Resource Groups & Allocations

If your organization uses the flexible allocation system, every cloud resource you create belongs to a resource group, and each resource group bills an allocation. This section explains how resource groups and allocations work from a user's point of view: how to choose a resource's resource group, how to share and move resources, and how to read an allocation's budget.

Which system does my organization use?

Organization admins choose between the legacy group allocation system and the flexible allocation system. If your create forms show a Resource Group field, your organization is on the flexible system. If they show a Billing Group field instead, it is on the legacy system and this section does not apply. See Flexible Allocation System for the admin view.

How billing fits together

Resource (cluster, bucket, instance, …)
   └── belongs to a Resource Group (owned by a user, shareable)
          └── which bills one Allocation (a budget set by an admin)

An allocation is a budget, usually in U.S. dollars, that an organization admin creates and shares with groups. It has a Total, and tracks Used (confirmed cloud invoices and rated usage) and Estimated (Used plus real-time estimates for resources that are still running).
A resource group is a named container that you own. It bills exactly one allocation, which pays for every resource in the group. You can change that allocation at any time; the resource group keeps an allocation history so each cost is still charged to the allocation that was active when it was incurred. You can share a resource group with other groups so their members can add their own resources to it.
A resource is a cloud resource: a cluster, instance, storage (buckets, disks, NFS, Lustre), public IP address, network interface, ML workspace, or AI provider deployed in your cloud account. Each resource belongs to exactly one resource group.

Only cloud resources use resource groups

Right now, only cloud resources can be put into resource groups. Other usage bills an allocation directly: Kubernetes namespaces through the allocation set on the namespace, AI requests (Chat, pw code, and AI keys) through the allocation chosen for the request, and external usage through usage events. See How usage reaches an allocation.

Groups (the user groups your organization admin manages) still control who can see and use allocations and resource groups, but a group on its own no longer decides which allocation pays for a resource.

What you need before creating resources

Access to at least one allocation. Ask an organization admin to share an allocation with a group you belong to at the Use level.
A resource group that bills that allocation. You can create one ahead of time, or directly from the Resource Group field on any create form.

Resource groups for cloud resources must bill an allocation rated in U.S. dollars. Allocations in a custom consumption unit (for example, "premium requests") are shown but cannot be selected.

In this section

Using Resource Groups — create resource groups, pick one on a resource, move and remove resources, share, change the allocation, and delete.
Viewing Allocations — read an allocation's budget, see which resource groups it funds, and view usage in Reports.
Troubleshooting — what common billing messages mean and how to fix them.