# Tag Trends

**Purpose:** Consumption and cost per business unit over time. Pick the tags you care about and watch them move, with the underlying figures in a grid below. This is the screen that turns chargeback from a monthly number into a trend somebody owns.

![Tag Capacity Used Trend multi-line chart with tag chips, type selector, zoom presets and a range brush](https://visualoneintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/voi-docs-exec-tag-trends-chart.png)

## When to use it

- Show a business unit its own consumption curve rather than a single invoice figure
- Identify which units are driving estate growth, and which are flat
- Support a budget conversation with a trend instead of a snapshot
- Spot tagging or collection gaps, which show up as sharp dropouts

## Key areas and metrics

- **Tags multi-select.** Removable chips, one per selected tag value, with a clear-all control and a save action for the selection. Only the selected tags are plotted.
- **Type selector.** Chooses the metric the chart plots, for example `Capacity Used`.
- **Chart.** One line per tag, y-axis in GiB, with data labels on the points, zoom presets of `1m`, `3m`, `6m`, `YTD`, `1y`, and `All`, explicit start and end date pickers, an export menu, and an email action.
- **Range brush.** A miniature chart beneath the main one for scrubbing the visible window.

## The grid

![Tag Trends grid with collection date, business unit, capacity allocated and cost columns](https://visualoneintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/voi-docs-exec-tag-trends-grid.png)

One row per tag per collection date, sorted by date descending, with columns for Collection Date, Business Unit, Capacity Allocated, and cost. Because each collection produces a row per tag, the record count grows with both the number of tags selected and the length of the window.

Note that the chart plots capacity *used* while the grid reports capacity *allocated*. Those are different measures, and on a thin-provisioned estate they diverge substantially. Do not read a grid figure as the value behind a chart point.

## Reading a dropout

A line that falls vertically to near zero and recovers a few days later is almost never a real capacity event. It is a collection that failed, or a tag that briefly stopped being applied. The grid confirms it: the corresponding row shows a token capacity figure and zero cost, which no live workload would produce.

This matters because these charts get presented. A dropout left unexplained in a business-unit review reads as either a data problem or a service outage, and neither is the conversation you wanted.

## Common actions

- **Select two or three tags, not all of them.** The chart is a comparison tool. A dozen lines is a picture of nothing.
- **Save the selection.** The save control preserves a tag set so the same review runs identically each month.
- **Use YTD for budget conversations and 1y for capacity ones.** Year to date matches the finance calendar; a full year exposes seasonality.
- **Sort the grid by capacity to find the largest consumers** within the selected window.

## Tips

> Check for dropouts before exporting. One vertical cliff in a line will attract more questions in a review than the trend you came to present.

## Related screens

[Tag Cost Inventory](https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/finops-tag-cost-inventory/) ranks tags by current spend. [Tag Summary](https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/finops-tag-summary/) lists the individual resources behind a tag. [Tag Forecasting](https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/finops-tag-forecasting/) projects a single tag forward. [All Tags](https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/finops-all-tags/) is where tagging gaps get fixed.

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Source: https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/executive-tag-trends/