Tagging

Documentation Index

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With tagging visibility in Vantage, you can view your provider tags and create and manage virtual tags.

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Tag Management - Provider and Virtual Tags

On the Tags page, you can view all tags, including both provider and virtual tags. From the top navigation, click Settings. On the left navigation, under General Settings, click Tags. Four tabs are displayed: All Tags, Virtual Tags, Preferred Tags, and Hidden Tags.

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Tag Badges

Virtual tags may display badges next to the tag name to indicate special properties: At the top of the main Tags screen, you can search for specific tags and filter for tags by provider (e.g., AWS).

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Tag Management Options

Within the tag settings, you can hide tags, mark tags as preferred, or view a tag on a Cost Report.

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Hide Tags

From the Tags page, you can hide tag keys that you don’t want to appear in report filters or grouping options. This is useful for removing redundant tags or preventing other users from seeing certain tags in reports. To hide a tag key, click the eyeball icon next to the tag on the All Tags tab. As soon as a tag key is hidden, the following changes occur in Vantage:

• Hidden from report menus: The tag key is no longer displayed in the Filters or Group By menus on reports for other Vantage users; however, users with the Organization Owner role can still manage tag visibility (i.e., unhide the tag) via the Tags screen.
• Existing reports remain functional: If a report was already filtered or grouped by the hidden tag, it will continue to work, but if you edit the report’s filters, the hidden tag will no longer be available in the filter’s selection list.
• Usable in virtual tags: Hidden tags can still be used when creating virtual tags and will appear in virtual tag filters. If a hidden tag is included in a virtual tag’s filter criteria, a message is displayed next to it, indicating that it is hidden and only usable for virtual tag creation.
• Still accessible via API: Hidden tags remain available through API requests.

Hide Tags Example: Standardizing Redundant Tag Keys

You are working to clean up your tagging and notice that teams have applied multiple variations of the same environment-related tag key across different AWS resources:

• env
• environment
• Environment

Because all three tags represent the same concept, having them appear separately in report filters and grouping options creates inconsistencies and makes cost analysis more difficult. You are unable to see the full view of how costs are attributed to each environment.You complete the following steps to hide the redundant tags:

• You navigate to the Tags page in Vantage to search for and identify the different versions of the environment tag. You then hide each iteration of this tag so that you can create a new standardized version of the tag with Vantage virtual tags.

• All three hidden tags no longer appear in the Filters and Group By menus for other users.

• Existing reports that were already filtered or grouped by these tags remain functional; however, if a user edits the report’s filters, they will no longer see those hidden tag variations.

• The hidden tags are still available via API requests, so any external automation using them still continues to work.

You then complete the following steps to create a virtual tag that combines the values from all the previous tag iterations:Option 1: Using Tag Key Collapsing (Recommended)The simplest approach is to use Tag Key Collapsing:

• Create a new virtual tag named environment
• In the Collapsed Keys tab, add env, environment, and Environment as collapsed keys
• Vantage will automatically merge all values from these tag keys into your environment virtual tag

This approach automatically handles all tag values without requiring you to create individual filters for each value.Option 2: Using Virtual Tag Values with FiltersAlternatively, you can create a virtual tag with custom value filters:

• Create a new virtual tag named environment that consolidates all three variations from the AWS provider tag
• For each tag value (e.g., production, development, etc.), create a separate filter that combines that specific value from all of the previous tag keys, and repeat this for each tag value you care about. You can then use this new virtual tag within reports

As a result, your users now see only the environment virtual tag in their report filters, reducing confusion and keeping reports standardized. This approach helps enforce tagging consistency without you having to further educate your users on which versions of a tag key to use in reports.

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Preferred Tags

From the Tags page, you can mark tag keys as “preferred” so they are sorted to the top of every tag filter, group-by menu, and tag selector across Vantage. This is useful when your organization has dozens or hundreds of tag keys, but teams regularly use the same handful—such as environment, team, or cost-center—for the majority of their workflows. To mark a tag as preferred, click the bookmark icon next to the tag on the All Tags tab or the Virtual Tags tab. The change takes effect immediately. Once a tag key is marked as preferred, the following changes occur in Vantage:

• Sorted to the top of tag selectors: Preferred tags appear first in Filters and Group By menus on Cost Reports, Resource Reports, Financial Commitment Reports, Cost Recommendations, and other tag selectors across the platform, with a bookmark badge for visual identification.
• Account-wide: When a tag is marked as preferred, all users in the account see it sorted to the top.
• Independent from hidden tags: Preferred and hidden are independent settings. Hidden tags are excluded from filter menus regardless of preferred status.

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View Tags on a Cost Report

From the Tags page, you can view a Cost Report that is filtered and grouped based on a selected tag. You can do this for both provider and virtual tags. This can help you to view any current or past costs associated with the tag. In the following visual example:

• The user searches for the environment virtual tag and selects to view a Cost Report for that tag.
• The Cost Report is displayed. The report is filtered by the tag’s associated providers and grouped by that tag’s values.

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Virtual Tags

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Virtual Tags vs. Saved Filters vs. Cost Allocation Segments

Virtual tags can be considered foundational to the rest of the data within Vantage. They should remain fairly static, and changes should be considered delicate. These changes will flow across all data and apply to all workspaces. The most common tag keys will be items like team, cost center, and environment. Segments can then be used to create different hierarchical views for tagged data. This feature is useful for breaking down the data by different perspectives, such as by cost center or by OPEX/CapEx. Saved filters can then be used in a more ad-hoc fashion to add lenses on top of base data. For instance, you could create a saved filter just for North America that standardizes a set of regions across providers and can be used by teams on their reports or dashboards without having to know the set of filters needed to create the list of regions. When new regions come online, it’s easy to modify the saved filter to include this region.

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Custom Value Tags

With Custom Value Tags, you can create new cross-provider Virtual Tags to strengthen your tagging strategy. For example, you may have a series of resource tags, by product, across each of your providers. You can create custom tags in Vantage to combine those costs into one unique product tag for all resources in that product group. See the Custom Values Examples for details.

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Cost Allocation Tags

Vantage supports three types of cost allocation for Virtual Tags, allowing you to distribute costs across teams, applications, or internal financial models:

• Use Business-Metric Allocation when you want costs proportionally tied to an external driver (e.g., seats, requests, revenue).
• Use Cost-Based Allocation when allocating proportionally based on another set of costs.
• Use Percent-Based Allocation when you want full manual control or have negotiated/internal ratios that don’t rely on metrics or proportional drivers.

Cost-Based and Business Metrics-Based allocation types allow for dynamic cost allocation, which is the process of allocating costs based on another existing cost or metric. Percent-Based allocation provides manual control for negotiated or predefined internal allocations that don’t rely on external metrics or proportional usage. See the following video for an introduction to dynamic cost allocation.

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Cost-Based Allocation Tags

With cost-based allocation tags, you can create a dynamically allocated cost structure. Select a set of input costs (e.g., all AWS costs), an existing cost tag to use for allocation (e.g., a team tag), and an output cost (e.g., a static cost, like AWS Support) that you want to be allocated the same way as your input cost. See the Cost-Based Allocation Example for details.

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Business Metrics-Based Allocation Tags

With business metrics-based allocation tags, you select an existing business metric (e.g., CPU use per product) and indicate your output cost (e.g., all GCP Compute costs) so that the allocation of the output cost mimics the percentage allocation of the existing business metric. See the Business Metrics-Based Allocation Example for details.

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Percent-Based Allocation Tags

With percent-based allocation tags, you can allocate costs using fixed percentages directly within a Virtual Tag. This gives you full control over how costs are distributed across teams, applications, or internal financial models, without needing external metrics or proportional usage data. Percent-based allocation is ideal for:

• Predefined internal chargeback models with negotiated splits
• Manual cost-splitting requirements
• Costs with fixed allocation agreements (e.g., AWS Shield, Marketplace purchases)

Vantage will multiply the matched costs by the percentage and attribute the resulting amount to the tag value. If you change the percentage allocation later, Vantage will reprocess costs for that Virtual Tag. It will then update your costs accordingly. Historical and current months will reflect the new allocation percentage once processing completes, up to the date of your Billing Period Backfill. There is no limit to the number of Percent-Based allocations for a specific tag value, but each configuration applies to your value limit for a Virtual Tag. See the Percent-Based Allocation Example for details.

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Virtual Tag Allocation Rules

When configuring virtual tag values with allocation types, keep in mind the following rules and restrictions:

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Small Allocation Grouping

When using cost allocation tags (Business Metrics-Based, Cost-Based, or Percent-Based), Vantage automatically groups allocations that are individually less than 0.01% of the total allocation together under a single label: other allocations (≤ 0.01%/each). This grouping helps simplify Cost Reports by consolidating many small allocations into a single category, making it easier to focus on the larger allocations while still accounting for all costs. The grouped allocations appear with this label in:

• Filters: When filtering by tag values, small allocations appear as “other allocations (≤ 0.01%/each)” instead of individual tag values
• Groupings: When grouping by tags in Cost Reports, small allocations are aggregated under this label
• Reports: The label appears wherever tag values are displayed, replacing what would normally show as individual tag values like “Cost Center A” or “Team B”

For example, if you have a cost allocation tag with 20 different team allocations, and 15 of those teams each receive less than 0.01% of the total allocation, those 15 teams will be grouped together and displayed as “other allocations (≤ 0.01%/each)” in your filters, groupings, and reports. The remaining 5 teams with allocations above 0.01% will continue to appear as individual tag values.

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Virtual Tag Time Frames

By default, a Virtual Tag rule applies to all matching costs regardless of when they were incurred. With time frames, you can optionally set a start date and end date on any Virtual Tag value to control the time period during which that rule applies. This is useful when cost ownership or allocation changes over time, such as during organizational restructuring, resource handoffs between teams, or evolving chargeback models. Time frames are available for all Virtual Tag value types: Custom Value, Business Metric, Cost-Based, and Percent-Based. How time frames work:

• Granularity: Time frames are applied at daily granularity. Start dates are inclusive, and end dates are inclusive of the full day. For example, setting an end date of June 30 means the rule applies through the end of June 30.
• Open-ended ranges: You can leave the start date, end date, or both empty. An empty start date means the rule applies from the beginning of your data. An empty end date means the rule applies indefinitely into the future.
• Multiple time frames: You can define the same tag value name multiple times, each with different time frames and potentially different filter criteria. For example, you can define “Team A” for January–June with one set of filters and “Team A” for July onward with a different set.
• Priority and overlapping time frames: Virtual Tag rules are evaluated in priority order within the Virtual Tag. If a cost matches multiple rules with overlapping time periods, the value from the first matching rule is applied, consistent with the standard Virtual Tag order behavior.
• Nested Virtual Tags: Time frames work with nested Virtual Tags. Nested Virtual Tags respect the time frames of the Virtual Tags they reference. Note that tag resolution occurs sequentially, so upstream time frame changes may affect downstream results.

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Virtual Tags Limit

You can create up to 50 virtual tag configurations, with each tag supporting up to 100 configuration values. A warning is displayed when you approach the virtual tag limit to help you manage your virtual tag usage before reaching the limit. There is no limit to the number of time frame configurations for a specific tag value, but each time frame configuration applies to the value limit for a Virtual Tag.

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Create Virtual Tags

Processing tag changes usually takes under an hour. At the top of the Virtual Tags screen, the processing status is displayed. Processing times vary based on the number of tags and volume of data you have imported into Vantage.

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Nested Virtual Tags

With nested virtual tags, you can use virtual tags as part of the filter criteria for other virtual tag values. The most common use case is nesting Custom Value Virtual Tags so you can align cloud provider data with internal taxonomies for effective grouping and querying. Allocation-on-allocation uses the same chaining concept for allocated tags, but only when the referenced allocated tags belong to the same provider-specific allocation chain. To reference an existing virtual tag in another virtual tag:

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Nested Virtual Tag Considerations

• Do not create a nested virtual tag that references itself (i.e., a cyclical reference); this will result in an error.
• If you update the filters of a virtual tag that is referenced by another virtual tag, costs are reprocessed based on the updated hierarchy.
• If you delete or rename a virtual tag that is referenced by another virtual tag, you will see a warning. If you proceed, Vantage reprocesses costs with the new configuration.
• If a nested relationship includes cost allocation, every referenced allocated tag in that relationship must stay within the same provider-specific allocation chain.

• Changing the Billing Period Backfill on a virtual tag does not automatically update the backfill period on any tags it references. For example, if Tag A references Tag B and you extend Tag A’s backfill to an earlier period, Tag B keeps its original backfill period. To align data across nested tags, update the backfill period on each tag individually. If any of the tags use cost allocation, update the referenced tags first and wait for processing to complete before updating the parent tag.
• You can create up to 49 nested virtual tags, since an organization is limited to 50 distinct virtual tag keys. Because nested virtual tags are processed sequentially, increasing the number of nested values will slow down the tagging process.

See the Nested Virtual Tags Example for a sample tag hierarchy.

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Virtual Tag Order

Tag values are arranged in priority order on the Virtual Tags screen. You can move tag values up and down in the UI to reorder them, as demonstrated in the following visual example. When cost data is ingested into Vantage, the first value that matches the corresponding filters will be applied to that line item. In cases where filters overlap, the order of tag values within each key determines the value that is applied.

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Best Practices for Filtering Across All Providers

As you connect more providers and add more virtual tags, the way you scope each tag affects how long Vantage takes to process tag changes and how quickly reports load. The following practices help keep virtual tags fast and predictable at scale.

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Filter and Group by Virtual Tags

You can filter by virtual tags in Cost Reports, cost allocation segments, and when creating saved filters. Virtual tags are visible along with your existing provider tags. Use the Tag (Label in GCP) filter and grouping option. When you filter by a virtual tag in a Cost Report, you can select All Providers in the filter set instead of a single provider. The filter then matches the tag across every connected provider in a single rule, without having to add a separate filter set per provider.

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Delete a Virtual Tag

To delete a virtual tag, navigate to the Tags page. Select the Virtual Tags tab and open an existing virtual tag. Click the trashcan icon at the top of the tag page. Your data will be re-tagged, excluding the deleted virtual tag, going back to the deleted tag’s backfill bill period. Newly ingested data will no longer be tagged with the deleted tag. For Percent-Based Allocation tags, when you delete the tag, the allocation will be removed, and the costs will be reprocessed to reflect their unallocated state for that Virtual Tag key. Once reprocessed, your allocation will be removed from your cost data in Cost Reports.

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Tag Key Collapsing

Tag key collapsing allows you to consolidate semantically redundant tag keys into a single standardized virtual tag. When you create a virtual tag, you can collapse both provider tags (tags from your cloud providers like AWS, Azure, or GCP) and virtual tags (existing virtual tags you’ve created in Vantage) into that virtual tag.

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How It Works

Vantage automatically merges values from collapsed tag keys into your virtual tag. For example, if some teams use env while others use Environment, both can be collapsed into a single virtual tag key like environment. Tag Key Collapsing works across all connected providers in Vantage, and there is no hard limit on the number of tag keys you can collapse into a single standardized key. Evaluation order Collapsed keys are evaluated before virtual tag value configurations (i.e., any configurations added to the Values tab). If a resource matches a collapsed key, that value is used instead of value configurations. When you remove a collapsed tag key mapping, the collapsed values will be removed up until your specified backfill period for the virtual tag. Each collapsed key can be expanded to configure two optional settings:

• Filter: Restrict which costs are eligible for that collapsed key (for example, a specific provider or account). If a filter is set, only costs that match both the source tag key and the filter can contribute a value. When filters on different collapsed keys overlap, the value from the first matching key (highest in the list) is used.
• Value prefix: Prepend a fixed string to every value taken from that collapsed key. This is useful when you need to distinguish which source key a value came from after collapsing. For example, with a prefix of aws:, a value of production becomes aws:production in the virtual tag.

Priority When a resource has multiple collapsed tags, the value from the highest-priority key is used. Priority is determined by the order in your collapsed keys list—keys higher in the list have higher priority. For example, if a resource has both env:prod and environment:production, and environment is ranked higher, the resource will be tagged with production.

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Collapse Tag Keys

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Virtual Tagging Examples

For detailed scenarios and walkthroughs, see the Virtual Tagging Examples page.