Create Meters
To begin tracking usage in Amberflo, you must first define meters that describe what you want to measure. Each meter acts as a structured contract between your systems and the Amberflo platform, enabling consistent ingestion, attribution, and analysis of usage data.
Start by navigating to the AI and Cloud Usage page by finding it on the left navigation list in the Manage section or by using this link. To create your first meter click on the + Create Meter button.
This guide walks you through the three main parts of a meter definition:
- Fields
- Types of Meters
- Dimensions (additional metadata)
1. Meter Fields
Each meter definition starts with three key fields:
- Label: A human-readable name for the meter, displayed in the dashboard.
- Meter API Name: A technical identifier used for event ingestion and backend processing.
- Description: A short explanation of what the meter tracks, visible in the meter definition list.
These labels help users understand the purpose of each meter and allow systems to ingest data accurately.
2. Meter Types
Amberflo supports three distinct meter types. Each one is optimized for a different usage pattern.
Count Meters
- Function: Increments the total value each time an event occurs.
- Tracking API calls
- Counting transactions
- Monitoring error occurrences
- Easy to implementIdeal for volume-based billing
- Supports aggregation functions such as SUM, AVG, and MAX
Continuous Meters
- Function: Measures the duration between start and stop events or tracks the usage rate of a service/resource that is in continous use.
- Application uptime
- Session duration
- CPU or memory usage
- Precise measurement of time-based or continuous usage
- Suitable for resource billing and optimization
Seat-based Meters
- Function: Tracks the number of active users, licenses, or instances over time.
- Software license compliance
- Subscription user tracking
- Capacity planning
- Simplifies license tracking
- Enables visibility into active consumption
- Supports cost control for user-based services
Choose the meter type that best fits the behavior of the resource or service you are metering.
3. Meter Dimensions
Dimensions are optional, but highly recommended, components of a meter definition. They allow you to attach additional metadata to each meter event using key-value pairs.
Purpose of Dimensions
The following key questions are answered by the fields we've already discussed:
- What was used (meter name)
- When it was used (timestamp)
- How much was used (meter value)
Dimensions help answer core FinOps questions in real time:
- By whom it was used (business unit ID)
- Where or under what context it was used (dimension metadata)
Example Dimension Use Cases
- Data center
- Project, department, or business unit
- Cluster name or instance ID
- Event status or stage
Amberflo automatically recognizes and groups meter events by dimension values. This enables powerful filtering, reporting, and pricing plan logic.
Notes on Usage
- Dimensions are schemaless and do not need to be pre-declared.
- New dimensions are automatically added when they first appear in ingested events.
- Dimensions can be used to segment costs, define pricing plans, and apply promotions.