Azure Virtual Machines Pricing
Understand the costs associated with running virtual machines on Azure. We offer a variety of instance types and pricing models to fit your budget and performance needs.
Pay-as-you-go
- Ideal for short-term or variable workloads.
- Flexibility to scale up or down as needed.
- Billed by the second for compute.
- Storage and networking costs are separate.
Subject to hourly rates based on VM size and region.
Learn MoreReserved Instances
- Commit to a 1- or 3-year term.
- Significant savings compared to pay-as-you-go (up to 72%).
- Guaranteed capacity.
- Various payment options available.
Discounts apply based on commitment duration and instance family.
Explore SavingsSpot Virtual Machines
- Utilize unused Azure capacity at a significant discount.
- Ideal for fault-tolerant, flexible, or non-time-critical workloads.
- Prices fluctuate based on supply and demand.
- VMs can be evicted with short notice.
Up to 90% savings over pay-as-you-go pricing.
Get StartedInstance Types & Pricing
Azure VMs come in various families, optimized for different workloads:
General Purpose (D-series)
- CPU-to-memory ratio: 1:4
- Best for: Web servers, small-to-medium databases, dev/test environments.
- Starts at: ~$0.018/hour
Compute Optimized (F-series)
- High CPU-to-memory ratio.
- Best for: Batch processing, web servers, analytics.
- Starts at: ~$0.015/hour
Memory Optimized (E-series)
- High memory-to-CPU ratio.
- Best for: Relational databases, in-memory caches, SAP.
- Starts at: ~$0.025/hour
Storage Optimized (Lsv2/Lsv3-series)
- High disk throughput and IOPS.
- Best for: Big data analytics, SQL/NoSQL databases, data warehousing.
- Starts at: ~$0.030/hour
GPU Optimized (N-series)
- Powered by NVIDIA GPUs.
- Best for: Machine learning, AI, graphics rendering, high-performance computing.
- Starts at: ~$0.20/hour
High Performance Computing (H-series)
- For demanding HPC workloads.
- Best for: Scientific simulations, fluid dynamics, seismic processing.
- Starts at: ~$0.50/hour
Note: Prices are approximate and vary by region, instance size, and pricing model. Please use the Azure Pricing Calculator for exact figures.
Additional Costs & Considerations
Discounts
- Azure Hybrid Benefit: Save on Windows Server and SQL Server licenses by bringing your existing on-premises licenses.
- Reserved Instances: Up to 72% savings with 1 or 3-year commitments.
- Spot VMs: Up to 90% savings by utilizing spare capacity.
- Dev/Test Pricing: Special rates for development and testing environments.
Other Costs
- Storage: Managed disks (SSD/HDD), Ultra Disk, Blob Storage. Priced per GB and IOPS.
- Networking: Data transfer out, Load Balancers, VPN Gateway, Public IP addresses.
- Operating System Licenses: Included for Linux; Windows licenses are per-VM or via Azure Hybrid Benefit.
- Monitoring & Diagnostics: Azure Monitor costs.
Estimate Your Costs
Use the Azure Pricing Calculator to get a detailed estimate for your specific VM configuration.
Go to Azure Pricing Calculator