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FAQs

Enabling billing exports allows you to store and analyze cost and usage data using BigQuery. This helps with tracking expenses, optimizing spending, and integrating with other cost management tools like nOps.
Billing data must be linked to a single BigQuery dataset per billing account. However, you can share access across multiple projects for visibility and analysis.
Yes, both pricing and resource exports must be configured to use the same location (US or EU) and preferably the same dataset. Using different locations or datasets will cause integration issues with nOps.

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Overview

Integrate your Google Cloud Billing data with the nOps platform for comprehensive cost tracking and analysis. This integration allows you to visualize and manage GCP spending directly within the nOps platform.
Currency Support — nOps currently supports only USD currency for billing export data. Ensure your GCP billing account is configured to use USD currency for proper integration with the nOps platform.

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Administrative Prerequisites

To perform this setup, the person executing the steps needs high-level privileges. If you don’t have these, you’ll need to coordinate with your IAM or Cloud Governance team.
  • Organization Administrator: Required to grant permissions at the Organization level.
  • Billing Account Administrator: Required to access the Billing Console and grant the Billing Account Viewer role.
  • Project Owner: Required to enable APIs and manage project-level IAM.
  • BigQuery Admin: Required to manage permissions on the specific datasets (Detailed Usage, Pricing, CUD, and FOCUS if enabled).
  • Organization Policy Administrator: Required only if your organization uses Domain Restricted Sharing and you need to add the nOps Customer ID to allowed domains (see Integration Setup)

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1. Check If Billing Exports Are Already Enabled

Before proceeding with the setup, check if your GCP billing exports are already configured:
1

Navigate to Billing Export

Go to the Billing section in the GCP Console. Select your billing account from the list. Click Billing Export from the left-hand menu.
2

Verify Export Status

If billing exports are already enabled, you’ll see Project name and Dataset name fields populated for each export type.
Already Enabled? — If your billing exports are already configured with Project name and Dataset name populated for all three export types, you can skip the configuration steps below and proceed directly to GCP Integration Setup. Note the FOCUS dataset name too if that export is enabled — nOps has an optional field for it.
If the exports are not enabled (showing as empty or disabled), continue with the configuration steps below.

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2. Configure GCP Billing Exports

You must enable three specific exports: Detailed Usage Cost, Pricing, and Committed Use Discounts. You can create the BigQuery dataset directly within the first export configuration. You can also enable the FOCUS usage cost export on the same page. It is optional in nOps, but it gives you cost data in the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification format, which is consistent across cloud providers. Google creates and names this dataset for you as gcp_billing_immutable_<BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID>_<LOCATION> in the project you select, so it does not follow the shared-dataset guidance below.

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Select or Create a GCP Project

A Google Cloud project is required to store billing data. If managing multiple billing accounts, configure the export for each account separately.
For help setting up the Cloud Billing account, refer to the Google Cloud Billing documentation.

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Enable Cloud Billing Exports to BigQuery

1

Navigate to Billing Export

Go to the Billing section in the GCP Console and select Billing Export from the left-hand menu.
2

Configure Detailed Usage Cost Export

Click Edit Settings under Detailed Usage Cost.
  • Select your Project.
  • Create a New Dataset (e.g., gcp_billing_exports) or select an existing one.
  • Choose a location (US or EU) and click Save.
3

Configure Pricing Export

Click Edit Settings under Pricing.
  • Select the same Project and Dataset as above.
  • Click Save.
4

Configure Committed Use Discounts Export

Click Edit Settings under Committed Use Discounts.
  • Select the same Project.
  • Enter a dataset name (e.g., cudsExportDataset) and select the same location (Multi-region US or EU).
  • Click Save.
5

Configure FOCUS Export (optional)

Click Edit Settings under FOCUS usage cost.
  • Select the same Project and the same location (Multi-region US or EU).
  • Click Save. Google creates the dataset and table for you — you do not name them.
Billing Data Backfill Behavior — When enabling Cloud Billing export to BigQuery for the first time and selecting a multi-region dataset location (EU or US), the export includes billing data retroactively from the start of the previous month. This historical data backfill provides immediate access to recent billing information for analysis.Important: This retroactive data population occurs only once during the initial setup. If the export is disabled and later re-enabled, or if the dataset is changed, the backfill will not occur again. Billing data will only be available from the date of re-enablement or dataset change onward.

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Important Configuration Details

Location Consistency — All three exports must use the same location (US or EU) and preferably the same project. Using different locations will cause integration issues.
  • CUD Export Status: After creating the Committed Use Discounts export, it may initially appear as Disabled. Simply refresh the page, and it should show as Active.
  • Table Creation: Each export creates a separate BigQuery table with its own unique Table ID. These tables may take up to 48 hours to be created.

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Next Steps

Once your billing exports are configured and the BigQuery tables have been created (allow up to 48 hours), you’re ready to connect GCP to nOps.
Ready to connect? Go to nOps Settings → Cloud Provider Integrations and click the Google Cloud Platform card to start the integration wizard. For a detailed walkthrough, see the guide below.

Integration Setup

Configure Domain Restricted Sharing when required, link GCP billing data, and grant service account permissions.

Commitment Management Setup

Overview of all permissions and resources needed for Savings Analysis and Commitment Management.

Permissions and Resources - Savings Analysis

Overview of all permissions and resources needed for Savings Analysis.

Permissions and Resources - Commitment Management

Overview of all permissions and resources needed for Commitment Management.