# Azure Cost Management

> Microsoft Cost Management is the Azure Resource Manager resource provider (Microsoft.CostManagement)
> for cost analysis, budgets, alerts, scheduled exports, cost allocation and FinOps recommendations.
> It is delivered at no additional cost as part of Azure. Every operation is an ARM call against
> https://management.azure.com with a bearer token from Microsoft Entra ID and a mandatory
> `api-version` query parameter. The current stable contract is 2026-06-01: 56 paths, 75 operations,
> 14 tag groups.
>
> This file was generated by API Evangelist from the provider's own published contract and
> documentation. Microsoft does not publish an llms.txt for this product — /llms.txt returned 404 on
> learn.microsoft.com and azure.microsoft.com, and the pointer previously recorded at
> portal.azure.com/llms.txt is an HTML soft-404.

## Contract

- [OpenAPI 2026-06-01 (verbatim, Swagger 2.0)](https://github.com/Azure/azure-rest-api-specs/tree/main/specification/cost-management/resource-manager/Microsoft.CostManagement/CostManagement/stable/2026-06-01/openapi.json): the first-party contract, 75 operations, host management.azure.com
- [REST API reference](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/cost-management/): per-operation documentation with request and response examples
- [All api-versions](https://github.com/Azure/azure-rest-api-specs/tree/main/specification/cost-management/resource-manager/Microsoft.CostManagement/CostManagement): 18 stable and 16 preview versions, each an immutable dated directory

## Calling it

- Base URL: `https://management.azure.com`
- Every request: `Authorization: Bearer <Entra ID token>` and `?api-version=2026-06-01`
- Most operations take a `{scope}` path segment that is itself an ARM resource id — a subscription,
  resource group, management group, billing account, billing profile, department or enrollment account
- Authorization is Azure RBAC (Cost Management Reader, Cost Management Contributor), not OAuth scopes
- Errors are the ARM envelope `{"error":{"code","message"}}`, not RFC 9457 problem+json
- Lists return `{ value: [...], nextLink }` — follow nextLink; Exports and Settings lists are unpaged
- Throttling is 429 with `x-ms-ratelimit-microsoft.costmanagement-qpu-retry-after`

## What it can do

- [Query and Forecast](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/cost-management/query): `Query_Usage`,
  `Forecast_Usage`, `Dimensions_List` — POST-but-read-only analytical calls; safe to rehearse
- [Exports](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/cost-management/exports): `Exports_CreateOrUpdate`,
  `Exports_Execute`, `Exports_GetExecutionHistory` — recurring extracts to your own storage account.
  `ExportType: FocusCost` emits the FinOps Foundation FOCUS schema instead of Azure's own columns
- [Budgets](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/cost-management/budgets): `Budgets_CreateOrUpdate`,
  `Budgets_List`, `Budgets_Delete` — cost and reservation-utilization thresholds with notifications
- [Alerts](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/cost-management/alerts): `Alerts_List`, `Alerts_Dismiss`
- [Views and Scheduled Actions](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/cost-management/views):
  saved Cost Analysis configurations, and scheduled emails of them
- [Cost details reports](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/cost-management/generate-cost-details-report):
  `GenerateCostDetailsReport_CreateOperation` — asynchronous; poll, then download. Max 1 month per
  request, no older than 13 months
- Cost allocation rules, markup rules, settings, benefit recommendations and benefit utilization summaries

## Before an agent writes anything

- There is no `Idempotency-Key` header. Resource creates are PUT to a client-chosen name, so they
  converge on replay; the job-triggering POSTs (`Exports_Execute`, `ScheduledActions_Run`, the report
  generators) have no replay protection at all — poll for an existing operation instead of re-POSTing
- There is no dry-run, what-if or validate-only mode on any operation
- Nothing here can be restored. Deletes have no undelete and no retention window; a PUT replaces the
  resource wholesale. Capture the GET body before you overwrite
- `ScheduledActions_Run` sends email to up to 20 recipients. It is a send, not a test
- Alerts are the one reversible write: `Alerts_Dismiss` can set status back to Active

## Clients

- npm `@azure/arm-costmanagement` 1.0.0 (2026-07-16)
- PyPI `azure-mgmt-costmanagement` 5.0.0 (2026-07-08)
- NuGet `Azure.ResourceManager.CostManagement` 1.0.3 (2026-04-22)
- Maven `com.azure.resourcemanager:azure-resourcemanager-costmanagement` 1.0.0 (2024-12-24)
- Go `armcostmanagement` v1.1.1 (2023-04-14)
- RubyGems `azure_mgmt_cost_management` 0.17.1 (2020-06-02, retired SDK generation)
- Azure CLI extension `az costmanagement` (Exports only) and PowerShell `Az.CostManagement` 0.4.2

## Operations and limits

- [Automation, latency and rate limits](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cost-management-billing/costs/manage-automation):
  data refreshes every 4 hours; call no more than once a day per scope
- Query API quota is measured in Query Processing Units — 12 QPU / 10s, 60 QPU / 1min, 600 QPU / 1hr,
  per tenant
- [Azure status](https://azure.status.microsoft/en-us/status)
- [Pricing](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/cost-management/): free for Azure usage
- [Microsoft security.txt / MSRC](https://www.microsoft.com/.well-known/security.txt)

## Not available

- No MCP server exposes this API. The Microsoft Learn MCP server (https://learn.microsoft.com/api/mcp)
  searches the documentation only, and the Azure MCP Server ships no Cost Management tool group
- No A2A agent card is served on any Microsoft host probed
- No AsyncAPI, no webhooks. Budget notifications go out by email or through an Azure Monitor action group
- No GraphQL, no gRPC, no SOAP surface