Reduce Databricks spending through cluster policies, spot instances, SQL warehouse right-sizing, and cost governance. Databricks charges per DBU (Databricks Unit) with rates varying by compute type: Jobs Compute ($0.15/DBU), All-Purpose Compute ($0.40/DBU), SQL Compute ($0.22/DBU), Serverless ($0.07/DBU). System tables (system.billing.usage and system.billing.list_prices) provide cost visibility.
Prerequisites
Databricks Premium or Enterprise workspace
Access to system.billing.usage and system.billing.list_prices tables
Workspace admin for cluster policy creation
Instructions
Step 1: Identify Top Cost Drivers
-- Top 10 most expensive resources this monthSELECT cluster_id,
COALESCE(usage_metadata.cluster_name, 'unnamed') AS cluster_name,
sku_name,
SUM(usage_quantity) AS total_dbus,
ROUND(SUM(usage_quantity * p.pricing.default), 2) AS estimated_cost_usd
FROM system.billing.usage u
LEFTJOIN system.billing.list_prices p ON u.sku_name = p.sku_name
WHERE u.usage_date >= date_trunc('month', current_date())
GROUPBY cluster_id, cluster_name, u.sku_name
ORDERBY estimated_cost_usd DESC
LIMIT 10;
-- Cost by team (requires cluster tags)SELECT usage_metadata.cluster_tags.Team AS team,
sku_name,
ROUND(SUM(usage_quantity), 1) total_dbus,
ROUND((usage_quantity p.pricing.default), ) cost_usd
system.billing.usage u
system.billing.list_prices p u.sku_name p.sku_name
u.usage_date date_trunc(, ())
team, u.sku_name
cost_usd ;
AS
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2
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Step 2: Enforce Cluster Policies
Cluster policies restrict what users can configure, preventing runaway costs.
Spot instances save 60-90% on worker nodes. Always keep the driver on-demand.
# Job cluster config with spot instances
job_cluster_config = {
"spark_version": "14.3.x-scala2.12",
"node_type_id": "i3.xlarge",
"num_workers": 4,
"aws_attributes": {
"availability": "SPOT_WITH_FALLBACK",
"first_on_demand": 1, # Driver is on-demand"spot_bid_price_percent": 100, # Pay up to on-demand price"zone_id": "auto", # Let Databricks pick cheapest AZ
},
}
# Workers use spot, driver uses on-demand# If spot instances unavailable, falls back to on-demand automatically
Step 4: Right-Size SQL Warehouses
-- Check warehouse utilizationSELECT warehouse_id, warehouse_name,
COUNT(*) AS query_count,
ROUND(AVG(total_duration_ms) /1000, 1) AS avg_duration_sec,
ROUND(MAX(queue_duration_ms) /1000, 1) AS max_queue_sec,
ROUND(AVG(queue_duration_ms) /1000, 1) AS avg_queue_sec
FROM system.query.history
WHERE start_time >current_timestamp() -INTERVAL7 DAYS
GROUPBY warehouse_id, warehouse_name;
-- If avg_queue_sec is near 0 → warehouse is oversized, reduce cluster_size-- If avg_queue_sec > 30 → warehouse needs more capacity or auto-scaling
# Migrate to serverless for bursty workloads (cheaper per-second billing)for wh in w.warehouses.list():
print(f"{wh.name}: type={wh.warehouse_type}, size={wh.cluster_size}, "f"auto_stop={wh.auto_stop_mins}min, state={wh.state}")
# Serverless (~$0.07/DBU) vs Classic (~$0.22/DBU) for bursty workloads
Step 5: Auto-Terminate Idle Development Clusters
# Find and set aggressive auto-termination on dev clusters
databricks clusters list --output JSON | \
jq -r '.[] | select(.cluster_name | test("dev|sandbox|test")) | .cluster_id' | \
whileread CID; doecho"Setting 15min auto-stop on cluster $CID"
databricks clusters edit --cluster-id "$CID" --json '{"autotermination_minutes": 15}'done
# Find idle running clusters wasting moneyfrom datetime import datetime, timedelta
for c in w.clusters.list():
if c.state.value == "RUNNING"and c.last_activity_time:
idle_minutes = (datetime.now().timestamp() * 1000 - c.last_activity_time) / 60000if idle_minutes > 60:
print(f"IDLE {idle_minutes:.0f}min: {c.cluster_name} "f"({c.num_workers} x {c.node_type_id})")
Step 6: Instance Pools for Faster + Cheaper Startup
# Create a pool of pre-allocated instances
pool = w.instance_pools.create(
instance_pool_name="etl-pool",
node_type_id="i3.xlarge",
min_idle_instances=2, # Keep 2 warm for instant startup
max_capacity=10,
idle_instance_autotermination_minutes=15,
aws_attributes={"availability": "SPOT_WITH_FALLBACK"},
)
# Reference in job cluster config
job_cluster = {
"instance_pool_id": pool.instance_pool_id,
"num_workers": 4,
# No node_type_id needed — inherited from pool
}
Output
Cost breakdown by cluster, team, and SKU
Cluster policies enforcing auto-termination and instance limits
Spot instance config for 60-90% savings on batch workers
SQL warehouse utilization report for right-sizing
Instance pools for faster cluster startup
Idle cluster detection script
Error Handling
Issue
Cause
Solution
Spot interruption
Cloud provider reclaiming capacity
SPOT_WITH_FALLBACK auto-recovers; checkpoint long jobs
Policy too restrictive
Workers can't handle workload
Increase max_workers or add larger instance types
SQL warehouse idle but running
Auto-stop not configured
Set auto_stop_mins to 5-10 for serverless
Billing data not available
System tables not enabled
Enable in Account Console > System Tables
Examples
Monthly Cost Report
SELECT date_trunc('week', usage_date) AS week,
sku_name,
ROUND(SUM(usage_quantity), 0) AS total_dbus
FROM system.billing.usage
WHERE usage_date >=current_date() -INTERVAL30 DAYS
GROUPBY week, sku_name
ORDERBY week, total_dbus DESC;
Cost Savings Checklist
Auto-termination enabled on ALL interactive clusters (15-30 min)
Spot instances enabled for all batch job workers
Instance pools for frequently-used cluster configs
Serverless SQL warehouses for bursty query workloads
