Cost centers

Track and organize Runpod spending by team, project, or department.

Cost centers let you attach billing labels to your Runpod resources to track and manage spending across your organization. By grouping your compute resources into cost centers, you can attribute charges to specific teams, projects, or departments.

Why use cost centers

Cost centers help answer common questions about cloud GPU spending:

• How much did each team spend on Runpod this month?
• What is the total project cost for a specific customer or initiative?
• Which cost centers are driving increases in GPU and storage spend?
• Can we reconcile Runpod spend with our internal budgets and GL cost centers?

By organizing resources into cost centers, you can:

• Attribute spending accurately. Understand which teams, projects, or resources are driving costs.
• Reduce uncategorized spend. Resources without cost centers are easy to identify and assign, reducing unknown charges at month-end.
• Support budgeting and variance analysis. Per-cost-center totals make it easier to compare actual Runpod spend against planned budgets.

Supported resources

Cost centers track billable resources across the Runpod platform:

Resource type	How costs are tracked
Pods	GPU compute and storage costs are combined into a single Pod charge.
Serverless endpoints	All endpoint usage is tracked under the assigned cost center.
Network volumes	Storage costs for volumes are tracked separately from compute resources.
Instant Clusters	Cluster compute costs are tracked under the assigned cost center.

Each resource can belong to only one cost center at a time. Resources without an assigned cost center appear as uncategorized.

Create a cost center

To create a new cost center:

1. Navigate to the Cost center page in the Runpod console.
2. Select Add a new cost center.
3. Enter a name for the cost center.
4. Select Create cost center to confirm.

Choose names that align with your organization’s structure, such as team names, project codes, or department identifiers. Consistent naming makes it easier to map Runpod spend to your internal cost tracking systems.

You can edit the name of a cost center at any time after creation.

Add resources to a cost center

Resources are added to cost centers from the Cost center page. You can assign multiple resources at once using bulk selection.

To add uncategorized resources to a cost center:

1. Navigate to the Cost center page.
2. Scroll to the Uncategorized resources section.
3. Use the tabs to filter by resource type (Pods, Serverless Endpoints, Storage Volumes, or Instant Clusters) if needed.
4. Select the checkbox next to each resource you want to assign.
5. Select Add resources to cost center and choose the target cost center from the dropdown.

The selected resources will move from the uncategorized list to the chosen cost center.

Uncategorized resources

Any resource without an assigned cost center appears in the Uncategorized resources section at the bottom of the Cost center page. Uncategorized resources still generate charges, but those charges won’t be attributed to any specific cost center on your invoices.

To maintain accurate cost attribution:

• Review the uncategorized resources list regularly, especially before month-end close.
• Assign new resources to cost centers promptly after creation.
• Use the resource type tabs to quickly find and categorize specific resource types.

Edit a cost center

To rename a cost center:

1. Navigate to the Cost center page.
2. Locate the cost center you want to edit.
3. Select the edit icon next to the cost center name.
4. Enter the new name and confirm the change.

Renaming a cost center updates its name across the console and on future invoices. Historical invoices retain the original name.

Delete a cost center

To delete a cost center:

1. Navigate to the Cost center page.
2. Locate the cost center you want to delete.
3. Select the delete icon next to the cost center name.
4. Confirm the deletion.

Deleting a cost center moves all its assigned resources to the uncategorized list. Consider reassigning resources to another cost center before deletion if you want to maintain cost attribution.

View cost center spend on invoices

Your Runpod invoices include a breakdown of total spend by cost center. Invoices are generated monthly and show how charges are distributed across your organization’s cost centers for that period.

To view invoices with cost center data:

1. Navigate to the Cost center page.
2. Select the Invoices tab.

Each invoice shows the total amount spent per cost center during that month, making it easy to allocate charges to the appropriate teams or budgets in your financial systems.

Invoices reflect the cost center assigned to each resource at the end of the billing month. If you change a resource’s cost center after the month ends, the change applies to future invoices only—previous invoices are not updated.

Best practices

Establishing good habits around cost centers helps maintain accurate spend attribution over time.

Categorize resources early. Assign resources to cost centers as soon as they’re created. This prevents charges from accumulating in the uncategorized bucket and reduces month-end cleanup work.

Use consistent naming conventions. Align cost center names with your organization’s existing naming schemes for teams, projects, or departments. This simplifies reconciliation with internal financial systems.

Review uncategorized resources regularly. Check the uncategorized resources list weekly or before each billing cycle to catch any resources that were created without cost center assignments.

Plan for organizational changes. When teams or projects are reorganized, update cost center assignments promptly. Consider creating the new cost center before migrating resources to ensure continuous attribution.