Microsoft Azure Pricing: Plans & Cost Guide 2026
Azure has no flat plan: you pay per resource. A Linux VM runs from $0.0416/hour for a burstable B2s to $0.384 for a D8s v5, blob storage from $0.0208/GB-month hot down to $0.00099 archive, and Reserved Instances cut 30 to 70 percent off on-demand.
Microsoft Azure plans and pricing
How Azure bills
Free account
- 750 hours of B1s Linux VM monthly (12 months)
- 5 GB blob storage and 250 GB SQL Database (12 months)
- 55+ services always free within limits
Pay-as-you-go
Default- No commitment, scale to zero anytime
- Every size and region priced in the tables below
- Spot VMs cut up to 90% for interruptible work
Reserved Instances
- Deepest standing VM discount on Azure
- Pay upfront or monthly at the same total
- Best for steady production baselines
Savings Plans
- More flexible than Reserved Instances
- Commit to $/hour, not a specific machine
- Fits fleets that change shape over time
Virtual Machines
B2s
Burstable- Cheapest real VM on the platform
- Dev boxes, small apps, low-traffic services
- Same size the 12-month free tier grants (B1s below it)
D2s v5
Most deployed- The default general-purpose production size
- Scales to D96s v5 in the same family
- AMD twin (D2as v5) runs about 10% cheaper
E2s v5
Memory-optimized- Databases, caches, and in-memory analytics
- Double the memory of D-series per core
- Scales to E104s v5
F2s v2
Compute-optimized- Batch processing, gaming servers, web frontends
- Cheaper per core than D-series
- Tight on memory by design
Microsoft Azure pricing: the quick answer
Microsoft Azure is pay-as-you-go with no monthly plan. A new account gets a $200 credit for 30 days plus 12 months of limited free tiers. After that you pay per resource: Linux virtual machines run about $0.0416/hour for a 2-vCPU B2s up to $0.384 for an 8-vCPU D8s v5, blob storage is $0.0208/GB-month hot and $0.00099 archive, and Reserved Instances or Savings Plans discount compute 30 to 70 percent. The real bill depends on which instances, storage tiers, and egress your workload uses.
- Free AccountFree
- Pay-as-you-goCustom
- Reserved InstancesCustom
- Azure Savings PlansCustom
Microsoft Azure is free to start, against a $11.50/mo median across 20 cloud hosting tools we track.
| Instance | East US $/hr | West Europe | Japan East |
|---|---|---|---|
| B2s (2 vCPU, 4 GB) | $0.0416 | $0.048 | $0.0544 |
| B4ms (4 vCPU, 16 GB) | $0.166 | $0.192 | $0.218 |
| D2s v5 (2 vCPU, 8 GB) | $0.096 | $0.115 | $0.124 |
| D4s v5 (4 vCPU, 16 GB) | $0.192 | $0.23 | $0.248 |
| D8s v5 (8 vCPU, 32 GB) | $0.384 | $0.46 | $0.496 |
| D2as v5 (2 vCPU, 8 GB, AMD) | $0.086 | $0.104 | $0.112 |
| E2s v5 (2 vCPU, 16 GB) | $0.126 | $0.152 | $0.152 |
| E4s v5 (4 vCPU, 32 GB) | $0.252 | $0.304 | $0.304 |
| F2s v2 (2 vCPU, 4 GB) | $0.0846 | $0.097 | $0.107 |
| F4s v2 (4 vCPU, 8 GB) | $0.169 | $0.194 | $0.214 |
Blob storage
Hot
- Serving, analytics, active data
- First 5 GB free for 12 months
Cool
- Monthly-touched backups
- About 27% cheaper at rest than Hot
Cold
- Quarterly-access archives
- Six times cheaper than Hot at rest
Archive
- Compliance and DR copies
- Cheapest byte Azure sells
| Tier | East US $/GB-mo | West Europe | Japan East |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot (frequent access) | $0.0208 | $0.0196 | $0.02 |
| Cool (30-day) | $0.0152 | $0.015 | $0.011 |
| Cold (90-day) | $0.0036 | $0.0045 | $0.0045 |
| Archive (180-day) | $0.00099 | $0.0018 | $0.002 |
Rates shown are Consumption USD list from the Azure Retail Prices API, verified July 17, 2026, for Linux instances running 730 h/month in East US on the cards. Windows carries a license surcharge; Reserved Instances and Savings Plans discount heavily. The estimator above prices your own build. Every link goes through our tracked, protected redirect.
Microsoft Azure cost calculator
Dsv5 general purpose: 2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM
USD list rates from the Azure Retail Prices API, East US. Reserved Instances and Savings Plans cut 30 to 70 percent. Egress, licenses, and support plans are billed on top.
Microsoft Azure Hidden Costs & Pitfalls
The sticker price is really a catalog of per-resource rates. What you pay comes down to VM family, storage tier, and whether you commit to a term.
Microsoft Azure pricing, read against its live plans and category
Positioning
Azure operates on a consumption-based model that makes a direct comparison to the category median of $11.50/mo highly misleading. While the Free Account offers a $200 credit for the first 30 days and 12 months of limited free services, production workloads require the Pay-as-you-go plan or commitment-based options. For predictable workloads, committing to Reserved Instances or Azure Savings Plans yields 30% to 72% discounts, making it highly cost-effective. However, entry-level compute is expensive, with plans like the P1V2 web app costing $146.00/mo for minimal resources, meaning it is only worth the premium for enterprise-grade deployments.
Cost drivers
- 1Rigid commitment terms of 1 to 3 years required to unlock Reserved Instances and Savings Plans discounts.
- 2Overage charges once the limited usage thresholds of the 12-month Free Account are exceeded.
- 3High egress and data transfer fees associated with running global data centers.
Watch-outs
Azure's pricing structure makes it incredibly difficult to predict monthly expenditures, exposing startups to sudden, massive bills if free credits expire or scale limits are misconfigured. Users report that virtual machine and database costs scale up aggressively without strict budget caps.
Strengths
Even the free tier offers seamless integration with Microsoft 365, Teams, and Active Directory - strong value at no cost.
- Seamless integration with Microsoft 365, Teams, and Active Directory.
- Strong hybrid cloud capabilities with Azure Arc and Azure Stack.
- Extensive PaaS offerings like App Service and Azure SQL Database.
What users say
“Microsoft Azure makes it easier than AWS... to see all the costings, but hard to predict”
“They also have some more affordable good database technologies”
Editor’s take
Small teams and startups should stick to the Free Account or use Pay-as-you-go with strict budget alerts, while enterprises must use Reserved Instances to make the platform financially viable. If you need predictable, developer-friendly pricing without complex billing calculations, choose DigitalOcean at $4/mo as a simpler alternative.
Oleh KemFounder & Lead AnalystMicrosoft Azure price history
Cheaper Cloud Hosting tools
Frequently asked questions
Sources & verification
| Source | What was checked | Last checked |
|---|---|---|
| Official Pricing Page | Source of verified tiers | July 17, 2026 |
| Official Website | Official vendor website | — |
| G2 | G2 verified user reviews · 4.4/5 · 73 reviews | — |
| Capterra | Capterra verified user reviews · 4.5/5 | — |
| TrustRadius | TrustRadius verified reviews | — |
| PeerSpot | PeerSpot enterprise peer reviews | — |
| StackShare | StackShare developer community | — |
Every fact on this Microsoft Azure pricing page is tied to a named source and a verification date. Freshness-sensitive figures trace to the sources above; verify against the vendor before relying on them.
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