Setting Up Azure AI Cost Tracking

Azure AI cost tracking requires a Service Principal with read-only access to your subscription's cost data.

What Gets Tracked

Unlike other providers that only track AI costs, Azure integration tracks all costs in your subscription, grouped by Resource Group. This includes:

Azure OpenAI (GPT-4, GPT-3.5, embeddings)
Document Intelligence (form recognition)
AI Search (semantic search)
Vision, Speech, Language, Translator
Storage and compute in the same resource groups

Resource Groups as Projects: Each Azure Resource Group appears as a "project" in Administrate.dev. Assign resource groups to companies to track their complete Azure AI spend.

See Tracking Azure Costs by Company for cost attribution setup.

What You'll Need

Azure subscription with Azure OpenAI or AI Services
Permission to create App Registrations in Azure AD
Permission to assign roles on the subscription

Step 1: Create an App Registration

Go to Azure Portal
Navigate to Azure Active Directory > App registrations
Click New registration
Enter a name (e.g., "Administrate Cost Reader")
Leave "Supported account types" as default (single tenant)
Click Register

On the Overview page, you'll see several IDs. Save these two:

Azure Portal Field	What to do
Application (client) ID	Copy this - it's your Client ID
Directory (tenant) ID	Copy this - it's your Tenant ID
Object ID	Ignore - not needed

Step 2: Create a Client Secret

In your new App Registration, go to Certificates & secrets
Click New client secret
Add a description (e.g., "Administrate")
Choose an expiration (recommend 12 months or more)
Click Add

You'll see two columns appear:

Column	What to do
Value	Copy this immediately - it's your Client Secret
Secret ID	Ignore - not needed

Important: The Value disappears after you leave the page - copy it now!

Step 3: Find Your Subscription ID

In Azure Portal, go to Subscriptions
Click on your subscription name
On the Overview page under Essentials, copy the Subscription ID

Step 4: Assign Cost Management Reader Role

While still on your subscription page, click Access control (IAM)
Click Add > Add role assignment
Search for and select Cost Management Reader
Click Next
Select User, group, or service principal
Click Select members and search for your App Registration name
Select it and click Review + assign

Step 5: (Optional) Add Reader Access to Azure OpenAI

To see deployment details:

Go to your Azure OpenAI resource
Click Access control (IAM)
Add Reader role to your App Registration

Step 6: Connect in Administrate

Now you have all the values you need:

In Administrate, go to LLM Providers > Add Provider and enter:

Administrate Field	Where to find it
Provider Type	Select Azure AI
Name	Your choice (e.g., "Azure Production")
Client Secret	Value from Step 2 (Certificates & secrets)
Subscription ID	Subscription ID from Step 3 (Subscriptions > Overview)
Tenant ID	Directory (tenant) ID from Step 1 (App Registration > Overview)
Client ID	Application (client) ID from Step 1 (App Registration > Overview)
Resource Endpoint	(Optional) Your Azure OpenAI endpoint URL

Troubleshooting

"Insufficient privileges" error - Ensure the Cost Management Reader role is assigned at the subscription level - Role assignments can take a few minutes to propagate

No cost data appearing - Cost data may take 24-48 hours to appear in Azure Cost Management - Ensure you have Azure OpenAI or AI Services resources with actual usage

No deployments showing - Add Reader role on the specific Azure OpenAI resource - Enter the Resource Endpoint in the provider settings

Security Best Practices

Use a dedicated App Registration just for cost tracking
Only assign the minimum required roles (Cost Management Reader)
Set a reminder to rotate the client secret before expiration
Consider using a shorter secret expiration with automated rotation

Next Steps

Tracking Azure Costs by Company - Set up per-company cost attribution using Resource Groups

Setting Up Azure AI Cost Tracking