kubmin logo kubmin by ksctl The kubmin dispatch Vol. 01 · Cost & Efficiency

Deploy fast,
and know
what each one costs in money & efficiency.

Everyone ships faster with AI. Nobody checks the cost. Kubmin does.

Per-workload cost and efficiency tracking across deployments. The missing layer between your workloads and your bill.

Kepler (CNCF) /SCI-aligned (GSF) /Powered by ksctl
kubmin.ksctl.com live
Kubmin dashboard showing workload cost, energy, and efficiency metrics
per-workload visibility · release-vs-release diff · SCI + SEE scoring · quick wins, kubectl-ready
The Problem · ch. 01

You're spending
thousands on Kubernetes.

But do you know what each workload actually costs?

Three blind spots, every cluster, every release.
01
blind spot

No Per-Container Visibility

AWS Cost Explorer shows you EC2 bills. Kubecost estimates pod costs. Neither tells you what a single container actually consumes in energy and compute — the real drivers of your bill.

02
blind spot

Overprovisioned and Flying Blind

Most teams request 2-4x the resources their workloads actually use. Without per-workload waste detection, you're paying for idle CPU and memory every hour of every day.

03
blind spot

Deploys Make It Worse (Silently)

You ship a new image version — maybe AI-generated, maybe hand-written. CPU goes up 15%. Memory creeps up. Nobody notices because no tool tracks efficiency changes between deployments. The waste compounds with every release.

See It In Action · field test

Three Redis versions.
Same workload.
Wildly different efficiency.

We ran redis-benchmark across versions 8.6.1, 8.4.0, and 8.2.1. Here's what kubmin found — no other tool surfaces this.

kubmin.ksctl.com/workloads/compareall live
Kubmin multi-version comparison showing CPU, memory, energy, SCI, SEE, and cost differences across Redis 8.6.1, 8.4.0, and 8.2.1
fig. 01
63%
more CPU — 8.4.0 vs 8.2.1
(243m vs 149m)
fig. 02
31%
more energy — 8.4.0 vs 8.6.1
(0.0085 vs 0.0064 kWh)
fig. 03
$81
/year wasted — 8.6.1 vs 8.4.0
($0.0297 vs $0.0389/hr median)
fig. 04
31%
more efficient — 8.2.1 vs 8.4.0
on SEE score
8.4.0 uses 87.8% CPU but isn't the most expensive. 8.2.1 uses 51.2% CPU but costs more. No single metric tells the full story — you need cost, energy, and efficiency together. That's what kubmin gives you.

This is one workload. Imagine what kubmin finds across your entire cluster.

Try It On Your Workloads
What Kubmin Does · ch. 02

Six things no other tool
does together.

The kubmin moat

Each capability ships standalone. Together they form a unified ledger — cost, energy, and efficiency, per workload, per release.

flagship · 01 Your deploy's real footprint

Per-Image-Version Deep Profile

Point kubmin at a specific image tag and get hourly SCI, energy consumption, CPU, memory, and cost — plus the full trend across that version's lifetime. Not generic pod metrics. Version-scoped visibility into what each build actually costs and consumes in production.

02 Efficiency measured per release

Release-over-Release Efficiency Diff

Compare any two image versions across CPU, memory, energy, SCI, SEE, and runtime cost — per functional unit of work. Ship a new release and see within hours whether it regressed 30% on efficiency, before the regression compounds into your bill.

03 Actually know your workload

Workload Profile Classifier

Kubmin classifies each workload as CPU-bound, memory-bound, general, or resource-starved — automatically, from runtime behavior. Idle-time percentage and hourly heatmaps show exactly when waste spikes. No more right-sizing blind.

04 Right cluster before the first pod

Smart Cluster Setup

Spinning up a new cluster? Kubmin filters instance types against your workload profile and shows spec, hourly cost, and embodied carbon for each option. Region picker surfaces real grid carbon intensity and % renewable energy — so cluster decisions are informed, not guessed.

05 Move once, save every hour

Placement & Region Recommender

Running on the default instance type in us-east-1? Kubmin surfaces alternative instance types with similar or better performance at lower cost, plus alternative regions that cut your workload's running cost and run on a cleaner grid. Side-by-side tradeoffs, not guesswork.

06 · the lever

Quick Wins — Ranked by Savings

Kubmin turns every finding — idle replicas, overprovisioned limits, cheaper instance types, greener regions — into a ranked action list with estimated monthly cost savings and efficiency gains attached. Each wins ships with a copy-paste kubectl command. Open the dashboard, act on the top three.

Dollar-ranked actions, not alerts
why energy · ch. 03

CPU metrics lie.
Energy doesn't.

A workload can show 40% CPU utilization and still be wasting energy. How? Polling loops, idle connections, inefficient memory access patterns — they all consume power without producing value. Traditional monitoring tools see 40% busy and move on. Kubmin sees the full picture — CPU usage alongside actual energy consumption over time — so you can spot the workloads where high utilization doesn't mean productive utilization.

Kubmin uses Kepler — a CNCF project — to estimate energy consumption at the container level. Kepler uses kernel-level instrumentation and ML-based models to attribute power usage per container, even in cloud environments where hardware counters aren't directly accessible.

a note on accuracy

In cloud environments, energy measurements are estimates based on ML models trained on real hardware data. They're highly reliable for relative comparison and trend analysis — which is exactly what kubmin needs. The patterns matter more than the absolute numbers.

Get Started · ch. 04

Three steps to see
what you're wasting

01 step

Sign Up & Create a Cluster

Sign up at kubmin.ksctl.com and create your Kubernetes cluster from the dashboard. Kubmin provisions the full monitoring stack automatically — Prometheus, Kepler, and the kubmin agent. You don't install anything manually.

02 step

Label Your Workloads

Add one label and one annotation to the Deployments, StatefulSets, or DaemonSets you want to monitor. The dashboard shows you exactly what to add. That's the only configuration you do.

03 step

See Your Results

Kubmin aggregates data hourly and surfaces waste analysis, efficiency grades, cost breakdowns, and Quick Wins automatically. Open the dashboard and start saving.

Start Free

Currently, clusters are created via ksctl. Support for importing existing clusters is coming soon.

The Gap · ch. 05

What your current tools
can't tell you

We don't replace your monitoring stack. We see what your monitoring stack can't.

vs A
AWS Cost Explorer
vs B
Kubecost
vs C
Prometheus + Grafana
us
kubmin
01 Per-container cost tracking EC2 only Est. Manual Yes
02 Energy consumption per workload Yes
03 Idle workload detection Basic Manual Auto
04 Deployment version comparison Yes
05 SCI + SEE sustainability scoring Yes
06 Regional cost comparison Partial Yes
07 Ready-to-use kubectl fixes Yes
08 Instance type optimization Yes
09 Setup time N/A ~30 min Hours/Days ~10 min

Kubmin doesn't replace your monitoring stack. It sees what your monitoring stack can't — the energy layer that drives real waste.

Pricing · ch. 06

Start free.
Scale when you need to.

Fixed monthly pricing. No per-node fees. No surprise bills. All plans include auto-deployed Prometheus, Kepler, and Grafana.

Explore

tier 01
$0 /month
  • 1 cluster
  • 1 workload
  • 1 team member
  • 6h hourly metrics retention
  • Basic workload overview
  • Community support
Get Started Free
most popular

Affordable

tier 02
$19.99 /month
  • 5 clusters
  • 5 workloads
  • 10 team members
  • 72h (3d) hourly metrics retention
  • Full workload analysis
  • Deployment comparison
  • Quick Wins with kubectl commands
  • Priority support
Start Affordable

Premium

tier 03
$49.99 /month
  • 20 clusters
  • 20 workloads
  • 50 team members
  • 168h (7d) hourly metrics retention
  • Everything in Affordable
  • Dedicated support
Start Premium

No hidden fees · Cancel anytime · All plans include Prometheus & Grafana

finale The bill is running

Every hour you wait, your clusters
keep wasting.

Sign up free. Connect a cluster. See your waste in minutes.

kubmin.ksctl.com · sign in with github · setup ~10 min
addendum

Frequently
asked.

Honest answers, no marketing fluff. If we don't have the answer here, ask in Discord.