The Hidden Costs of Kubernetes: What Your Cloud Bill Isn’t Telling You

Kubernetes helps you easily deploy and manage applications that run in containers. However, many teams overlook hidden costs that can inflate their cloud bills.

These hidden costs of Kubernetes can come from unused resources, wrong autoscaling settings, or poor cloud budgeting for Kubernetes practices. If you’re using managed services like Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), your setup might be quietly increasing your expenses with various container orchestration costs.

Think you're only paying for what you use? Think again.

It's important to understand all the Kubernetes expenses related to your operations. These costs can add up quickly if you're not careful. They can range from cluster management fees to network charges.

Here are some hidden costs to watch out for:

• Idle resources: Unused pods and nodes can significantly raise your Kubernetes expenses.
• Misconfigured autoscaling: Incorrect settings might lead to using too many resources during busy times.
• Backups for GKE: While necessary for protecting data, backup solutions can add extra costs if not managed well.
• Monitoring tools for Kubernetes: Good monitoring solutions are important, but they can also raise your overall cloud bill.

As you work through the challenges of Kubernetes cost management, take the time to compare pricing across different platforms like AWS and GKE Enterprise. This proactive approach will help you lower your cloud bill and avoid unexpected financial issues.

1. Excessive resource allocation

Many developers give too much CPU and memory to their applications—this is called excessive resource allocation—to avoid performance problems. While this keeps things running smoothly, it also means spending money on resources that aren’t being used.

• The gap between what Kubernetes requests and limits are set at versus what is actually used can lead to waste.
• Extra CPU and memory that aren't needed can remain unused, raising cloud costs and making it harder to manage expenses in Kubernetes.

Solution

To fix this, it's important to adjust workloads by tracking usage patterns and understanding the costs involved in Kubernetes. Tools like the Kubernetes Vertical Pod Autoscaler (VPA) can automatically change resources based on real demand.

Also, when using platforms like Microsoft Azure or Oracle Kubernetes Engine (OKE), be aware that your compute costs in Kubernetes can be affected by your Service Level Agreement (SLA) and how you monitor resources in your Kubernetes setup.

2. Unused and orphaned resources

Kubernetes jobs often leave behind unused resources like storage volumes, load balancers, and unused IP addresses that still incur charges. These idle resources can greatly affect your cloud spend, leading to higher costs on platforms like Google Cloud.

For example, one company discovered thousands of unused storage volumes that were still being billed each month and contributing to their Kubernetes storage expenses.

Solution

Set up automatic cleanup rules and management tools to get rid of orphaned resources. This is important for optimizing Kubernetes resources and helps you better estimate your GKE costs. Also, consider using Multi Cluster Ingress to simplify your network resources and cut down on unnecessary database costs linked to idle load balancers.

By choosing the Autopilot pricing model and comparing different managed Kubernetes pricing options, you can make sure your container management is efficient and budget-friendly.

3. The egress cost trap

Transferring data between regions, availability zones, or different cloud providers can lead to high egress costs that many teams overlook. These charges can greatly affect your budget, especially if you’re not careful with how you manage traffic between zones.

For instance, one company unknowingly spent over $100,000 because of too much traffic between zones caused by a poorly designed network. This shows how important it is to optimize your network in Kubernetes environments, where mismanaged costs can rise quickly.

Solution

• Design your network to keep services in the same zone whenever possible.
• Use internal networking options like AWS PrivateLink or Google’s VPC Peering to lower costs.
• When looking at different cloud providers, compare their costs to find the best pricing for Kubernetes clusters.
• Pay attention to logging and monitoring costs too, as they can add up significantly in Kubernetes.
• If you're using GKE, learn about its pricing structures to help manage costs effectively.
• For those thinking about Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, check their egress cost policies to avoid surprise expenses.

4. Problems with autoscaling

Autoscaling in Kubernetes with the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) and Cluster Autoscaler is crucial for adjusting workloads automatically. However, if the scaling settings are not done right, it can lead to unnecessary increases in nodes and higher management costs for the cluster.

Remember, having more pods doesn’t always mean better performance; it often just results in bigger bills because of increased usage fees.

Solution

To avoid these issues, think about setting smart scaling limits and choosing the right instances. Also, look into predictive autoscaling instead of just reacting to changes, which can help manage computing resources better. This is especially important for running AI tasks in Kubernetes, as it helps control costs while using resources efficiently.

If you want advanced features, check out GKE Enterprise options and their costs to improve your autoscaling methods. The same ideas apply for EKS users, keep an eye on backup and disaster recovery costs that can come from poorly set up autoscaling.

5. Understanding multi-tenant complexity in Kubernetes

Many teams find it hard to figure out who is contributing to the increased costs in Kubernetes when different applications use the same infrastructure.

If resource usage isn’t tracked properly, some teams might be unknowingly covering costs for others.

Solution

Use tools like Amnic’s Cost Allocation to assign expenses to the correct teams and services. Proper cost allocation is really the need of the hour to keep track of your cloud bills.

Kubernetes isn’t “free” just because it’s open-source. If you don’t manage your Kubernetes costs actively, your cloud bill can quickly get out of hand.

• Regularly check your resource usage with Kubernetes expense audits.
• Improve autoscaling and remove unused resources to lower storage costs.
• Use cost allocation tools for full visibility across how your cluster operates.

If you’re not actively managing your Kubernetes costs with strong management tools, they will end up managing you. Look into best practices for controlling Kubernetes costs to make sure all teams are responsible and resources are used wisely.