Cost Anomalies

Review unusual daily cost changes, record what they mean, and ask Anna to investigate with provider evidence

Anomalies shows finalized daily cost changes that exceed their expected range for one Optimize connection. Detection uses saved billing data; Anna investigates the provider evidence behind a detected change.

Read the summary

The summary covers the selected 30-day or 90-day range and keeps detection coverage visible. If Optimize is still building a baseline, it shows how many finalized days are available instead of claiming no anomalies exist.

Anomaly cost is delayed billing evidence, not real-time monitoring data. Estimated impact is actual cost above the baseline. It is not a savings estimate or invoice adjustment.

Review the queue

Use the tabs to move between review states:

State	Meaning
Needs review	Nobody has recorded what the change meant
Investigating	An Anna investigation has started
Reviewed	A human recorded what the change meant (a disposition)
Retracted	The supporting data changed and the agent withdrew the anomaly with a recorded reason

Filter the queue by severity or disposition. Choose 30 days or 90 days to change the evidence window.

Inspect the evidence

Open an anomaly to see its date range, actual cost, baseline, expected upper bound, estimated impact, deviation, severity, top regions, billing cutoff, and daily series.

One card can cover a multi-day episode. The daily Optimize scan extends the same card while the increase continues and retracts a record its data no longer supports. Estimated impact and severity always come from saved billing data, never from an agent’s judgment.

An Explained by list appears when an agent has linked findings as the likely cause of the spike. Select one to open the full finding record without leaving the anomaly.

Record what the change meant

After review, choose one disposition:

Disposition	Meaning
Unexpected change	The increase needs follow-up or corrective action
Expected change	The increase matches an intentional business or technical change
Insignificant	The evidence is valid but does not justify more work

You can reopen a reviewed anomaly. Reopening returns it to Needs review without deleting its history.

Investigate with Anna

Select Investigate with Anna from the anomaly detail. Each click opens a fresh conversation with the current anomaly evidence and the exact cloud connection in scope.

Anna can inspect live provider cost breakdowns and change history, but she does not invent a cause. If credentials, provider access, or available evidence cannot establish the cause, the investigation says so.

Later investigations can reuse saved findings from earlier conversations about the same anomaly.

Refresh failures

Optimize keeps the last successful billing evidence readable when a refresh fails. A paused refresh applies only to the selected connection and does not mark the cloud connection disconnected.

Fix the reason shown in Optimize, then run a manual retry. A successful retry clears the pause and requests fresh evidence.

Related

Optimize

Return to the account decision snapshot

Findings

Review an action that explains or responds to a cost change

Cost Explorer

Compare the change with completed monthly service spend

Reports

Generate an anomaly review log