A Lightweight Approach to Kubernetes Cost Monitoring (No Extra Services Required)

You can get cost visibility without running a second platform. Keep it light with these defaults.

• Single agent: scrape usage, apply price sheet, emit cost metrics; memory <150MB.
• Storage: use in-memory/cache; export reports to S3 only if needed.
• Network: avoid chatty sidecars; batch exports.
• Guardrails: block unlabeled workloads and missing limits at admission time.
• Outputs: CLI/PR comments and a small dashboard—not a full observability stack.
• Price sheets: keep rates in Git and refresh weekly; spot and egress matter more than anything else.
• Security: least-privilege RBAC, audit mode first, no external data by default.

Less infra means faster installs, fewer upgrades, and happier SREs.***