# LakeSentry — Databricks Cost Optimization on Autopilot

> LakeSentry is a Databricks cost intelligence platform for FinOps and platform teams. Catch cost anomalies, surface optimizations, and operate with confidence.

- Canonical: https://lakesentry.io/

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## See exactly where your Databricks spend goes.

LakeSentry is a Databricks cost observability and performance optimization platform. Analyze, allocate and optimize Databricks costs with deep insights and without risking stability.

## Who is LakeSentry for?

- **For Platform Engineering**: Pinpoint runaway jobs, warehouse drift, and regressions before they impact reliability.
- **For FinOps**: Get normalized cost visibility across workspaces with evidence-backed optimization priorities.
- **For Data and ML teams**: See where experiments and serving endpoints burn budget, then act with clear guardrails.
- **For Leadership**: Tie Databricks cost to operational decisions with a clear path from insight to action.

## All-around view of your Databricks cost and performance

A single pane of glass dashboard unifying data about costs, workloads, users, jobs, and apps — so your team always knows where to act.

### Cost Explorer: Drill into every cost.

Break down spend by jobs, SQL warehouses, compute types, workspace, users, and other dimensions. Quickly pivot between views to find the signal in the noise.

### Insights: Know what to fix — and why.

LakeSentry surfaces anomalies, resource waste, and optimization opportunities ranked by impact. Each insight includes evidence, estimated savings, and a detailed path to action.

## Ways to run LakeSentry

- **SaaS** (Fastest setup): Hosted by LakeSentry. Connects to your Databricks instance directly or via a deployed connector. Up in minutes. No infrastructure to maintain. SSO authentication support.
- **Databricks App** (Quick setup, full data sovereignty): Runs entirely inside your Databricks account. Nothing but a license check leaves your environment. Install directly from Databricks Marketplace.
- **Private Cloud** (Enterprise): LakeSentry deployed in your own VPC. For organizations with network isolation requirements or custom procurement. Your VPC, your account. Dedicated onboarding.

## Pricing

- **Free**: $0 — Unlimited workspaces, 1 user, 3 months data history, Insight summaries
- **Standard**: $499/month (billed annually) — Unlimited workspaces, Up to 5 users, 12 months history, Full insight details, Standard support
- **Pro**: $849/month (billed annually) — Unlimited workspaces, Unlimited users, Unlimited history, Full insight details, Workspace-level data security, Priority support

No per-DBU tax. No per-workspace fees. Prices are also available in EUR at parity. Full plan comparison: https://lakesentry.io/pricing/ (markdown: https://lakesentry.io/pricing.md).

## How to try LakeSentry

- **Free plan**: free forever, no credit card required. Unlimited workspaces, 1 user, 3 months of history, and insight summaries (Standard and Pro show the full insight details). Sign up at https://app.lakesentry.io/signup
- **Live demo**: https://demo.lakesentry.io, no sign-up required.
- **Databricks App**: install from the Databricks Marketplace. https://lakesentry.io/databricks-app/

## FAQ

### Does LakeSentry show only Databricks costs, or cloud costs too?

LakeSentry shows both Databricks and Cloud costs (such as compute, networking, and storage), so you get a unified view of your total incurred cost.

### How many workspaces can I connect?

All plans include unlimited workspaces with no per-workspace fees.

### How does LakeSentry connect to Databricks?

Depending on the type of deployment, LakeSentry can be connected directly using OAuth or PATs, or, in case of Databricks App, it lives within your Databricks workspace and does not require a connection.

### Do you store query text?

Yes. LakeSentry stores query text because it improves insight quality. If keeping query text inside your own environment is a requirement, deploy the Databricks App — every component, including the cost ledger and query text, runs entirely in your own Databricks account.

### Does LakeSentry require Unity Catalog?

Yes. Unity Catalog is required for access to the system catalog system tables used by LakeSentry.

### Can we customize DBU prices?

Yes. LakeSentry uses list-price by default and supports optional DBU price overrides so your dashboards reflect your contract reality.

### We operate in multiple regions — does that matter?

Yes. You'll connect each region you operate in. LakeSentry shows data unified across workspaces and accounts, even if the accounts are in different regions or clouds.

### How is this different from Databricks' built-in cost tools?

Built-in tools show raw usage data per workspace. LakeSentry normalizes cost across all your workspaces, detects anomalies and waste automatically, and provides clear actions to fix what it finds.

## More

- Pricing: https://lakesentry.io/pricing/
- Documentation: https://docs.lakesentry.io
- Blog: https://lakesentry.io/blog/
- Agent index: https://lakesentry.io/mcp
- Contact: hello@lakesentry.io