Cloud Cost Intelligence - Azure | New Relic Documentation

preview

We're still working on this feature, but we'd love for you to try it out!

This feature is currently provided as part of a preview program pursuant to our pre-release policies.

Connect your Azure billing to Cloud Cost Intelligence for complete cost monitoring and optimization of your Azure infrastructure. Get real-time visibility into spending patterns, resource use, and cost allocation across services and resource groups. With the Cloud Cost Intelligence for Azure, you can:

Optimize resource usage - Find underutilized or costly Azure services and VMs to adjust allocations across subscriptions and resource groups
Control expenses - See specific cost drivers in your Azure environment, including compute, storage, networking, and database services for better financial decisions
Enhance efficiency - Focus on resource management strategies that align with business objectives for efficient use of Azure resources and budget
Monitor multi-subscription costs - Track spending across multiple Azure subscriptions and management groups from one dashboard
Enable cost accountability - Implement department-level cost allocation and chargeback using Azure tags and resource group organization
Manage budgets proactively - Set up alerts for Azure spending thresholds and budget limits to prevent overruns and maintain financial control

Prerequisites

Before you connect Azure to Cloud Cost Intelligence, make sure you have:

An Azure subscription with an active billing account.
Contributor or Owner role on the subscription you want to monitor.
Access to Azure Cost Management features.
Billing reader permissions for the subscription or management group.
Completed Azure billing export configuration: This establishes the storage account, container, and directory path necessary for the connection process. See Azure billing export configuration for more details.

Determine whether a billing export already exists that matches the parameters specified below:

If a matching export exists: Proceed with your setup process using the existing export.
If no matching export exists: Follow the steps below to create a new billing export.

Access Azure Cost Management
1. Navigate to the Azure Console > Cost Management & Billing > Billing Scope.
2. Expand the Settings section and click Exports.
Create new export
1. Click Create.
2. Select Cost and Usage (FOCUS) as the export type.
3. Provide an export prefix for identification purposes.

Configure export parameters

Configure the export with the following parameters:

Parameter	Value	Description
Type of Data	Cost and Usage details (FOCUS) - Preview	Provides detailed cost and usage information in FOCUS format
Export Name	A descriptive name of your choice	Meaningful identifier for your export
Dataset Version	1.2-preview (Latest dataset schema files)	Latest schema version available
Frequency	Daily export of month-to-date costs	Daily exports capture month-to-date cost information
Export Description	A meaningful description of your choice	Context about the export purpose

Configure storage settings

After configuring the export parameters, click Next to proceed to storage configuration.

Configure the storage settings with the following specifications:

Setting	Value	Description
Storage Type	Blob Storage	Azure Blob Storage for cost data
Destination Storage	Use existing storage account or create a new one	Storage location for billing data
Container and Directory	Use existing container/directory or create new	Organization structure for billing exports
Compression Type	Parquet	Provides optimal storage efficiency and query performance
Data Overwrite	Yes	Allows updates to existing data
File Partitioning	Yes	Enables efficient data organization and retrieval

중요

We recommend the storage account to be based in (US) East US. This helps save on outbound data transfer costs. The storage type should be Azure Blob storage.

Finalize configuration
1. Review all configured settings.
2. Click Create to finalize the billing export configuration.
3. Verify that the export appears in your Exports list.
  팁
  - The FOCUS (FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification) format is currently in preview
  - Dataset version 1.2-preview represents the latest schema version available
  - Daily exports are capturing month-to-date cost information
  - Parquet compression provides optimal storage efficiency and query performance

Connect Azure to Cloud Cost Intelligence

Select your account

Now that you've completed the Azure billing export setup, you're ready to connect your Azure billing to New Relic. Start by choosing your New Relic account.

Go to one.newrelic.com > All Capabilities > Cloud Cost Intelligence - Azure.
Select your account from the dropdown and click Continue.

Connect your Azure billing account

Now you'll provide the connection details that link your Azure billing data to New Relic. You'll need information from both your Azure billing account and the storage location where your billing exports are saved.

Enter the following Azure billing information:

Field	Description	Location
Azure Agreement Type	Select your agreement type from the dropdown.	Navigate to Azure Console > Cost Management + Billing > Settings > Properties. For more information, see Billing accounts and scopes in the Azure portal.
Tenant ID	Enter the unique identifier for your organization's Microsoft Entra ID instance.	Go to Microsoft Entra Admin center
Billing account ID	Enter your Azure billing account ID.	Navigate to Azure Console > Cost Management + Billing > Settings > Properties. For more information, see Billing administration.
Azure Storage account name	Enter the name of the storage account used for your billing export, created during setup. To reduce outbound data transfer costs, use a storage account in East US (US). The storage type must be Azure Blob storage.
Storage Container Name	Enter the container name within your storage account that holds the billing export files.	Go to Microsoft Azure > Subscription > Storage account > Container Note: You must grant access to the New Relic service principal in the next step for this container.
Directory Path	Enter the base path where billing data is stored within the container (for example, `20251001-20251031` for October 2025). Note: If your billing export publishes directly to the root of the container, leave this field empty.

After entering all the required information, click Continue to proceed to the next step.

Grant New Relic access to your billing data

Now that you've provided your Azure connection details, New Relic needs permission to read the billing data from your storage container. This step authorizes the New Relic service principal (msazurecostdata) to access your billing exports securely.

Click the Initiate Connection button in the New Relic interface.
You'll be redirected to the Microsoft Authentication flow.
팁
Azure administrator approval is required for this step.
Review and accept the authentication request.
A small file (0 KB) will download to your system upon acceptance. You can safely delete this file.

Verify the service principal was added

After accepting the authentication request, confirm that the New Relic service principal was successfully added to your Azure environment:

Navigate to Enterprise Applications in your Microsoft Entra Account.
Verify that the service principal msazurecostdata appears in the list.
팁
For help viewing enterprise applications, see the Microsoft Entra documentation.

Assign read permissions to the service principal

Assign the Storage Blob Data Reader role to the service principal for read-only access to billing exports, ensuring access to the storage account and permissions to modify IAM role assignments:

Open the storage account container where your billing exports are published. Select Access Control (IAM) from the left navigation menu.
Under the Role Assignments tab, click Add or Add role assignment.
Select Storage Blob Data Reader from the role list to provide read-only access to the billing exports.
In the Add Members section, search for msazurecostdata (verified service principal), and select it.
Review the role assignment configuration. Click Review + Assign, and verify that msazurecostdata appears in the role assignments list.

Verify the connection

After completing all the steps above, confirm that:

Service principal msazurecostdata is visible in Enterprise Applications
Service principal has the Storage Blob Data Reader role assigned
Role assignment is applied to the correct storage account container
Connection test completes successfully in the New Relic interface
팁
Security note: The service principal only has read-only access to your billing data. It cannot write, modify, or delete any data. Access is limited exclusively to the billing export container you specified.

What's next

New Relic will start processing your Azure billing exports
Initial data processing can take up to 12 hours
Once processing completes, you'll see your cost data in the Cost Overview dashboard
중요
Processing your data for the first time can take up to 12 hours.

View your data

Once processing is complete, go to Cost Overview to view your Azure cost data and start optimizing your cloud spending.