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Google Cloud customers can plan, monitor, and control costs using
budgets and budget alerts.
Monitoring and controlling costs effectively is important, especially as you
scale your business in the cloud. When you're using Google Cloud, our
budgets and alerts
features are a powerful part of your cost monitoring toolkit, letting you set
your target spending and notify key stakeholders if you're getting off track.
A budget enables you to track your actual Google Cloud spend against your
planned spend. After you've set a budget amount, you set budget alert threshold
rules that are used to trigger email notifications. Budget alert emails help
you stay informed about how your spend is tracking against your budget. You
can also use budgets to automate cost control responses using
Pub/Sub topics for programmatic notifications
(for example, to forward your budget messages to other mediums such as Slack,
or to automate cost management tasks).
You can configure a budget to monitor all of the costs for an entire
Cloud Billing account, or use filters such as Google Cloud projects
or services to focus the budget on a slice of your spend.
Examples for using the Cloud Billing Budget API include the following:
Create a separate budget for each of your Google Cloud projects so you
know which areas of your Google Cloud environment are spending more
than expected.
Bulk update all of your budgets after quarterly financial planning.
Integrate with your company's deployment manager to add the creation of
budgets to your cloud provisioning workflow.
Prerequisites
Read through the
prerequisites
before you start coding your first Cloud Billing budget application.
Setup
Complete these
setup steps to get
ready to start using the Cloud Billing Budget API.
Using the API
Follow the instructions in the
user guide
to get up and running with the Cloud Billing Budget API.
Reference
For a full list of methods, see the reference documentation.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-25 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle Cloud offers budgets and budget alerts to help customers plan, monitor, and control their cloud spending, crucial for scaling businesses.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eBudgets allow users to track actual spending against planned spending, and configure alert threshold rules for email notifications.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eBudgets can be configured to monitor an entire Cloud Billing account or specific slices of spend using filters like Google Cloud projects or services.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWhile the Google Cloud console allows managing one budget at a time, the Cloud Billing Budget API enables programmatic management of up to 50,000 budgets per account, facilitating tasks such as creating budgets for each Google Cloud project or integrating with a deployment manager.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe Cloud Billing Budget API requires prerequisites and setup steps that can be found in the corresponding documentation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["# Get started with the Cloud Billing Budget API\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\nGoogle Cloud customers can plan, monitor, and control costs using\n[budgets and budget alerts](/billing/docs/how-to/budgets).\nMonitoring and controlling costs effectively is important, especially as you\nscale your business in the cloud. When you're using Google Cloud, our\n[budgets and alerts](/billing/docs/how-to/budgets)\nfeatures are a powerful part of your cost monitoring toolkit, letting you set\nyour target spending and notify key stakeholders if you're getting off track.\n\nA budget enables you to track your actual Google Cloud spend against your\nplanned spend. After you've set a budget amount, you set budget alert threshold\nrules that are used to trigger email notifications. Budget alert emails help\nyou stay informed about how your spend is tracking against your budget. You\ncan also use budgets to automate cost control responses using\n[Pub/Sub topics for programmatic notifications](/billing/docs/how-to/budgets-programmatic-notifications)\n(for example, to forward your budget messages to other mediums such as Slack,\nor to automate cost management tasks).\n\nYou can configure a budget to monitor all of the costs for an entire\nCloud Billing account, or use filters such as Google Cloud projects\nor services to focus the budget on a slice of your spend.\n\nIn the Google Cloud console, you can\n[manage one Google Cloud budget at a time](/billing/docs/how-to/budgets).\nUsing the Cloud Billing Budget API, you can view, create, and manage budgets\nprogrammatically at scale, up to 50,000 budgets for each Cloud Billing\naccount. [Learn how to check your budget quota](/billing/docs/how-to/budgets#budget-quota).\n\nExamples for using the Cloud Billing Budget API include the following:\n\n- Create a separate budget for each of your Google Cloud projects so you know which areas of your Google Cloud environment are spending more than expected.\n- Bulk update all of your budgets after quarterly financial planning.\n- Integrate with your company's deployment manager to add the creation of budgets to your cloud provisioning workflow.\n\nPrerequisites\n-------------\n\nRead through the\n[prerequisites](/billing/docs/how-to/budget-api-prereqs)\nbefore you start coding your first Cloud Billing budget application.\n\nSetup\n-----\n\nComplete these\n[setup steps](/billing/docs/how-to/budget-api-setup) to get\nready to start using the Cloud Billing Budget API.\n\nUsing the API\n-------------\n\nFollow the instructions in the\n[user guide](/billing/docs/how-to/budget-api)\nto get up and running with the Cloud Billing Budget API.\n\nReference\n---------\n\nFor a full list of methods, see the reference documentation.\n\n- [REST API](/billing/docs/reference/budget/rest)\n- [RPC API](/billing/docs/reference/budget/rpc)"]]
