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
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 5 times more expensive than Azure for Windows and SQL Server1. Why run them anywhere else?
Azure Hybrid Benefit
Use your existing Windows Server and SQL Server licenses with Software Assurance to save big on Azure.
Extended security updates for Windows Server and SQL Server 2008/2008 R2
Migrate 2008 and 2008 R2 server workloads to Azure Virtual Machines and get three more years of security updates following the end of your support dates—for free—resulting in significant cost savings. AWS is 5 times more expensive than Azure for Windows Server and SQL Server1.
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.
Reservations
Forecast your resource needs and make a one- or three-year commitment on select Azure services to pay less than pay-as-you-go pricing. Exchange or cancel any time as your needs evolve.
Transparent and competitive pricing
- 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 expected monthly costs for using any combination of Azure products.
Price match guarantee against AWS on comparable services
| AZURE SERVICE | PRICE MATCH | STARTING FROM |
|---|---|---|
| Linux virtual machines (VMs) | AWS EC2* | Starting from $0.004 per hour |
| Functions | AWS Lambda* | Starting from $0.2 per million executions |
| Block Blob storage (ZRS HOT) | Amazon S3 Standard* | Starting from $0.023 per GB per month |
| Block Blob storage (ZRS COOL) | Amazon S3 Standard-Infrequent Access* | Starting from $0.013 per GB per month |
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 is running efficiently on Azure with advanced cost management tools that help you:
- Monitor cloud consumption and cost trends continously.
- Improve organizational accountability by allocating cloud costs to business units and projects.
- Optimize and save by eliminating idle resources with virtual machine right-sizing.
Explore additional resources and benefits to help you save
Migration tools
Find tools and resources to migrate your apps, data, and infrastructure at your own pace.
FastTrack for Azure
Build solutions quickly and confidently with direct access to Azure engineers.
Pricing details by product
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) or <1 hour (without Azure Rapid Response) |
| Monthly costs | $29/mo | $100/mo | $1000/mo | Contact us |
| Learn more | Learn more | Learn more | Learn more |
Don’t have an Azure account?
Sign up for an Azure free account to receive:
- 12 months of free services—includes compute, storage, network, and database.
- 25+ always-free services—includes serverless, containers, and artificial intelligence.
- $200 credit to explore any Azure service for 30 days.
Ways to pay for Azure
Sign up for an Azure free account to receive:
Explore options for purchasing Azure. Pay through the Azure website, add Azure to an Enterprise Agreement, or purchase through an Azure partner.
For sales help, call 1-800-867-1389
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.
Compare the costs of running Windows Server virtual machines (VMs):
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:
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. |