Cost Explorer

The RelativityOne Cost Explorer gives you access to billing and usage data for your RelativityOne instances.

This functionality assists users to:

  • Monitor Billing and Usage: Track current and historical billing details alongside associated usage trends.
  • Estimate Costs: Perform cost estimations before the end of a billing period.
  • Simplify Invoice Review: Correlate usage data with specific charges to review your invoice in detail.
The insights provided by Cost Explorer are specific to the current instance you're using, with data refreshed daily. It consists of these tabs:
  • DataUsage - provides a snapshot of billable data usage, Extend Products usage and associated cost.
  • Users - summary of total users, including billable ones and their cost.
  • Staging - overview of the Peak Staging Usage by GB and associated cost.
    Notes:
  • The cost information presented across all tabs is dependent on your RelativityOne subscription plan.
  • Special pricing arrangements (such as complimentary thresholds) are not reflected in the presented data.
  • A 0.1 tolerance threshold is built in for all data displayed in Cost Explorer.
  • The data from the Relativity server is not supported and unavailable.
  • The supported currency for cost fields is US Dollar only.

All presented metrics are accessible through the Billing Insights API – ideal for integrating billing metrics into your billing systems or for your advanced reporting purposes.

Before the Cost Explorer's introduction, RelativityOne billing scripts offered a method for estimating usage and costs. However, it's crucial to note that the Cost Explorer is now the definitive source for accurate billing information. Data presented within the results of 'Billing Statistics – case rollup' and 'Billing Statistics - RelativityOne case rollup' scripts may exhibit noticeable differences compared to the Cost Explorer. For more information, see the comparison table below.

See these related pages:

Security permissions

To access the Cost Explorer tab and its associated data, users need to be members of a group added at the instance level with security permissions outlined below to gain access to these tabs.

Tab visibilityAdmin operations
  • Cost Explorer and Parent tab - Management Console

  • View Cost Explorer

  • View Admin Repository

    Notes:
  • While System Admins can view the Cost Explorer tab, the 'View Cost Explorer' permission restricts their access to billing data. Therefore, it's advisable to create a separate group with permissions specifically tailored for viewing billing data.

  • Client Domain access is not supported in the Cost Explorer

If you do not have the correct permissions, the following error message will display:

Incorrect permissions configuration window

For further guidance on setting the correct permissions, see Setting instance permissions

Using Cost Explorer

To open, click the Cost Explorer on the sidebar or use Quick nav and type Cost Explorer. For more information, see Navigation.

There are three unique designators at the top of the Cost Explorer:

  • Contract Name - A unique identifier of your subscription

  • Instance Name (ID) - The unique identifier for your instance. The ID value is the string to be used as part of the authentication process to the Billing Insights API.

  • Report Date - This field denotes the timestamp of data collection for each tab. The "Report Date" field should reflect a timestamp within the last 36 hours. For previous months, this will show the last date the data was collected for the month.

Cost Explorer data usage tab

Quick search

The search bar, positioned adjacent to the date selector, allows users to rapidly filter data by Client, Matter, and Workspace (names and IDs). This functionality applies across all elements, including Excel exports, ensuring consistency throughout tabs and queries. Navigation remains consistent across all tabs. Notably, search results are determined by the lowest selected level in the hierarchy (Client > Matter > Workspace).

Note: Due to aggregated storage at the Instance level, Staging data lacks breakdowns by Client, Matter, or Workspace. Consequently, these filters will not yield results for Staging data.

Cost Explorer search bar

Quick search displays three types of results, 5 items per type, in the following order:

  1. Client
  2. Matter
  3. Workspace
  4. Quick search results

Type the name of any client, matter, or workspace to narrow down your results. Results appear after you type more than one character, and they refine with each character you type. You can select more than one result under the same type. For example, two different clients.

Search results by Client, Matter, or Workspace

If you add more than one type, the chips will gray out based on the order of selection. Inactive chips will be disregarded as search criteria.

Search results with more than one type

Click Clear or X to restart the quick search criteria.

Time frame selector

The Cost Explorer utilizes a date selector with a dropdown menu to filter data by year and month. The default view, upon initial access, displays the previous month's data, providing a comprehensive overview of usage within that period. Users can navigate to the current month to view usage up to the present date, though this data may be subject to change due to ongoing RelativityOne activity. Historical data is supported and accessible from January 1st, 2022.

  • The Cost Explorer displays estimated billable values for the current month based on current usage. These values may be subject to change due to ongoing RelativityOne activity within your organization. A warning message within the tab highlights this limitation.

  • New months are automatically added to the calendar on the first day of each month.

Note: The data for the new month may not be available on the first day, but it should be accessible within 48 hours of the month starting.

Search bar time frame selector

Use the year and month drop-down menus to filter the data view.

Data Usage tab

RelativityOne employs a continuous process to determine the Peak Day for billing purposes. This involves daily calculations of the "Review Total" for each day within a month. The Review Total represents the sum of all billable review sizes across all review workspaces in your entire RelativityOne subscription, regardless of geographical location. If a particular day's Review Total surpasses any previously calculated total for the month, that day becomes designated as the Peak Day. For deployments encompassing multiple Production RelativityOne instances, the Review Totals are calculated and summed across all instances. This ensures the Peak Day reflects the highest overall review activity across the entire subscription, and consequently, all data labeled "billable" in the Data Usage tab reflects the sizes reported on the Peak Day.

Determining the size of a workspace involves calculating the combined size of Natives, Images, and Production Images stored within it. Any documents lacking these elements are charged as Text Only Documents.

The Data Usage tab includes:

  • Billable Data Usage by GB widget - The peak file size in GB is divided into Data Tiers [excluding Staging]. This value includes documents with files, Text Only Documents and accounts for Linked Files.

  • Billable Data Usage Cost widget - The peak file cost in US dollars is divided into Data Tiers [excluding Staging]. This value includes documents with files, Text Only Documents and accounts for Linked Files.

Data usage graph

Workspaces table

The Workspaces table includes:

    FieldDescription
    Workspace NameThe workspace name. If the workspace name is unclear, it is replaced by the workspace identifier.
    Case Artifact IDThe unique artifact ID associated with a workspace in the environment.
    Matter NameThe name of the matter associated with the workspace. If the matter name is unclear, it is replaced by the hash.
    Matter NumberThe unique number that identifies the matter, as entered when the new matter was created and then associated with a client. This could be identical to the Matter Name value.
    Client NameThe name of the client associated with the workspace. If the client name is unclear, it is replaced by the hash.
    Client NumberThe billing number for the client, as entered when the new client was created. This could be identical to the Client Name value.
    Activity StatusIndicates whether a workspace was Active or Inactive in a specific month. This status is determined solely by a single document view; no other actions within the workspace affect its activity.
    Workspace StatusThis field reflects the official status assigned to the workspace object itself, which could be labeled anything like "Open," "Closed," "Archived," or something else defined by your organization.
    Billable Workspace Type

    The contract billable Workspace Type (data tier) for a given month, either Review, Repository or Cold Storage.

    Billable Review File Size [GB]The billable Review size of all files in the workspace based on Peak Day. This includes text only documents. For Pay-as-you-Go and Flex Commit contracts files that were promoted via links to Review workspaces will also be included.
    Billable Repository File Size [GB]

    The billable Repository size of all files in the workspace based on Peak Day. This includes text only documents and accounts for files promoted via links to Review workspaces. If any of the Repository Usage Limitations is broken during a billing period, the calculation then reverts as if the workspace is a standard Review workspace with Billable Review File Size reported instead. For more information see: Repository workspace billing structure.

    Note: Relativity provides 24 hours long grace period to install the Repository App to the new workspaces.

    Billable Cold Storage File Size [GB]The billable Cold Storage size of all files in the workspace is based on Peak Day. This includes Text Only Documents. If a workspace is not in Cold Storage for the full month it will automatically be treated as a Review workspace and report Billable Review File Size.
    Repository Usage Limitations StatusThe workspace's Repository Usage Limitations status is dynamically determined. It reflects either 'Not exceeded' if usage remains within the limits, or 'Exceeded' accompanied by details regarding the specific limitation that was surpassed.
    Billable Data Usage Cost [USD]The total billable data usage cost in USD for Review, Repository and Cold Storage data tiers for contract billable peak.

    Note: Due to technical restraints, it is not possible to sort by Billable Data Usage Cost [USD] in the Workspace table.

    Billable Linked File Size [GB]

    The size of files that were promoted from Repository to Review workspaces via links. For Pay-as-you-Go and Flex Commit contracts Linked File Size is included in Billable Review File Size.

      Notes:
    • The Linked File Size is reported and available for source Repository workspace only. No additional indication is present for Review workspaces showing that it has data linked from another workspace.

    • The same document promoted to multiple Review workspaces will only be charged once.

    Billable Text Only Documents Count

    The number of documents that do not have any images, natives, or productions per workspace for contract billable peak.

    Note: Relativity calculates the size of Text Only Documents by dividing their count by 4,000. For example, 80,000 of Text Only Documents would equal to 20GB of data size.

    Billable Review Cost [USD]The billable cost in USD for Review data tier.
    Billable Repository Cost [USD]The billable cost, based on Peak Day, in USD for Repository data tier.
    Billable Cold Storage Cost [USD]The billable cost ,based on Peak Day, in USD for Cold Storage data tier.
    aiR for Review Doc UnitsThe sum of data used for the aiR for Review analysis.
    Billable aiR for Review Cost [USD]The cost of aiR analyzing content within a single workspace.
    Translate Doc UnitsThe sum of data used for the translation process.
    Billable Translation Cost [USD]The cost of translating content within a single workspace.
    Current Data Breach File SizeThe size of the data currently included in the Data Breach Response.
    Billable Data Breach File SizeThe peak size of the data included in Data Breach Response in the given month.
    Billable Data Breach Cost [USD]The total cost of using Data Breach in the workspace.
    PI Detect Doc UnitsThe sum of units consumed for the PI Detect product.
    Billable PI Detect CostThe total cost of using PI Detect in the workspace.
    Contracts Doc UnitsThe sum of units consumed for the Contract product.
    Billable Contracts CostThe cost of using the Contracts product in the workspace.
    aiR for Privilege Doc Units The sum of documents analyzed by Privilege Identify within a single workspace.
    Billable aiR for Privilege Cost [USD]The cost of running Privilege Identity within a single workspace.
    Current Review File Size [GB]The Review size of all files in the workspace as of the Report Date. The size represents billable size for the current date applying all calculations according to contract type.
    Current Linked File Size [GB]The size of files that were promoted from Repository to Review workspace via links as of the Report Date.
    Current Text Only Documents CountThe number of documents that do not have any images, natives, or productions per workspace as of the Report Date.
    Current Repository File Size [GB]The Repository size of all files in the workspace as of the Report Date. The size represents billable size for the current date applying all calculations according to contract type except Repository Usage Limitations.
    Current Cold Storage File Size [GB]The Cold Storage size of all files in the workspace as of the Report Date. The size represents billable size for the current date applying all calculations according to contract type except data cadence requirement.
    Matter Artifact IDUnique artifact ID of the Matter through the Client associated with the workspace.
    Client Artifact IDUnique artifact ID of the Client associated with the workspace.

Customize Table

The Cost Explorer table initially presents a core set of data points related to workspace usage and cost. Users can leverage the "Customize Table" feature to tailor the displayed columns and personalize their view. The order of fields cannot be modified.

Customize table window

Note: While the Cost Explorer table allows users to customize displayed columns, this functionality does not extend to Excel exports. All fields are invariably included when generating an Excel report.

Users tab

The User tab within the Cost Explorer offers a clear view of user statistics relevant to your RelativityOne subscription. This includes the total number of unique users, categorized as either billable or non-billable, along with the associated cost for billable users as outlined in your subscription.

Note: This report excludes users solely associated with the Relativity server environment. However, the system will identify any users who exist in both RelativityOne and the server environment.

Users tab includes:

  • Total Users widget - The total number of users, including not billable.
  • Note: If you have more than one instance included in the contract, Billable Users Cost widget will be hidden. If a user is present in both instances, they will be present in the Users table and included in the Total Users widget in both instances.

  • Billable Users Cost widget - The cost of users which are billable based on your RelativityOne subscription.
  • Note: If there is more than one Instance under the RelativityOne subscription or the Quick search is used, the cost widget will be hidden.

Users tab graph

Users table

The Users table consists of users who are included in the invoice for a given month.

    FieldDescription
    Email Address

    User's email address. If the email address is unclear, then username is replaced by hash and domain name remains unhashed.

    User Artifact ID

    The unique system-level Artifact ID associated with the user.

    Note: Due to technical constraints, it is not possible to sort by User Artifact ID in the Users table.

    User Access Level

    User type defined based on the email address domain configured in the customer subscription.

    • Regular

    • System Administrator

    Type

    User type is defined based on the email address domain configured in the customer subscription.

    • Internal

    • External

    User Activity

    Information if the user has accessed the RelativityOne in a given month.

    • Active

    • Inactive

    Last Login

    Date on which the user last logged into the system.

    • Time stamp

    Billable Status

    Billable user's status

    • Billable RelativityOne

    • Billable Server - (if the account is present in both RelativityOne and Relativity Server)

    • Non-billable

    Additional InformationSupplementary information regarding billable status, such as Relativity Connect or Justice for Change.

Staging tab

The Staging tab provides a quick glimpse into your staging area's usage and associated costs. Here, you'll find the Peak Staging Usage, displayed in Gigabytes (GB), which reflects the highest data volume observed within your instance's staging area for a given month (Staging Peak Day). Additionally, the Billable Staging Cost details the expense incurred based on your subscription agreement. For more information on finding out the number and size of files and folders, see Staging Reports.

Data Size Calculation:

  • For single-instance deployments, the staging data size simply reflects the Peak Day usage. Multi-instance deployments require calculating the aggregated staging size by summing the Peak Day values from each individual instance.

Bursting Data:

  • This section displays the amount of data exceeding your subscription's threshold within the staging area.

Limitations:

  • Staging data is currently unavailable for searches using the Quick Search function, as it's only presented at the instance level. For deployments encompassing multiple RelativityOne instances, the widgets within the Staging tab will be hidden.

Below are the top-level directories that contribute to staging usage. See Staging Area for more information.

  • ARM—a folder for archiving workspaces and for staging restores via the ARM application.
  • StructuredData—a folder for importing and exporting workspace data using Import/Export  and Integration Points. Refer to  Import/Export and Integration Points documentation for more information.

Note: Relativity is deprecating the existing Export folder in September 2024 and is providing a new StructuredData folder in May 2024 to allow you to import and export data from the folder for easier integration with Import/Export and Integration Points. Begin using the StructuredData folder once it's available. This folder will be included in your Staging threshold and will be calculated and billed the same as the existing Staging folders (ProcessingSource, ARM, and TenantVM). The Export folder will be removed in September 2024 and will no longer be billable.

  • ProcessingSource—a folder for storing files you want to process into your RelativityOne workspace.
  • TenantVM—a folder to temporarily store Utility Server virtual machine (UVM) workflows. Refer to Utility Server documentation for more information.

Note: Starting in September 2024, RelativityOne will be streamlining its staging boundaries to bolster platform security and accelerate the delivery of innovation to your environment. With this change, you will no longer be able to write to or access data outside of the defined staging area folders listed above, and the FTA, Temp, Export, and dtSearch folders will be deprecated. It is strongly recommended that you begin utilizing the ProcessingSource, StructuredData, and ARM folders as soon as possible and be sure to transfer any data you would like to retain access to that is currently housed outside of the designated staging area to an appropriate folder by September 1, 2024. After that date, the folders and data will not be accessible. For more information, see the Staging FAQ article in Community.

The Staging tab includes:

  • Peak Staging Usage by GB widget - This widget shows your total Peak Staging Usage.
  • Billable Staging Cost widget - The bursting data cost

     

Instances table  

FieldDescription
Instance NameThe name designated as the instance name.
Instance IDThe instance unique identifier.
Report DateThe latest metrics collection time stamp. For historical closed months it's the last day of the month (or the first of the following month). For the current month, it's the latest collected metric time stamp.
Current Staging Size [GB]The total size of all files in Staging for the Report Date.
Staging Peak DateThe billable peak day is selected based on the highest Staging usage within a given month.
Peak Staging Size [GB]Total Peak Staging Usage. The bursting amount of data in your staging area is based on your subscription threshold.

Excel export

You can export the data from the tables in the Data usage, Users, and Staging tabs to Microsoft Excel.

Note: Export will be affected by the search criteria used in Quick search. All records in the view will be exported regardless of how many records are displayed per page.

Click the Export button. The filename will be generated according to the following pattern: Cost Explorer + <month> + <YEAR> + "-" + <generation timestamp in UTC timezone>.

Cost explorer vs billing statistics

FeatureCost ExplorerRelated Cost Explorer data pointsBilling ScriptsRelated Billing Scripts data points
Overall PurposeProvides detailed insights into billable usage and costs, including access to Extend Products and Staging Area, aligned with Relativity's billing N/AProvides raw data reported for billing calculations N/A
Total CostsReflects total costs based on your subscription Cost fieldsDoes not provide cost informationN/A
Workspace Size CalculationBased on Peak Day across all Workspaces (and all Geos) monthly Billable Review, Repository and Cold Storage File Size Calculates highest individual workspace size monthly (Total Billable File Size) Total Billable File Size
Text Only DocumentsProvides the number of documents for the Peak Day across all Workspaces. Includes Text Only Documents in Workspace size calculation using a ratio (4,000 documents = 1GB). Billable Text Only Documents Count Provides the peak number of documents for the individual Workspace. Does not include Text Only Documents in Workspace Size Document Count Text Only
Repository WorkspaceRepository Workspace Usage Limitations are applied, in line with Relativity's billing policies.
  • Workspace Billable Type
  • Repository Usage Limitations
  • Billable Repository File Size
Reports the current status without applying Repository Workspace Usage Limitations N/A
Cold Storage WorkspaceCold Storage billable rules are applied, in line with Relativity's billing methodology
  • Workspace Billable Type
  • Billable Cold Storage File Size
Reports the current status without applying billing rulesN/A
Linked File SizeAutomatically classified as Review and deducted from Repository size, following Relativity's billing methodology
  • Billable Linked File Size
  • Billable Review File Size
Reports size of linked files without additional calculations Linked Total Billable File Size GB
Extend ProductsIncludes usage and cost for Extend ProductsExtend Product’s usage and cost fieldsDoes not provide usage or cost details for Extend Products N/A
StagingIncludes Staging SizeStaging TabDoes not provide Staging Size detailsN/A
Non-Billable DataDoes not provide non-billable data N/AIncludes additional non-billable metrics Example: File Count