CloudKitty is an OpenStack rating and chargeback service that collects usage metrics from cloud resources and applies configurable pricing rules to generate detailed billing data for operators and tenants (cloud cost management / billing).

Usage metering and rating of OpenStack and external resources (cloud cost management)
Configurable rating rules, pricing policies, and mapping to services and tenants (billing policy engine)
Collection, storage, and aggregation of usage data from multiple backends (usage metering and data aggregation)
Representational State Transfer (REST) Application Programming Interface (API) and dashboard integration for querying rated data and managing rating configuration (API and UI integration)
Support for multi-tenant chargeback and showback models in OpenStack-based clouds (financial operations / FinOps)

More About CloudKitty

CloudKitty is the rating and chargeback component for OpenStack-based clouds (cloud cost management), designed to convert raw infrastructure and service usage metrics into rated billing data according to operator-defined pricing rules. It operates as a service within the OpenStack ecosystem and addresses the need for structured cost allocation, showback, and chargeback across tenants and projects.

The project focuses on the collection, rating, and storage of resource consumption data (usage metering and billing). CloudKitty ingests measurements from one or more data sources, such as OpenStack telemetry services or external meters, and normalizes them into an internal data model. It then applies configurable rating modules and pricing policies that define how different resource types, such as compute, storage, or network, are priced over time. Rated data is persisted for later retrieval, aggregation, and reporting.

CloudKitty exposes a REST API (API services) through which operators and integrated systems can manage rating rules, pricing mappings, and service metadata, as well as query rated and aggregated usage data. In OpenStack environments, CloudKitty integrates with the Horizon dashboard (web UI integration), providing operators with interfaces to configure rating parameters and review financial data per tenant or project. This API-centric design allows CloudKitty to interoperate with external billing portals, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, or financial tools where required.

The architecture is modular and plugin-based (extensibility framework). Data collectors support different backends for usage metrics, while rating modules can be extended to accommodate custom pricing models or external logic. This modularity enables deployments beyond core OpenStack components, including the rating of external or custom services, as long as their usage metrics can be provided in a compatible format.

In enterprise and institutional environments, CloudKitty is used to implement showback and chargeback across internal business units or external customers consuming cloud resources (FinOps and IT financial management). Operators can define granular rating policies per service, region, or tenant, helping align infrastructure consumption with budgeting and cost accountability. Because it is part of the OpenInfra ecosystem under the OpenInfra Foundation, CloudKitty fits into architectures built around OpenStack services and can be positioned in directories under categories such as cloud billing, usage rating, and IT financial operations tooling.