Azure VM Costs Explained

Multiple charges combine to determine the total cost of running a workload within an Azure Virtual Machine (VM). In this graph, the costs for running two different types of sample workloads, a SQL Server database and a domain controller, are shown, with all software rented in a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) model. All charges shown are per month and based on West US region Microsoft Online Subscription Program (MOSP) pricing as of Feb. 2018.

Compute resource costs. Azure offers multiple “sizes” of VMs in a series (sometimes referred to as a “family” of hardware), and in this comparison an Azure DS3 V2 VM instance was chosen for both workloads. The cost of running this four-virtual core VM is US$203.67 (shown in the bottommost rectangle for both workloads). The compute cost of running this VM drops to US$125.17 or US$80.28 when purchased through an Azure Reserved VM Instance. Compared to standard PAYG pricing, this represents a discount of 39% for a one-year reserved instance, or 61% for a three-year reserved instance.