---
title: Understand the Cost Impact of Function Invocations
description: Learn how to use Observability to understand function invocations and their cost impact.
url: "https://vercel.com/kb/guide/understand-cost-impact-of-function-invocations"
published: 2025-11-03
last_updated: 2025-11-11
authors: DX Team
install_vercel_plugin: npx plugins add vercel/vercel-plugin
---

**Problem**: Your consumption is higher than you anticipated, and this is reflected in your invoice.

You can use [Observability](/docs/observability) to help you understand which routes and functions are responsible for consumption. To do so:

1. From your [dashboard](/dashboard), select the project you want to investigate.
   
2. Navigate from your dashboard to the **Observability** tab.
   
3. Choose **Serverless Functions** (pre-selected by default) and select the appropriate timerange (e.g. last 6 hours).
   
4. Sort the routes by **Invocations**, or **Total Duration** to see the most frequently invoked or longest-running routes: {' '}
   
   ![sort-routes-light.png](https://images.ctfassets.net/hjgychtc108g/2W79mN3lk0CeTgq7qxB74N/b9ae0faeb408a0b8102489289e3a2d17/sort-routes-light.png)
   
   Media
   
5. Select a route to see the Function view, which displays the number of invocations and the latency distribution.
   
6. Advanced Metrics help you understand memory usage, cold starts and TTFB - which can have an effect on the overall consumption of your route.
   
7. External APIs can show you request durations to upstream APIs, which directly influence the execution duration of your function: {' '}
   
   ![upstream-api-light.png](https://images.ctfassets.net/hjgychtc108g/1ec7X6e4NLLr2HlPXiVGj3/c218be6ebb5a52169b909cc386d56d8a/upstream-api-light.png)
   
   Media
   

## More resources

- [Observability overview](/docs/observability)
  
- [Observability limits and pricing](/docs/observability/limits-and-pricing)

## More Observability guides

- [How to control AI provider data handling with AI Gateway](/kb/guide/control-ai-provider-data): Prevent AI providers from training on your prompts, enforce zero data retention, and restrict providers and models with Vercel AI Gateway.
- [Troubleshooting Build Error: "Build step did not complete within the maximum of 45 minutes"](/kb/guide/troubleshooting-build-error-build-step-did-not-complete-within-45-minutes): Learn common reasons Vercel builds hit the 45-minute limit and how to reduce build times so your deployments stay fast and reliable.
- [Troubleshooting Builds Failing with SIGKILL or Out of Memory Errors](/kb/guide/troubleshooting-sigkill-out-of-memory-errors): Learn how to troubleshoot builds failing with SIGKILL or Out of Memory errors on a Vercel Deployment.