Understand the costs associated with running your virtual machines on Azure.
Understanding Azure VM Pricing
Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) offer flexible, scalable compute capacity in the cloud. Pricing is determined by several factors, including the VM size, operating system, region, and any associated services like storage and networking. This page provides an overview of the pricing models and key considerations.
Key Pricing Components
Compute Hours: The primary cost is based on the time your VM is running, billed per second with a minimum charge.
VM Size (Series and Cores): Larger VMs with more CPU cores and RAM generally incur higher costs.
Operating System: Linux VMs are typically less expensive than Windows VMs due to licensing.
Region: Prices can vary slightly between different Azure regions.
Storage: Costs for attached disks (OS disk, data disks) are separate and depend on type (SSD, HDD) and size.
Networking: Egress data transfer out of Azure incurs charges. Ingress and data transfer within Azure are generally free.
Pricing Models
Azure offers several ways to pay for your VMs, allowing you to optimize costs:
Pay-as-you-go: Ideal for variable workloads or when you need flexibility. You pay for what you use, by the second.
Azure Reserved Virtual Machine Instances (RI): Commit to using specific VM types in a particular region for a 1- or 3-year term to receive significant discounts compared to pay-as-you-go.
Azure Hybrid Benefit: Use your existing on-premises Windows Server and SQL Server licenses with Software Assurance to pay a reduced rate on Azure VMs.
Spot Virtual Machines: Utilize unused Azure capacity at a steep discount (up to 90%). These VMs can be evicted with little notice, making them suitable for fault-tolerant, interruptible, or non-production workloads.
Example Pricing Tiers (Illustrative)
The following table provides a simplified view of hourly costs for common VM sizes. Actual prices are subject to change and depend on region and specific offers.
VM Series
vCPUs
RAM (GiB)
Approx. Monthly Cost (Linux, Pay-as-you-go, US East)
Approx. Monthly Cost (Windows, Pay-as-you-go, US East)
B-series (Burstable)
2
4
$45 - $60
$65 - $80
D-series (General Purpose)
4
16
$130 - $170
$150 - $190
E-series (Memory Optimized)
8
64
$250 - $350
$270 - $370
F-series (Compute Optimized)
16
32
$300 - $420
$320 - $440
Note: These are estimates based on 730 hours/month. Actual costs will vary based on runtime, storage, networking, and specific Azure offers. Please refer to the official Azure Pricing Calculator for precise figures.