Budgets

The Budgets page lets you set spending targets for any level of your organization and get alerted when spend approaches or exceeds those targets. Budgets bring financial discipline to Databricks usage — instead of discovering overruns after the fact, you’re notified while there’s still time to act.

For the conceptual background on budgets and how they relate to your organizational hierarchy, see Organizational Hierarchy & Budgets.

Budget list

The main view shows all configured budgets across two tabs:

• Active — Budgets whose period end date is today or in the future
• History — Budgets whose period has ended

The budget table displays the following columns:

Column	What it shows
Entity	What the budget covers (team, department, org unit, or workspace) and its type
Period	Start and end date of the budget period
Budget	Target spend limit
Spent	Actual spend so far in the period (respects the global cost display mode)
Progress	Spent as a percentage of the budget, with a color-coded progress bar

Progress colors

Color	What it means
Green	Spend is below 80% of the budget
Amber	Spend is at or above 80% of the budget
Red	Spend has reached or exceeded 100% of the budget

Each budget row includes a progress bar that visually shows how much of the budget has been consumed. The summary at the top of the page shows the total budget, total spend, and a count of budgets that are over budget.

Creating a budget

1. Click the Create button on the Budgets page.
2. Select the entity type — Choose what the budget covers:

Entity type	What it scopes to
Workspace	All spend from a specific Databricks workspace
Org Unit	All spend attributed to an organizational unit
Department	All spend attributed to a department
Team	All spend attributed to a team

3. Set the period — Choose start and end dates. Monthly periods are most common.
4. Set the amount — The budget target in dollars.
5. Configure notifications (optional) — Add alert thresholds and recipients.
6. Add notes (optional) — Free-text context for the budget.

Tip

Start with team-level monthly budgets for your highest-spending teams. Once you have a baseline, you can add department and org-unit budgets for roll-up visibility.

Notification thresholds

Each budget supports up to 10 notification thresholds. Thresholds are percentages of the budget amount:

Range	Common use
50–70%	Early warning for teams that want advance notice
80%	Standard warning threshold (default)
100%	Budget exceeded (default)
120–150%	Overspend alerts for budgets that can’t be hard-capped

Thresholds can be set between 1% and 200%. Values above 100% alert on overspend — useful when budgets are targets rather than hard limits.

Recipients

Each budget supports up to 50 notification recipients. Recipients receive alerts via email — a notification is sent to each recipient’s registered email when a threshold is crossed.

Recipient behavior depends on the configuration:

• All Admins (default) — All administrators with system alerts enabled are notified
• Select Users — Only the specific users you choose are notified
• None — Notifications are disabled for this budget

Budget tracking

How spend is calculated

Budget spend is calculated from your attributed cost data. The budget scope determines which costs are included:

• A team budget includes all costs attributed to that team
• A department budget includes all costs attributed to teams within that department
• An org-unit budget includes all costs attributed to departments within that org unit
• A workspace budget includes all costs from that workspace regardless of attribution

Cost breakdown

Budget spend is broken down into DBU (Databricks unit charges) and cloud infrastructure cost. The display respects the global cost display mode set in your preferences:

• Total — Shows the combined DBU + cloud infrastructure cost
• DBU — Shows Databricks unit charges only
• Cloud — Shows cloud infrastructure cost only
• Breakdown — Shows DBU and cloud costs side by side

When in “Total” mode, a secondary line shows the DBU/cloud split beneath the total.

Note

Budget alerts fire based on actual spend, not projected spend. Only crossing a threshold with real spend triggers an alert.

Threshold checking

Budget thresholds are checked hourly. When actual spend crosses a threshold, notifications are sent to all configured recipients. Each threshold is deduplicated within a 60-minute window — you won’t get repeated alerts for the same threshold within the same hour.

Budget history

Click the history icon on any budget row to see its audit history:

• Action log — A chronological list of changes (created, updated, deleted) with who made each change and when
• Change details — For each entry, the budget amount and period at the time of the change

Editing and deleting budgets

• Edit — Update the amount, period, notes, thresholds, or recipients. Changes take effect immediately. The entity type and entity cannot be changed after creation.
• Duplicate — Create a new budget with the same entity, amount, notes, and notification settings but a fresh period (defaults to the current month).
• Delete — Remove the budget. Historical data is preserved in the audit log.

Only users with appropriate permissions can create, edit, or delete budgets. See Roles & Permissions for details.

Common workflows

Setting up team budgets

1. Go to the Budgets page and click Create.
2. Select entity type Team and choose the team.
3. Set a monthly period matching your billing cycle.
4. Set the amount based on historical spend (check Cost Explorer for the team’s average monthly spend).
5. Add thresholds at 80% (warning) and 100% (exceeded).
6. Add the team lead and FinOps contact as recipients.

Monthly budget review

1. Review the budget list — budgets with the highest progress percentage need the most attention.
2. Investigate any budgets showing amber or red progress bars.
3. Review spend trends for budgets that are approaching their limit.
4. Adjust budget amounts for the next period based on actuals and trends.

Cascading budgets

Create budgets at multiple hierarchy levels for layered governance:

1. Create an org-unit budget for the total engineering spend.
2. Create department budgets that represent target allocations within the org unit.
3. Create team budgets for individual cost centers.

These budgets are independent — they don’t need to add up to the parent. This flexibility lets you set aspirational targets at higher levels while maintaining accountability at the team level.

Next steps

• Organizational Hierarchy & Budgets — How hierarchy and budgets work together
• Cost Explorer — Analyze spend for budget planning
• Webhooks & Notifications — Configure alert delivery
• Commitments — Track committed capacity alongside budgets