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Google Cloud Billing Export

Integrate Google Cloud Billing exports with Cloudaware to ingest Google Cloud cost and usage data for Cost Management dashboards, allocation, and reporting.

  • Audience: Cloudaware administrators, FinOps, finance teams
  • Outcome: Google Cloud Billing export is configured and ingested into Cloudaware

How It Works​

  • Google Cloud Billing exports detailed cost and usage data.
  • The recommended export target is BigQuery, where Cloudaware reads billing tables from your dataset.
  • Legacy exports to Cloud Storage in CSV format remain supported for existing setups but are not available for new deployments.
tip

Align Google Cloud billing export scope with the way you want to analyze costs in Cloudaware.

Prerequisites​

Before you begin, confirm that you have the following:

  • Google Cloud integration already configured in Cloudaware. If it is not configured, complete the Google Cloud Setup Guide first.
  • Google Cloud billing account and project with permission to configure billing exports, such as billing.accounts.updateUsageExportSpec.
  • Required APIs enabled on the project associated with billing exports:
  • BigQuery dataset for billing exports, or a Cloud Storage bucket for legacy CSV exports.
  • Google Cloud service account configured for Cloudaware to read the billing export dataset or bucket.
warning

Using BigQuery to store and query Cloud Billing data incurs minimal fees. For more information, see Cost of use.

Configure Billing Export to BigQuery​

Use BigQuery exports for new Google Billing integrations.

  1. Sign in to the Google Cloud console.
  2. Go to Billing.
  3. Select the billing account you want to export from.
  4. Navigate to Billing export → BigQuery export.
  5. Enable export and choose:
    • Target project and dataset for the export.
    • Export types:
      • Standard usage cost, which provides a high-level summary of total spending across Google Cloud services and projects.
      • Detailed usage cost, which provides granular costs at the resource level, including individual GCE instances and other cloud resources.
  6. Confirm that the dataset is created and that billing tables begin to appear. Allow some time after enabling the export.
note

If only the Standard usage cost export is enabled, Cloudaware cannot display costs for individual resources.

Grant Cloudaware Access to BigQuery​

Grant the Cloudaware service account the ability to read billing export tables:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to BigQuery and open the dataset used for billing export.
  2. Open the dataset's Permissions.
  3. Add the Cloudaware service account with:
    • Role: BigQuery Data Viewer on the dataset, or an equivalent read-only role.
  4. Save the changes.

Enable Google Billing in Cloudaware​

  1. In Cloudaware, go to Admin.
  2. Find Google Billing and click + ADD.
  3. Fill out the form:
    • Select the Google Cloud project* with exports from the list.
    • Provide the dataset and table names used by the export.
  4. Save the configuration.
  5. Confirm that the status turns green.
tip

*Ensure that the Cloudaware service account for this project has the BigQuery Data Viewer role assigned on the billing export dataset.

note

After billing is enabled, Cloudaware begins ingesting billing data from the specified BigQuery tables during the next collection cycle.

Understand Standard vs. Detailed Reports​

Each Google billing account can have up to two integrations: Standard and Detailed. Cloudaware automatically detects which billing report type is used.

The Cost Fields Source checkbox indicates the active billing report type:

  • If Standard is selected, cost fields for individual Google Cloud resources will not be displayed in Cloudaware.
  • If Detailed is selected, cost fields such as 30-Day Cost and MTD will appear for Google Cloud objects.
warning

Cost data for individual resources becomes available only after enabling Detailed usage cost in Google Cloud. Retrospective cost data is not available for those resources.

To access historical billing data for analytics dashboards, add the Standard export to Cloudaware as well.

To change the active billing report type, click the three-dot menu next to the report, then click Set as Cost Fields Source.

Verification​

After you enable the integration, wait until the next collection cycle for data to appear.

  • In Cloudaware, go to Admin → Google Billing and verify that the integration status is green.
  • Verify that Google Cloud costs appear as expected on Cloudaware CMDB objects.
  • In Cost Management dashboards:
    • Filter to Google Cloud if needed, and verify that projects, services, labels, and resource-level costs appear as expected.
    • Compare totals against Google Cloud Billing reports for the same billing account and time range.

See also: Google Billing Verification

Troubleshooting​

Costs Do Not Appear Within 24 Hours​

If costs do not appear within 24 hours, check the following:

  • In the Google Cloud console, verify that the billing export is enabled and targets the expected BigQuery dataset or Cloud Storage bucket.
  • In BigQuery, confirm that billing export tables exist and are being updated.
  • In Cloudaware Admin → Google Billing, check that the billing source is configured with the correct project, dataset, and table names.
  • If you recently changed the dataset, bucket, table names, or IAM configuration, confirm that the Cloudaware service account has the required read access.
note

Data collection and processing time in Cloudaware depends on the volume of billing files.

Instance-Level Cost Views Are Missing​

If cost fields for individual Google Cloud resources are missing, confirm that Detailed usage cost is enabled in Google Cloud and selected as the Cost Fields Source in Cloudaware.

See also: Google Billing Troubleshooting

Security Notes​

  • Cloudaware only reads billing export data from BigQuery or Cloud Storage.
  • Restrict dataset and bucket access to the minimal required roles and scopes.
  • Use dedicated datasets or buckets for billing exports if you require tighter access control.