Rateplane

Frequently Asked Questions

Straight answers to the questions customers actually ask

No marketing fluff. Honest, specific answers to the things teams actually want to know before they sign up.

Where does the pricing catalog data come from?

Pricing rows come from provider-backed feeds where configured: AWS and Azure use public pricing APIs for the supported services, GCP compute uses the published Cyclenerd Google pricing feed, and OCI is not currently configured as a live source. Every row records where it came from and when it was last fetched, and the catalog shows a source badge so you always know what you're looking at. No sample numbers, no estimates.

How often is the catalog refreshed?

Daily where a live or provider-backed feed is configured. A background job refreshes the supported pricing sources, and the release pipeline blocks deploys when the bundled catalog snapshot is older than the configured freshness window. Drift checks are handled through operator review and catalog health surfaces; an automated daily drift-event table is planned, not shipped.

What does the Live / Preview / Labs label on each page mean?

Customer-facing product surfaces are classified with one of these labels:

  • Live — fully connected to your workspace data. Once your cloud accounts are linked and spend has imported, the page shows your real numbers. Until then it shows a clear setup card — never placeholder or sample data.
  • Preview — fully functional but depends on an optional integration (an AI provider key for AI insights, a GitHub App for deploy-to-cost correlation, an FX feed for multi-currency, etc.). Safe to explore; features unlock as you configure the integration.
  • Labs — an early-access capability rolling out behind the scenes. The page explains what the feature does and what it depends on. Labs pages may show simulations only when they are explicitly labeled as simulations.

By default, Labs and unfinished routes stay out of normal customer navigation. Preview pages can still appear when they are useful and clearly marked.

How do you handle our cloud credentials?

Credentials are encrypted with an envelope scheme (AES-256-GCM for the row, a workspace-level key, and CREDENTIAL_ENCRYPTION_KEY as the master key that never leaves the server env var) before they touch the database. The test-connection flow uses side-effect-free API calls — AWS STS:GetCallerIdentity, Azure OAuth2 token exchange, GCP JWT-bearer — so we can verify a credential works without taking any action on your account. We never auto-rotate or modify customer credentials.

What's the difference between on-demand, reserved, and spot pricing in the catalog?

On-demand is the published hourly rate with no commitment. Reserved (1yr/3yr) is the effective hourly rate after amortizing a 1- or 3-year commitment over the term. Spot (AWS/Azure) and preemptible (GCP) are the interruptible-instance rates — much cheaper than on-demand, but the provider can reclaim the capacity with short notice. Every rate you see in the catalog comes from the configured provider-backed source for that provider — no synthetic multipliers, no estimates.

Why is my spend dashboard empty after I connected an account?

Two separate steps matter:

  1. Connect — you added the credential. This only verifies it works.
  2. Sync — the first import actually pulls your spend history. This is a separate job and typically takes 2–20 minutes depending on how many months of history you have.

If connect succeeded but sync hasn't run yet, the spend dashboard will stay empty and the global workspace banner will tell you which accounts are pending. Kick off a manual sync from the Cloud accounts page, or wait for the daily auto-sync. If sync fails, the Event log shows the exact error.

What are the recommendations based on?

Rightsizing recommendations come from a real engine that reads your imported spend history + inventory (EC2 instance types, utilization signals where available, tagging coverage) and suggests downsizes or family changes. Savings recommendations compare your run-rate against reserved/savings plans rates from the catalog. We don't ship fake demo recommendations — if the recommendations page is empty, it means the engine hasn't found anything yet (or your spend history is too short — minimum 30 days for meaningful recommendations).

What's the pricing for Rateplane itself?

See the pricing page for the current SaaS tiers. Short version: Starter covers the core loop for small workspaces, Team unlocks higher alert + API limits, Business adds allocation workflows and SAML SSO, and Enterprise adds audit retention, rollout support, and custom SLAs. Our own pricing is completely independent of what we show you for your cloud catalog — we are not affiliated with AWS, Azure, or GCP.

Can I export my data?

Yes. The /api/export endpoint returns CSV or JSON of your imported spend records, budgets, alerts, and recommendations. We also export in FOCUS format (FinOps Foundation's open spec) via /api/export?format=focus, which is designed to be portable to any other FinOps tool. You own your data; we don't lock it in.

Do you have an API?

Yes — a read-only REST API gated on workspace-scoped API keys. Go to API keys to issue or revoke a key, and Cloud Cost API for the full endpoint docs. All API calls are rate-limited per-key and audit-logged.

What happens if I cancel?

Your workspace and data are retained for 30 days so you can re-subscribe without losing your history. After 30 days, spend records, budgets, alerts, and recommendations are permanently deleted. Your connected cloud credentials are revoked immediately on cancellation and the envelope-encrypted secret is zeroed. You can also export everything via /api/export before you cancel.

Is my spend data shared anywhere?

No. Your imported spend records stay inside your workspace and are only visible to its members. We never sell, share, or aggregate your data across workspaces. There's no ad tracking and no third-party analytics on any signed-in page.

Didn't find your question?

See the operator guide, the SDK docs, or browse the in-app onboarding checklist.