Get started
Get your first Cost Explorer report with the OpenStack CLI, showing what a project spent last month.
This page takes you from nothing to a report of what your project spent last month. It takes about two minutes.
Before you begin
You need the openstack CLI, signed in to the project you want to report on.
Set up the CLI if you have not already.
1. Install the Cost Explorer commands
pip install vexxhost-costexplorerclient2. Report last month's total
Ask for one monthly total, from the first day of last month to the first day of this month:
openstack cost report create \
--start 2026-09-01 \
--end 2026-10-01 \
--granularity monthly \
--no-group+----------------------+----------------------+-----------+--------+-------------------+------+
| Start | End | Estimated | Metric | Amount | Unit |
+----------------------+----------------------+-----------+--------+-------------------+------+
| 2026-09-01T00:00:00Z | 2026-10-01T00:00:00Z | True | cost | 1084.296000000000 | USD |
+----------------------+----------------------+-----------+--------+-------------------+------+The project spent an estimated 1084.30 USD in September. The period includes its start date and excludes its end date, and dates are midnight UTC.
3. See where it went
Break the first three days of the month down by service, one row per service per day:
openstack cost report create \
--start 2026-09-01 \
--end 2026-09-04 \
--granularity daily \
--group-by service \
--metric cost \
--detail+----------------------+----------------------+-----------+---------+--------+-----------------+------+
| Start | End | Estimated | service | Metric | Amount | Unit |
+----------------------+----------------------+-----------+---------+--------+-----------------+------+
| 2026-09-01T00:00:00Z | 2026-09-02T00:00:00Z | True | compute | cost | 31.104000000000 | USD |
| 2026-09-01T00:00:00Z | 2026-09-02T00:00:00Z | True | volume | cost | 4.808000000000 | USD |
| 2026-09-02T00:00:00Z | 2026-09-03T00:00:00Z | True | compute | cost | 31.104000000000 | USD |
| 2026-09-02T00:00:00Z | 2026-09-03T00:00:00Z | True | volume | cost | 5.040000000000 | USD |
| 2026-09-03T00:00:00Z | 2026-09-04T00:00:00Z | True | compute | cost | 31.104000000000 | USD |
| 2026-09-03T00:00:00Z | 2026-09-04T00:00:00Z | True | volume | cost | 5.040000000000 | USD |
+----------------------+----------------------+-----------+---------+--------+-----------------+------+Servers cost about 31.10 a day and volumes about 5, with volume costs rising on September 2.
Next steps
- Break down your costs by region, usage type or resource, and filter what a report counts.
- Learn what is charged and how in Cost calculation.
- Forecast your spending for the rest of the month.