Kubecost

Monitor and reduce Kubernetes spend with Kubecost

Kubecost provides real-time cost visibility and insights for your Kubernetes clusters. This guide shows you how to deploy Kubecost on your Qovery cluster to track and optimize your infrastructure spending.

Prerequisites: You need a functioning Qovery cluster before starting this tutorial.

This tutorial takes approximately 5 minutes to complete.

Installation

This guide targets chart version 3.1.8. Steps may differ for other versions — check the official Kubecost docs for the latest.

Step 1: Add the Kubecost Helm Repository

1. Add Helm Repository

   In Qovery Console:

   1. Go to Settings → Helm Repositories
   2. Click Add Repository
   3. Configure:
      • Repository name: Kubecost
      • Kind: HTTPS
      • Repository URL: https://kubecost.github.io/kubecost

   See Helm Repository Management for more details.

Step 2: Create the Kubecost Helm Service

1. Create Helm Service

   In your environment:

   1. Click Create → Helm Chart
   2. Configure:
      • Service name: kubecost
      • Helm source: Helm repository
      • Repository: Kubecost
      • Chart name: kubecost
      • Version: 3.1.8 (or latest from Kubecost)
      • Allow cluster-wide resources: ✔️

   See Helm Charts for more details on creating a Helm service.

Step 3: Configure Variables and Values Override

1. Add optional variables

   Open the Kubecost service overview and go to the Variables section.

   Add these variables as needed:

   Variable	Value	Scope	Secret	Notes
   KUBECOST_TOKEN	<your_token>	Service	✔️	Required only for Kubecost Business/Enterprise features

   See Environment Variables for more details on managing variables in Qovery.

2. Configure Values Override

   In the Override as file section of your Helm service, add the following configuration:

   global:
     clusterId: my-cluster-name  # A unique identifier for your cluster in Kubecost
   

   If you have a Kubecost token, add it to the override:

   global:
     clusterId: my-cluster-name
   
   kubecostToken: qovery.env.KUBECOST_TOKEN
   

   How qovery.env.* works: At deploy time, Qovery replaces qovery.env.KUBECOST_TOKEN with the actual value of the KUBECOST_TOKEN variable. The real value never appears in the Qovery UI — it is only injected at Helm install time. See Environment Variables in Helm Values for more details.

Step 4: Deploy the Chart

1. Deploy

   1. Click the Deploy button
   2. Follow the deployment logs
   3. Verify Kubecost pods are running

Step 5: Access Kubecost via Port Forward

Kubecost does not provide authentication by default, so exposing it publicly would leave your cost data accessible to anyone. Use kubectl port-forward instead to access the dashboard securely from your local machine.

1. Connect to your cluster

   Download your cluster’s kubeconfig from the Qovery Console:

   1. Go to Organization → Clusters
   2. Click on your cluster
   3. Open the Actions menu and select Get Kubeconfig

   

   Once downloaded, configure kubectl to use it:

   export KUBECONFIG=/path/to/downloaded/kubeconfig.yaml
   

   Verify the connection:

   kubectl get nodes
   

   See Cluster Kubeconfig for more details.

2. Get your environment namespace

   In Qovery Console, go to your environment and find the Kubernetes namespace in the environment details. It follows the pattern z<env-id-prefix>-<env-name>.

   Alternatively, list namespaces on your cluster:

   kubectl get namespaces
   
3. Find the Kubecost service name

   List services in your namespace to find the Kubecost dashboard service:

   kubectl get svc -n <namespace> | grep frontend
   
4. Forward the Kubecost port

   Run the following command, replacing <namespace> and <service-name> with the values from the previous steps:

   kubectl port-forward svc/<service-name> 9090:9090 -n <namespace>
   

   Then open your browser at http://localhost:9090.

Keep the terminal open while using Kubecost — closing it will terminate the port-forward session.

Conclusion

You’ve successfully deployed Kubecost on your Qovery cluster. You can now access the Kubecost dashboard to monitor your Kubernetes costs and get optimization recommendations.

Kubecost is now part of IBM, which is why the official documentation is hosted on IBM’s website. To learn more about using Kubecost, check out their Getting Started guide.

Next Steps

Kubecost Documentation

Learn more about Kubecost features

Optimize

Optimization strategies with Qovery

Qovery Observe

Built-in observability

Datadog

Advanced monitoring with Datadog