Monitor Your Azure Free Account Usage
Understand your consumption and stay within your free credit limits.
Understanding Your Usage
The Azure Free Account provides you with a certain amount of credit and free services for a limited time. It's crucial to monitor your usage to avoid unexpected charges.
- Free Tier Services: Learn which services are always free and have usage limits.
- Initial Credit: Track your consumption of the initial monetary credit.
- Expiration: Be aware of when your free access expires.
Key Usage Metrics
Focus on these areas to effectively manage your free account:
- Compute hours (e.g., Virtual Machines)
- Storage consumed (e.g., Blob Storage)
- Data transfer (ingress/egress)
- Database transactions
- Managed disk usage
Tools for Monitoring
Leverage Azure's built-in tools:
- Azure Portal: Your primary dashboard for viewing costs and usage.
- Cost Management + Billing: Detailed reports and budget alerts.
- Azure Advisor: Recommendations for cost optimization.
- Usage APIs: Programmatic access to your usage data.
Detailed Usage Summary (Example)
| Service | Resource | Unit | Usage (Current Period) | Included in Free Tier | Estimated Cost (Free Credit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual Machines | Standard_B1s VM | Hours | 720 / 750 | 750 Hours | $0.00 |
| Blob Storage | Hot tier | GB | 15 / 100 | 100 GB | $0.00 |
| Azure SQL Database | Basic tier | DTUs | 5000 / 75000 | 75000 DTUs | $0.00 |
| Bandwidth | Outbound data transfer | GB | 3 / 5000 | 5 TB | $0.00 |
| Cosmos DB | Request Units | RU/sec | 1,200,000 / 1,000,000 | N/A (Monetary Credit) | $0.15 |
| Total Estimated Usage Against Credit | $0.15 | ||||
Data is illustrative and may not reflect real-time values. Please check the Azure Portal for accurate information.