A SKU, or stock keeping unit, is a billing line item used to separate cloud services, features, or usage categories. In cloud platforms, each SKU maps to a specific meter, such as model tokens, compute hours, storage, or premium support. That separation makes invoices and usage reports easier to read and lets organizations apply different pricing, budgets, and access controls to different parts of the environment.
In cyber security, SKUs matter because attackers often create cost as a side effect of abuse. Compromised accounts can spin up paid services, run inference jobs, or generate large volumes of requests that show up as unusual spend on a specific SKU. Defenders use SKU-level data for anomaly detection, chargeback, and incident response: if one line item spikes, analysts can trace it to the workload, project, or identity behind it. Clear SKU attribution also helps spot misconfigurations that leak costs without obvious security alerts.