Simple, secure and serverless enterprise-grade cloud file shares
Take advantage of fully managed file shares in the cloud that are accessible via the industry-standard SMB and NFS protocols. Azure file shares can be mounted concurrently by cloud or on-premises deployments of Windows, Linux, and macOS. Azure file shares can also be cached on Windows Servers with Azure File Sync for fast access near where the data is being used.
Explore pricing options
Apply filters to customise pricing options to your needs.
Prices are estimates only and are not intended as actual price quotes. Actual pricing may vary depending on the type of agreement entered with Microsoft, date of purchase, and the currency exchange rate. Prices are calculated based on US dollars and converted using London closing spot rates that are captured in the two business days prior to the last business day of the previous month end. If the two business days prior to the end of the month autumn on a bank holiday in major markets, the rate setting day is generally the day immediately preceding the two business days. This rate applies to all transactions during the forthcoming month. Sign in to the Azure pricing calculator to see pricing based on your current programme/offer with Microsoft. Contact an Azure sales specialist for more information on pricing or to request a price quote. See frequently asked questions about Azure pricing.
US government entities are eligible to purchase Azure Government services from a licensing solution provider with no upfront financial commitment, or directly through a pay-as-you-go online subscription.
Important—The price in R$ is merely a reference; this is an international transaction and the final price is subject to exchange rates and the inclusion of IOF taxes. An eNF will not be issued.
US government entities are eligible to purchase Azure Government services from a licensing solution provider with no upfront financial commitment, or directly through a pay-as-you-go online subscription.
Important—The price in R$ is merely a reference; this is an international transaction and the final price is subject to exchange rates and the inclusion of IOF taxes. An eNF will not be issued.
| Usage Tiers | Description |
|---|---|
| Premium | Premium file shares enable highly I/O-intensive workloads, with high throughput and low latency. Premium file shares are offered on high-performance solid-state drive (SSD) based storage. |
| Transaction optimised | Transaction optimised file shares enable transaction heavy workloads that don’t need the latency offered by premium file shares with consistent latency. Transaction optimised file shares are a great fit for applications that require file storage or for backend storage. |
| Hot | Hot file shares offer storage optimised for general purpose file sharing scenarios such as team shares and Azure File Sync. |
| Cool | Cool file shares offer cost-efficient storage optimised for online archive storage scenarios. Azure File Sync may also be a good fit for lower churn workloads. |
Premium file shares use a provisioned billing model, where you pay for the amount of storage you would like your file share to have, regardless of how much you use. Standard file shares (transaction optimised, hot and cool) use a pay-as-you-go billing model, where you pay based on storage usage, including data stored and transactions. To learn more about how billing works in Azure Files, see Understanding Azure Files billing.
Standard file shares are available in general purpose storage accounts. General purpose v2 storage accounts offer the latest Azure Files features, including hot and cool tiers and are recommended for all users. Transaction optimised file shares are available in both general purpose v1 and v2 storage accounts. Pricing for standard file shares is based on usage, such that base storage and transaction costs are billed separately.
Data storage
The following table displays the unit price of a GiB of storage. Premium file shares are billed based on provisioned size, regardless of used capacity. Standard files are billed based on usage. These prices vary based on the redundancy option that you select.
| Data storage | Premium | Transaction optimised | Hot | Cool |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Data at-rest (GiB/month)
Per GiB storage costs for a file’s data stream. |
N/A* | $- per used GiB | $- per used GiB | $- per used GiB |
|
Snapshots (GiB/month)
Snapshot pricing covers additional storage cost of differential snapshots. |
N/A | $- per used GiB | $- per used GiB | $- per used GiB |
|
Metadata at-rest (GiB/month)
The cost of file system metadata associated with files and directories such as access control lists (ACLs) or other properties. |
Included | Included | $- | $- |
|
Data at-rest (GiB/month)
Per GiB storage costs for a file’s data stream. |
$- per provisioned GiB* | $- per used GiB | $- per used GiB | $- per used GiB |
|
Snapshots (GiB/month)
Snapshot pricing covers additional storage cost of differential snapshots. |
$- per used GiB | $- per used GiB | $- per used GiB | $- per used GiB |
|
Metadata at-rest (GiB/month)
The cost of file system metadata associated with files and directories such as access control lists (ACLs) or other properties. |
Included | Included | $- | $- |
|
Data at-rest (GiB/month)
Per GiB storage costs for a file’s data stream. |
$- per provisioned GiB* | $- per used GiB | $- per used GiB | $- per used GiB |
|
Snapshots (GiB/month)
Snapshot pricing covers additional storage cost of differential snapshots. |
$- per used GiB | $- per used GiB | $- per used GiB | $- per used GiB |
|
Metadata at-rest (GiB/month)
The cost of file system metadata associated with files and directories such as access control lists (ACLs) or other properties. |
Included | Included | $- | $- |
|
Data at-rest (GiB/month)
Per GiB storage costs for a file’s data stream. |
N/A* | $- per used GiB | $- per used GiB | $- per used GiB |
|
Snapshots (GiB/month)
Snapshot pricing covers additional storage cost of differential snapshots. |
N/A | $- per used GiB | $- per used GiB | $- per used GiB |
|
Metadata at-rest (GiB/month)
The cost of file system metadata associated with files and directories such as access control lists (ACLs) or other properties. |
Included | Included | $- | $- |
|
Data at-rest (GiB/month)
Per GiB storage costs for a file’s data stream. |
N/A* | N/A | N/A | N/A |
|
Snapshots (GiB/month)
Snapshot pricing covers additional storage cost of differential snapshots. |
N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
|
Metadata at-rest (GiB/month)
The cost of file system metadata associated with files and directories such as access control lists (ACLs) or other properties. |
Included | Included | N/A | N/A |
* The provisioned size of a premium file share is specified by quota field via the API. If you decrease the provisioned shares size below the used GiB, you will be billed for the used GiB on premium shares. To learn more, see understanding provisioning of the premium file shares.
Soft-deleted file shares are always billed based on used rather than provisioned GiB. Soft-deleted standard file shares are billed at the same rate as live shares. Soft-deleted premium file shares are billed at the snapshot rate. Learn more about soft delete.
NFS support for Azure Files is only available for the Premium tier.
Reservations
Reservations helps you lower your data storage cost by committing to one year or three years of Azure Files. Reservations can be purchased in increments of 10 TiB and 100 TiB for 1-year and 3-year commitment duration. All prices are per month. For more information, please see understanding reservations.
| 1-year reserved | 3-year reserved | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reservations | Premium | Hot | Cool | Premium | Hot | Cool |
| 10 TiB / month | N/A | $- | $- | N/A | $- | $- |
| 100 TiB / month | N/A | $- | $- | N/A | $- | $- |
| 10 TiB / month | $- | $- | $- | $- | $- | $- |
| 100 TiB / month | $- | $- | $- | $- | $- | $- |
| 10 TiB / month | $- | $- | $- | $- | $- | $- |
| 100 TiB / month | $- | $- | $- | $- | $- | $- |
| 10 TiB / month | N/A | $- | $- | N/A | $- | $- |
| 100 TiB / month | N/A | $- | $- | N/A | $- | $- |
Transactions and data transfer
For both SMB and REST operations, transaction costs are incurred against your Azure file share, covering operations such as enumerating a directory or reading a file. These prices vary based on the redundancy option you select.
| Transactions and data transfer | Premium | Transaction optimised | Hot | Cool |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Write transactions (per 10,000)
Write transactions are any operations which modify a file’s data stream. This category also includes file handle operations. |
N/A | $- | $- | $- |
|
List transactions (per 10,000)
List transactions are any operations which enumerate parts of the file share, such as listing files and directories within a share. |
N/A | $- | $- | $- |
|
Read transactions (per 10,000)
Read transactions are any operations which read from a file’s data stream. |
N/A | $- | $- | $- |
|
All other operations (per 10,000)
Any other operations associated with Azure Files (share, snapshot, directory, etc.), except for delete operations which are free. |
N/A | $- | $- | $- |
|
Data retrieval (per GiB)
Data retrieval is a special charge which applies only to retrieving data from cool storage. |
N/A | N/A | N/A | $- |
|
Write transactions (per 10,000)
Write transactions are any operations which modify a file’s data stream. This category also includes file handle operations. |
Included | $- | $- | $- |
|
List transactions (per 10,000)
List transactions are any operations which enumerate parts of the file share, such as listing files and directories within a share. |
Included | $- | $- | $- |
|
Read transactions (per 10,000)
Read transactions are any operations which read from a file’s data stream. |
Included | $- | $- | $- |
|
All other operations (per 10,000)
Any other operations associated with Azure Files (share, snapshot, directory, etc.), except for delete operations which are free. |
Included | $- | $- | $- |
|
Data retrieval (per GiB)
Data retrieval is a special charge which applies only to retrieving data from cool storage. |
N/A | N/A | N/A | $- |
|
Write transactions (per 10,000)
Write transactions are any operations which modify a file’s data stream. This category also includes file handle operations. |
Included | $- | $- | $- |
|
List transactions (per 10,000)
List transactions are any operations which enumerate parts of the file share, such as listing files and directories within a share. |
Included | $- | $- | $- |
|
Read transactions (per 10,000)
Read transactions are any operations which read from a file’s data stream. |
Included | $- | $- | $- |
|
All other operations (per 10,000)
Any other operations associated with Azure Files (share, snapshot, directory, etc.), except for delete operations which are free. |
Included | $- | $- | $- |
|
Data retrieval (per GiB)
Data retrieval is a special charge which applies only to retrieving data from cool storage. |
N/A | N/A | N/A | $- |
|
Write transactions (per 10,000)
Write transactions are any operations which modify a file’s data stream. This category also includes file handle operations. |
Included | $- | $- | $- |
|
List transactions (per 10,000)
List transactions are any operations which enumerate parts of the file share, such as listing files and directories within a share. |
Included | $- | $- | $- |
|
Read transactions (per 10,000)
Read transactions are any operations which read from a file’s data stream. |
Included | $- | $- | $- |
|
All other operations (per 10,000)
Any other operations associated with Azure Files (share, snapshot, directory, etc.), except for delete operations which are free. |
Included | N/A | $- | $- |
|
Data retrieval (per GiB)
Data retrieval is a special charge which applies only to retrieving data from cool storage. |
N/A | N/A | N/A | $- |
|
Write transactions (per 10,000)
Write transactions are any operations which modify a file’s data stream. This category also includes file handle operations. |
Included | N/A | N/A | N/A |
|
List transactions (per 10,000)
List transactions are any operations which enumerate parts of the file share, such as listing files and directories within a share. |
Included | N/A | N/A | N/A |
|
Read transactions (per 10,000)
Read transactions are any operations which read from a file’s data stream. |
Included | N/A | N/A | N/A |
|
All other operations (per 10,000)
Any other operations associated with Azure Files (share, snapshot, directory, etc.), except for delete operations which are free. |
Included | N/A | N/A | N/A |
|
Data retrieval (per GiB)
Data retrieval is a special charge which applies only to retrieving data from cool storage. |
N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
|
GRS data transfer (per GiB)
The GRS data transfer charge is for bandwidth used to replicate data to the secondary Azure region. |
N/A | $- | $- | $- |
Prices marked as N/A indicate that the redundancy option is not available in the selected region. Note: File operations that result in data transfer outside of an Azure datacentre will incur additional outbound data transfer charges.
Prices marked as N/A indicate that the redundancy option is not available in the selected region. Azure File does not support read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS) in any region at this time. File shares in the RA-GRS storage account are charged at GRS prices. Note: File operations that result in data transfer outside of an Azure datacentre will incur additional outbound data transfer charges
File Sync
These are the costs of syncing your files from Windows servers to Azure file shares in the cloud. Learn more about Azure File Sync.
The total cost of Azure File Sync services is determined by the number of servers that connect to the cloud endpoint (Azure file share) plus the underlying costs of Azure Files (including storage and access costs) and outbound data transfer.
Below is the fixed monthly fee per server.
| File Sync | Price per month |
|---|---|
| Sync Server* | $- |
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Frequently asked questions
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To see the complete breakdown of SMB and FileREST transactions, see About Azure Files and File Sync billing.
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