Cloud cost glossary

Blended vs unblended cost

Also known as: Blended rate, Unblended cost

Unblended cost is the actual rate charged for each usage record, while blended cost averages rates across an organization's linked accounts — the two can differ when reservations are shared.

In AWS consolidated billing, a reservation purchased in one account can benefit others. Blended rates average the discounted and on-demand rates across accounts, which can obscure which account really benefited. Unblended rates show what each account was actually charged.

For accurate per-team allocation, unblended (or amortized) cost is usually the better basis; blended cost is mostly a consolidated-billing accounting artifact.

Related terms

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Part of the SpendArk cloud cost & FinOps glossary.