Technologies are disclosed that help developers determine server resource usage caused by client application generated events. Embodiments may be employed while an application is under development to balance the benefit of a given event with an estimated cost to process the event once the application is deployed. One aspect of the present disclosure provides a telemetry application that receives application generated events and estimates a resource cost they cause to data collection servers. The resource cost may be based on historic data captured from similar or related events, as well as data about how often the event and related events are raised by the application.