost Reduction %	Percentage reduction in costs if all recommendations are applied

Toggle Options:

• Monthly/Annually — Switch between monthly and annualized savings projections
• View Forecast — Link to detailed savings forecast analysis

Tip

Use the Monthly/Annually toggle to understand both short-term and long-term savings potential.

AI Summary (Optional)

If AI features are enabled (FEATURE_AI and FEATURE_AI_COST_SUMMARY), an AI Summary button appears that generates an intelligent summary of your cost optimization opportunities.

Note

AI Summary requires both FEATURE_AI and FEATURE_AI_COST_SUMMARY feature flags to be enabled.

Recommendations Grid

The main grid displays all cost optimization recommendations with comprehensive details:

Column	Description
Icon	Visual indicator of recommendation category or type
Category/Recommendations	The optimization category and recommendation name
Unhealthy Resources	Count of resources affected (e.g., “5 of 10”)
Current Cost	Current monthly cost of resources in this recommendation
Optimized Cost	Projected monthly cost after optimization
Savings	Absolute savings amount
Savings/Cost%	Savings as percentage of current cost
Savings/Total%	Savings as percentage of total potential savings
Tasks	Number of tasks created for this recommendation

Default Sort: Recommendations are sorted by Savings in descending order by default, showing the highest-impact opportunities first.

Group By Options

You can group recommendations by different dimensions to analyze patterns:

• Category (default)
• Region
• Subscription
• Resource Group
• Resource Type
• Tags
• No Grouping

Actions and Filters

The page includes comprehensive action and filtering capabilities:

View Controls:

• Show Muted Toggle — Show or hide recommendations that have been muted
• Search — Filter recommendations by name, category, or other attributes

Recommendation Actions:

• Mute/Unmute — Temporarily hide recommendations from view
• Export — Export recommendations to Excel or as Optimization Results format
• Import — Import optimization results (requires CAN_IMPORT_OPTIMIZATIONS feature flag)
• Share Report — Send recommendation report via email
• Download Report — Download a formatted report document

Tip

Use the Mute feature to focus on active recommendations while keeping muted ones available for future reference.

Recommendation Details Page

Clicking on a recommendation opens the detailed view, which includes:

Formula Widget

Displays the calculation methodology for the savings estimate, showing how the recommendation’s potential savings were calculated.

Description and Strategy

• Description — Detailed explanation of the optimization opportunity
• Strategy — Recommended approach to achieve the savings

Resource Tabs

The details page organizes affected resources into tabs:

• Unhealthy — Resources that need optimization
• Muted — Resources that have been muted from this recommendation
• Tasks — Tasks created for implementing this recommendation

Actions

• Create Task — Generate a task for implementing the recommendation (requires TASKS feature flag)
• Change Strategy — Modify the optimization strategy for this recommendation

Caution

Creating tasks requires the TASKS feature flag to be enabled. Tasks help track implementation progress and ensure recommendations are acted upon.

Best Practices

1. Start with High-Impact — Focus on recommendations with the highest savings first
2. Review Resource Details — Drill into individual recommendations to understand affected resources
3. Create Tasks — Use the task creation feature to track implementation progress
4. Group by Dimension — Use grouping options to identify patterns across subscriptions, regions, or resource types
5. Export for Analysis — Export recommendations for deeper analysis or reporting to stakeholders
6. Monitor Muted Items — Periodically review muted recommendations to see if they become relevant

Tip

Combine grouping by Category with sorting by Savings to quickly identify which types of optimizations offer the best return on investment.