Azure pricing
Get the best value at every stage of your cloud journey
Meet your organization’s business needs and budget with competitive, pay-as-you-go pricing. Realize cost savings whether you’re migrating your first workload or fine-tuning complex deployments.
Substantial savings compared to other clouds
Save big with Azure offers.
Transparent and competitive pricing
Get price matching on comparable services and pay only for the resources you use.
Free enterprise-grade cost management tools
Keep costs in control with sophisticated tools.
Pricing details by product
Substantial savings compared to other clouds
From dev/test to production workloads, realize additional savings that fit your development and deployment needs. Combine discounts and pricing offers to significantly reduce your cloud costs.
Pay less with Azure
AWS is up to 5 times more expensive than Azure for Windows Server and SQL Server.1
Windows Virtual Machines
UP TO
71 percent savings2
compared to AWS EC2
SQL Managed Instance
UP TO
85 percent savings3
compared to Amazon RDS
SQL Server virtual machines
UP TO
45 percent savings4
compared to AWS EC2
Azure Hybrid Benefit
Use your existing Windows Server and SQL Server licenses with Software Assurance to save big on Azure.
Azure savings plan for compute
Save up to 65 percent5 on select compute services with an easy, flexible savings plan. Choose your plan term and the amount you'll spend each hour. Get savings optimized across your usage.
Azure reservations
Forecast your resource needs and make a one- or three-year commitment on select Azure services to pay less. Cancel anytime as your needs evolve. Plus, enjoy monthly payment options at no extra cost.
Azure dev/test pricing
Get discounted rates for your ongoing development and testing, including no Microsoft software charges on Azure Virtual Machines and special dev/test pricing on other services.
Azure Spot Virtual Machines
Access your unused Azure compute capacity at deep discounts for your interruptible workloads—up to 90 percent6 compared with pay-as-you-go prices.
More Azure benefits and incentives
Browse the full range of special offers, benefits, and incentives to help you optimize your costs, gain new skills, and make the move to Azure.
Transparent and competitive pricing
- Better anticipate your costs with Azure pricing in US dollars for most countries.
- Pay direct and get the same price as you would through a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement.
- Azure matches AWS pricing for comparable services.
- Pay only for the resources you use and cancel anytime.
Calculate your costs
Estimate your monthly costs for using any combination of Azure products.
Price-match guarantee against AWS on comparable services
| AZURE SERVICE | PRICE MATCH | STARTING PRICE |
|---|---|---|
| Linux virtual machines | AWS EC2* | From $0.004 per hour |
| Functions | AWS Lambda* | From $0.2 per million executions |
| Block Blob storage (ZRS HOT) | Amazon S3 Standard* | From $0.023 per GB per month |
| Block Blob storage (ZRS COOL) | Amazon S3 Standard-Infrequent Access* | From $0.013 per GB per month |
*Price match available to the publicly available prices as of November 21, 2018, of eligible newest-generation products in the same comparable geographic region only. Pricing adjustments in response to price drops by AWS can take up to 90 days to process.
Free enterprise-grade cost management tools
Take advantage of built-in tools and services to help you compare costs, save money, and optimize your Azure resources.
Compare your cost savings to on-premises solutions
Compare the total cost of ownership (TCO) of your on-premises infrastructure to a comparable Azure deployment. Estimate the savings you can realize by migrating your workloads to Azure.
Never pay more than you should
Ensure that your cloud resources are running efficiently on Azure with advanced cost-management tools that help you:
- Monitor cloud consumption and cost trends continuously.
- Improve organizational accountability by allocating cloud costs to business units and projects.
- Optimize and save by eliminating idle resources with virtual machine rightsizing.
- Manage Azure and AWS spending in one place, with insights based on data from both clouds.
Additional resources and benefits
Migration and modernization center
Get the tools and resources you need to migrate your apps, data, and infrastructure at your own pace.
FastTrack for Azure
Move to Azure efficiently with customized guidance from Azure engineering.
Azure support plans
Overcome problems with around-the-clock access to support engineers. Choose the plan that's right for you.
| DEVELOPER | STANDARD | PROFESSIONAL DIRECT | PREMIER | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Trial and non-production environments | Production workload environments | Business-critical dependence | Substantial dependence across multiple products |
| Initial response time | <8 hours | <2 hours | <1 hour | <15 minutes with Azure Rapid Response or Azure Event Management (with Azure Rapid Response), <1 hour without Azure Rapid Response |
| Monthly cost | $29 | $100 | $1000 | Contact us |
| Learn more | Learn more | Learn more | Learn more |
Talk to a sales specialist
Get one-on-one guidance on Azure pricing and answers to your pricing questions.
Try Azure for free
Experiment and build with 12 months of select free services (services subject to change), and $200 in Azure credits to explore other Azure services to be used within the first 30 days of signing up.
Explore purchasing options
Purchase through the Azure website, your Microsoft representative, or an Azure partner.
1Calculations based on scenarios running 744 hours/month for 12 months at 3-year Reserved Instances or Reserved Capacity. Prices as of October 24, 2018, subject to change. Azure Windows VM calculations based on two D2V3 Azure VMs in US West 2 region at the SUSE Linux Enterprise Basic rate. AWS calculations based on two m5.Large VMs in US West (Oregon) using Windows Server pay-as-you-go rate for Reserved Instances under Standard 3-year term, all upfront payment. SQL Server calculations based on 8 vCore Azure SQL Database Managed Instance Business Critical in US West 2 running at Azure Hybrid Benefit rate. AWS calculations based on RDS for SQL EE for db.r4.2xlarge on US West (Oregon) in a multi AZ deployment for Reserved Instances under Standard 3-year term, all upfront payment. Extended Security Updates cost used for AWS is based on Windows Server Standard open NL ERP pricing in USD. Actual savings may vary based on region, instance size, and performance tier. Savings exclude Software Assurance costs, which may vary based on Volume Licensing agreement. Contact your sales representative for details.
2Calculations based on scenarios running 744 hours/month for 12 months at 3-year Reserved Instances. Prices as of October 24, 2018, subject to change. Savings calculations based on two D2V3 Azure VMs in US West 2 region, reduced compute rate at SUSE Linux Enterprise Basic rate with Azure Hybrid Benefit. AWS calculations based on two m5.Large VMs in US West (Oregon) using Windows Server pay-as-you-go rate for Reserved Instances under Standard 3-year term, all upfront payment. Actual savings may vary based on region, instance size, and performance tier. Savings exclude Software Assurance costs, which may vary based on Volume Licensing agreement.
3Calculations based on scenarios running 744 hours/month for 12 months at 3-year Reserved Capacity. Prices as of October 24, 2018, subject to change. Savings based on eight vCore Azure SQL Database Managed Instance Business Critical in US West 2 running at Azure Hybrid Benefit rate. AWS calculations based on RDS for SQL EE for db.r4.2xlarge on US West (Oregon) in a multi AZ deployment for Reserved Instances under Standard 3-year term, all upfront payment. Actual regional pricing and program discounts may apply. Actual savings may vary based on region, instance size, and performance tier. Savings exclude Software Assurance costs, which may vary based on Volume Licensing agreement.
4Calculations based on scenarios running 744 hours/month for 12 months at 3-year Reserved Instances. Prices as of June 15, 2018, subject to change. Savings based on 8-Core D13 v2 Azure VM in East US 2 region at CentOS/Ubuntu Linux with Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server and Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server. AWS calculations based on r3.2xlarge in US East (N. Virginia) at Windows rate with SQL Server License Mobility. Actual savings may vary based on region, instance size, and performance tier. Savings exclude Software Assurance costs, which may vary based on Volume Licensing agreement.
5Customers may see savings estimated to be between 11 percent and 65 percent. The 65 percent savings is based on one M64dsv2 Azure VM for CentOS or Ubuntu Linux in the East US region running for 36 months at a pay-as-you-go rate of ~$4868.37/month vs. a reduced rate for a 3-year savings plan of ~$1703.44/month. Based on Azure pricing as of October 2022. Prices subject to change. Actual savings may vary based on location, instance type, or usage.
6Actual discounts may vary based on region, VM type, and Azure compute capacity available when the workload is deployed.
Compare the costs of running Windows Server virtual machines (VMs):
Other cloud service providers may claim to have similar savings to the Azure Hybrid Benefit, but you’ll need to repurchase your Windows Server license on those clouds. And only Azure offers free extended security updates for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2.
What's being compared?
| Azure | AWS |
|---|---|
| One D2 v3 Windows Server VM | One m5.large Windows Server VM |
| US West 2 region | US West (Oregon) region |
| 744 hours/month for 12 months | 744 hours/month for 12 months |
| Uses the Azure Hybrid Benefit to pay reduced compute rate (SUSE Linux Enterprise Basic rate) for 3-year Reserved Instances. Software Assurance is required. | Uses Windows Server Reserved Instances rate under standard 3-year term with upfront payment. |
| Free extended security updates in Azure for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 VMs. | Extended security updates cost is based on Windows Server Standard open NL ERP pricing in USD. |
Compare SQL Server running as a PaaS service:
Only Azure offers savings across both platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) for SQL Server. With the Azure Hybrid Benefit, you can use existing licenses with Software Assurance to pay a reduced rate on Azure SQL Database (PaaS). This is not included in SQL Server license mobility rights for other clouds.
What's being compared?
| Azure | AWS |
|---|---|
| 8 vCore Azure SQL Database managed instance business critical | RDS for SQL Server Enterprise edition for db.r4.2xlarge |
| US West 2 region | US West (Oregon) region in a multi-AZ deployment |
| 744 hours/month for 12 months | 744 hours/month for 12 months |
| Uses existing SQL Server licenses with the Azure Hybrid Benefit to pay a reduced rate on Azure SQL Database with 3-year reserved capacity. Software Assurance is required. | Uses 3-year Reserved Instances, a standard 3-year term, and all-upfront payment. |
Compare SQL Server running on a virtual machine (IaaS):
Only Azure offers savings across both platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) for SQL Server. With the Azure Hybrid Benefit, there is no need to repurchase software licenses—use existing licenses with Software Assurance to save on Azure Virtual Machines (IaaS).
With the Azure Hybrid Benefit, you pay only the reduced compute rate (SUSE Linux Enterprise Basic rate) for the Windows Server VM. You’ll need to repurchase Windows Server on other clouds. And only Azure offers free extended security updates for SQL Server and Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2.
What's being compared?
| Azure | AWS |
|---|---|
| One D2 v3 Windows Server VM | One m5.large Windows Server VM |
| US West 2 region | US West (Oregon) region |
| 744 hours/month for 12 months | 744 hours/month for 12 months |
| Uses the Azure Hybrid Benefit to pay reduced compute rate (SUSE Linux Enterprise Basic rate) with 3-year Reserved Instances. Software Assurance is required. | Uses license mobility based on Software Assurance on SQL Server. The customer must still pay the Windows Server pay-as-you-go rate. |
| Free extended security updates in Azure for SQL Server and Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 VMs. | Extended security updates cost is based on Windows Server Standard and SQL Server Standard open NL ERP pricing in USD. |