---
title: Understand the Cost Impact of Function Invocations
description: Learn how to use Observability to understand function invocations and their cost impact.
url: /kb/guide/understand-cost-impact-of-function-invocations
canonical_url: "https://vercel.com/kb/guide/understand-cost-impact-of-function-invocations"
last_updated: 2025-11-11
authors: DX Team
related:
  - /docs/observability
  - /docs/observability/limits-and-pricing
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: {' '}
   
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: {' '}
   

## More resources

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