pilot
Idle disk cleanup
Turn unattached and stale storage into owner-assigned cleanup work with evidence, risk notes, and verification criteria.
Detect → Assign → Fix → Verify → Brief
A managed cloud savings operator for SaaS teams.
CloudCostIQ runs a 30-day savings pilot that finds waste, gets owners assigned, prepares approval-ready Fix Plans, follows up on blockers, verifies savings, and gives finance a proof packet.
Built for Series A-C SaaS teams spending $25k-$250k per month on cloud that need FinOps execution without a dedicated cloud finance team.
- 30-day Managed Savings Pilot
- Three closed-loop savings categories
- Named owners or blockers in 7 days
- Approval-ready Fix Plans prepared
- Verified savings packet for finance
- Outcome decision at day 30
Launch wedge: non-prod scheduling, idle storage cleanup, tag policy work. Human approval required for infrastructure changes.
AI FinOps Operations Team
Waste found. Savings Actions are assigned, planned, and ready for proof.
Owner queue
3 owners
Spend explained
$65,095
Actions owned
$4,444
Savings verified
$3,820
Waste detected
Data transfer growth+$6,099
New production compute+$875
Decommissioned storage-$421
Owner-ready work
$4,444
Idle storage, non-prod scheduling, and transfer growth are ready for owner review with evidence and approval-ready Fix Plans.
Leadership brief
Transfer growth explains most of the variance. The highest-impact savings work is non-prod scheduling, unattached storage cleanup, and a commitment coverage review. Every Fix Plan waits for owner approval before implementation.
Detect
Assign
Fix
Verify
Operating guardrails
CloudCostIQ supports human-reviewed accountability workflows. It does not make autonomous production changes.
No autonomous infrastructure changes
Answers cite available evidence only
Connected billing where configured
Upload fallback for every cloud
Proof required before savings count
Executive Memo
The memo that replaces the monthly explanation scramble.
Every month has a moment where leadership asks what happened. CloudCostIQ makes that answer available before the review starts: what changed, why it moved, what to say, and who owns the next step.
Board-ready readout
Spend movement is explainable. Forecast confidence depends on one engineering review.
May 2026
What changed
Cloud spend increased $2,561 versus the prior completed period, with 72% of the movement tied to transfer volume and production compute.
Why it matters
At the current burn rate, budget risk appears before month-end unless the transfer spike is expected customer growth.
What happens next
Engineering owns the transfer review; finance owns the forecast update; two Savings Actions are ready for verification.
The worldview
The cloud cost problem is not a lack of charts.
It is a lack of shared language, decision rights, ownership, and proof. Telemetry can tell you what happened. Leadership needs to know what it means and who is accountable.
Cloud spend is now a business operating system. Most companies still explain it like an engineering log.
A board asks why AWS or Azure is up. The answer lives across billing exports, deploy notes, and three Slack threads.
Finance owns the forecast. Engineering owns the infrastructure. Nobody owns the explanation.
Savings programs look impressive until someone asks which savings actually appeared on the next bill.
Dashboards create more views of the problem. They rarely create a decision owner.
The executive questions
The questions that decide whether cloud spend is controlled.
CloudCostIQ turns billing evidence into a shared operating record: the executive answer, the finance implication, the engineering follow-up, and the terminal outcome for every savings action.
What changed?
The movement, the driver, the date, and the financial size.
Why?
The operational cause in language finance can forward.
Does it matter?
Budget exposure, confidence, and whether the work belongs in the pilot.
Who owns it?
Named engineering owner, finance approver, or explicit blocker.
What happens next?
Day 7, 14, 21, and 30 checkpoints with SLA-backed follow-up.
Did it work?
A proof packet separating verified savings from blocked or rejected work.
Savings operation workflow
Detect → Assign → Fix → Verify → Brief
Cloud spend changes every week. CloudCostIQ turns that movement into a managed operating loop your team can approve without building a mature cloud finance function first.
- 1Detect
Find cloud waste
CloudCostIQ starts with billing evidence, spend movement, and the highest-value waste signals.
- 2Assign
Assign owners
Every Savings Action gets a named engineering or finance owner, due date, or explicit blocker.
- 3Fix
Prepare Fix Plans
CloudCostIQ prepares approval-ready Fix Plans with context, risk, next steps, and rollback notes.
- 4Verify
Prove the savings
Implemented work becomes verified, excluded, regressed, or blocked before finance counts it.
- 5Brief
Brief leadership
Leadership gets the savings closed, blocked, pending approval, and recommended next decision.
Pilot work categories
Start narrow enough that CloudCostIQ can close the loop.
The pilot focuses on savings categories where the service can produce accountable work: impact, confidence, risk, owner, approval path, implementation evidence, and day-30 verification.
pilot
Orphaned snapshot cleanup
Separate safe cleanup candidates from retention-sensitive snapshots so engineering can approve the right work quickly.
pilot
Non-prod schedules
Prepare schedules for staging, QA, and development environments that can stop outside working hours after owner approval.
operator
Storage lifecycle policies
Package lifecycle changes with expected savings, rollback notes, excluded data classes, and measurement windows.
operator
Tag policy enforcement
Expose ownerless spend and drive it to a named owner, an agreed policy change, or a blocker in the proof packet.
underwrite
Commitment review
Route RI, Savings Plan, and committed-use decisions through finance approval rather than automatic purchase advice.
Savings Proof
Possible savings are not financial outcomes.
Most cloud tools stop at “you could save this.” CloudCostIQ follows the money through ownership, implementation, verification, finance review, and a terminal state for every action.
May savings outcome
$3,820
proven monthly savings
Expected
$4,444
Variance
-$624
Window
30 days
Review
Approved
1
Identified
Billing evidence attached
$4,444/mo
2
Assigned
Engineering and finance split
3 owners
3
Implemented
Change evidence captured
2 actions
4
Verified
Measured against the next bill
30 days
5
Accepted
Finance-approved outcome
$3,820/mo
Savings Proof is the difference between a savings claim and a financial outcome. Leadership can see what was verified, rejected, regressed, expired, customer-blocked, or still open.
How it works
From billing evidence to accepted savings proof.
- 1
Kick off with evidence
You provide billing exports, invoices, or read-only cloud cost connections. CloudCostIQ scopes the first three savings categories.
- 2
CloudCostIQ runs the review
We translate spend movement, budget risk, and owner-ready savings into a weekly operating review.
- 3
Close the savings loop
We assign owners, chase blockers, prepare Fix Plans, capture implementation evidence, and verify realized savings.
Savings Actions
Savings opportunities become managed work items.
CloudCostIQ moves teams from “we might save money here” to a managed queue of actions with owners, blockers, evidence, and a finance-ready verification path.
Schedule non-production environments
CloudCostIQ prepares the owner-ready Fix Plan, approval path, expected savings, due date, and verification window for staging, QA, and development waste.
$1,398/mo expected
Review unattached storage
CloudCostIQ attaches resource evidence, risk notes, rollback guidance, and the financial implication before engineering removes anything.
$420/mo expected
Evaluate commitment coverage
CloudCostIQ routes reserved capacity decisions through finance approval instead of treating purchase suggestions as automatic changes.
$2,626/mo reviewable
Budget & Forecast Intelligence
Give founders the budget risk and engineers the cause.
Budget confidence improves when teams can see which services moved, what changed operationally, and which optimization work can reduce the run rate.
Budget risk
May 24
At current burn, spend crosses the approved monthly budget before month-end.
Forecast movement
+8%
Forecast increased because compute and data transfer are running above trailing baseline.
Management language
Requires review
Classify variance as expected growth, planned work, budget risk, or monitoring only.
Engineering Trust
AI assists the explanation. Evidence stays in control.
CloudCostIQ uses AI to explain spend movement and prepare evidence-backed work packets, but deterministic calculations, evidence, and human approval stay authoritative. Engineers get context without autonomous changes.
Review security postureDeterministic calculations
Dollar figures, percentages, forecasts, and savings measurements come from structured calculations before any narrative is written.
Evidence-backed Savings Actions
Savings Actions link back to billing evidence, confidence, risk, implementation guidance, and verification method engineers can inspect.
Org-scoped storage and RLS
Uploads, reports, findings, actions, and audit records are scoped to the organization at the database layer.
Approval-gated remediation
CloudCostIQ can prepare implementation plans and PR evidence, but it does not make autonomous cloud infrastructure changes.
Service model
The path to automation runs through proof first.
CloudCostIQ does not need broad production control on day one. It earns trust by owning narrow savings work to terminal states, then expands into operator coverage and outcome pricing where evidence, owners, approvals, and margin support it.
30 days
Managed savings pilot
- • Three closed-loop savings categories
- • Owner assigned or blocker declared by day 7
- • Approval-ready Fix Plans by day 14
- • Finance proof packet by day 30
90 days
Cloud savings operator
- • Between-review queue ownership
- • Daily follow-up on priority work
- • Jira, Linear, Slack, and GitHub artifacts
- • Verified savings and blocker reporting
6-18 months
Outcome-priced service
- • Underwritten savings guarantees
- • Success fee on finance-approved retained savings
- • Scoped automation for approved playbooks
- • Renewal based on proof, not seats
Pricing
Start with a 30-day savings pilot. Keep paying only if work closes.
CloudCostIQ is priced around completed operating work: owner follow-up, approval-ready Fix Plans, customer blocker escalation, verified savings, and outcome billing for qualified accounts. The launch motion is a fixed-fee pilot with day-30 acceptance criteria.
Managed outcome
30-Day Managed Savings Pilot
$5kfixed pilot
CloudCostIQ runs a 30-day pilot across three low-risk savings categories and exits with assigned work, blockers, and finance-ready proof.
- First savings review within 7 days
- Three closed-loop savings categories
- Owner assigned or blocker declared for every action
- Executive Brief after each review
- Day-30 proof packet and go/no-go decision
Managed outcome
Cloud Savings Operator
$10k-$15k/ month
CloudCostIQ owns the savings queue between meetings and produces the deliverables needed to close approved savings work.
- Everything in Managed Review
- Operator Queue ownership and SLA timers
- Approval-ready Fix Plans
- Jira, Linear, Slack, GitHub, and proof-packet deliverables
- Finance approval packet support
Managed outcome
Verified Savings Contract
Minimum + upsidefinance-approved savings
For accounts where evidence, owners, approvals, permissions, and gross margin support CloudCostIQ taking outcome exposure.
- $7.5k-$15k monthly minimum
- 20%-30% finance-approved retained savings
- Guarantee and readiness underwriting
- Outcome billing packets
- Retained-savings attribution
Operating SLA
Managed accounts get explicit service ownership. The pilot is not complete until every savings item is assigned, blocked, verification-ready, verified, rejected, regressed, or expired.
- Day 7: owner assigned or blocker declared
- Day 14: Fix Plans ready for approved categories
- Day 21: implementation evidence or blocker escalation
- Day 30: finance proof packet and outcome decision
- Daily follow-up on high-priority savings
Pilot acceptance criteria
This is the launchable 9/10 wedge: narrow scope, named buyers, explicit proof, and a binary day-30 decision instead of another dashboard subscription.
- Billing evidence connected or uploaded
- Three approved action categories selected
- Engineering owner and finance approver named
- Customer response SLA agreed before kickoff
- Proof packet accepted or objections logged by day 30
Platform access
The software layer that supports the service.
No credit card · read-only billing evidence · no autonomous changes
Platform access
Starter
$299/ month
Billed monthly
Inspect the evidence system behind the managed pilot.
Typical customer: Series A SaaS · $25k-$75k monthly cloud spend
- Up to $75k monthly cloud spend
- Operations Home for the savings operation
- First-owner assignment workflow
- Executive Brief export for leadership
- Savings Actions with cited evidence
- 90-day savings operation history
- Connected billing plus upload fallback
- Demo workspace and billing export onboarding
Most popular
Team workspace
Growth
$799/ month
Billed monthly
Give finance and engineering the workflow used by the operator.
Typical customer: Series B SaaS · $75k-$250k monthly cloud spend
- Up to $250k monthly cloud spend
- Everything in Starter
- Slack operation prep and owner nudges
- Jira and Linear execution tickets
- Savings Proof history for Verified Savings
- Ownership rules for teams and services
- Budget decisions and variance risk
- Unlimited team collaborators
Proof system
Scale
$1,999/ month
Billed monthly
Standardize savings evidence, approvals, and proof across teams.
Typical customer: Series C+ · $250k+ monthly cloud spend
- $250k+ monthly cloud spend
- Everything in Growth
- Multi-entity Executive Briefing
- Board-ready savings operation packets
- Process Health and brief history
- Evidence-bound Operations Assistant
- Custom Executive Brief templates
- Approval workflow support
- Priority support
- Assisted onboarding
Outcome contract
Enterprise
Custom
Annual contract
For companies that want CloudCostIQ accountable for a managed savings program across finance, platform, and leadership.
Typical customer: Multi-team SaaS · finance, platform, and executive stakeholders
- Everything in Scale
- Managed savings operating cadence
- Verified-savings success fee option
- SSO and advanced access controls
- Security review and custom contract
- Custom Executive Brief templates
- Multi-org rollout support
- Dedicated onboarding and success plan
Platform access exists so buyers can inspect evidence, assignments, approvals, and proof. The business model is the managed savings operation: a base operating fee plus verified-savings upside for qualified accounts, so CloudCostIQ earns more when real cloud savings are proven. Savings operations commonly convert thousands per month into owner-ready or verified Savings Actions depending on environment size and tagging quality.
Operating guardrails
No autonomous infrastructure changes
Answers cite available evidence only
Connected billing where configured
Upload fallback for every cloud
Proof required before savings count
Outcome underwriting
We only sell guarantees where CloudCostIQ can actually deliver.
Outcome contracts are qualified before the first paid review. CloudCostIQ checks spend, evidence coverage, owner paths, approval speed, permission readiness, addressable waste, and operator margin before offering verified-savings pricing.
30-minuteservice underwriting call
The output is a launch decision: 30-day pilot, operator coverage, verified-savings contract, platform-only inspection, or no-fit.
Qualification checks
- Monthly cloud spend range
- Billing evidence freshness
- Provider integration coverage
- Named owner path
- Finance approval path
- Permission readiness
- Minimum addressable waste
- Customer response SLA
Outcome operator, not outsourced engineering. CloudCostIQ owns review prep, follow-up, proof, and escalation. Customer-approved owners retain control over production changes.
FAQ
Questions a careful buyer asks.
- Is CloudCostIQ another cloud cost dashboard?
- No. CloudCostIQ is a managed cloud savings operation for startups and SaaS teams. It explains what changed, assigns owners, prepares Fix Plans, drives follow-up, verifies outcomes, and produces the day-30 proof packet.
- Can CloudCostIQ run the savings operation for us?
- Yes. The launch offer is a 30-day managed savings pilot. CloudCostIQ owns the operating loop until every pilot action is verified, customer-blocked, CloudCostIQ-blocked, rejected, regressed, expired, or accepted for the next phase.
- What clouds do you support?
- CloudCostIQ supports AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud billing data through uploads and connected cost ingestion where available. The report format stays finance-readable across providers.
- Does AI create the numbers?
- No. Dollar figures, percentages, forecasts, and savings calculations come from deterministic aggregation. AI helps explain spend movement and prepare evidence-backed work packets, but the financial proof is calculated from billing evidence.
- Will engineers trust the findings?
- Savings Actions include evidence, confidence, risk, implementation guidance, and verification method. The product is built to support engineering review, not bypass it.
- Do you change our cloud environment?
- Not without approval. The pilot starts with low-risk categories and human-approved execution paths. CloudCostIQ prepares the work and chases blockers; customer-approved owners retain control over production changes.
- How do Savings Actions work?
- Savings Actions include estimated impact, confidence, urgency, risk, effort, owner, due date, implementation guidance, and verification method. The goal is tracked operational outcomes, not a static recommendation list.
- Can finance verify savings?
- Yes. The day-30 proof packet separates identified, assigned, implemented, verified, rejected, regressed, expired, customer-blocked, and CloudCostIQ-blocked savings so finance can see what actually reduced the bill.
- Is my data secure?
- Cost data is scoped to your organization. The LLM receives pre-computed aggregates rather than raw billing line items, and the security page documents current controls and limitations.
- Who is this best for?
- Series A-C SaaS teams spending roughly $25k to $250k per month on cloud, especially teams that need FinOps outcomes without hiring a full internal cloud finance function.
Launch the 30-day managed savings pilot.
Start with three low-risk savings categories, named owners, blocker follow-up, approval-ready Fix Plans, and a day-30 finance proof packet.