Windows Azure Pricing Overview
Learn more about Windows Azure pricing and billing meters.
Compute time, measured in service hours:
Price
Windows Azure compute hours are charged only when your application is deployed. When developing and testing your application, developers will want to remove the compute instances that are not being used to minimize compute hour billing. Partial compute hours are billed as full hours. More about Compute
The table below summarizes the Pay-As-You-Go price and the resources provided for each instance size.
| Virtual Machine Size | CPU Cores | Memory | Cost Per Hour |
|---|
| Extra Small |
Shared |
768 MB |
$0.02 |
| Small |
1 |
1.75 GB |
$0.12 |
| Medium |
2 |
3.5 GB |
$0.24 |
| Large |
4 |
7 GB |
$0.48 |
| Extra Large |
8 |
14 GB |
$0.96 |
Details on the Virtual machine sizes can be found here
Billing Details
Billing meter for Windows Azure Compute is Compute Hour, and it is charged only when your application is deployed. When developing and testing your application, you should remove the compute instances that are not being used to minimize compute hour billing.
All compute hours are converted into small instance hours when presented on your bill. For example, one clock hour of a medium compute instance would be presented as two small compute instance hours at the small instance rate of $0.12 per hour on your bill. This table describes how each of the compute instance sizes is converted to the number of small compute instance hours:
| Compute Instance Size | Clock Hours | Small Instance Hours |
|---|
| Extra Small |
1 hour |
1/6 hour |
| Small |
1 hour |
1 hour |
| Medium |
1 hour |
2 hours |
| Large |
1 hour |
4 hours |
| Extra Large |
1 hour |
8 hours |
Compute hours are billed based on the number of clock hours your service was deployed multiplied by the number of equivalent small compute instances included in your deployment. Partial compute instance hours (prior to conversion) are billed as full compute hours for each clock hour an instance is deployed. For example, if you deploy a small compute instance at 10:50 AM and delete the deployment at 11:10 AM, you will be billed for two small compute hours, one hour for usage during 10:50 AM to 11:00 AM and another hour for usage during 11:00 AM to 11:10 AM.
For other compute instance sizes you deploy, your hours will be converted into the equivalent small instance hours by multiplying by 1/6, 2, 4 or 8, depending on the compute instance size deployed. In addition, each time you delete your deployment and redeploy your service, you will be billed a minimum of one clock hour for each compute instance deployed. However, any instances deployed for less than five minutes within one clock hour will not be charged.
Learn more about compute.
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Database, based on size of the database:
Price
SQL Azure Database is billed based on a graduated rate based on the size of the database. It is available in two editions: Web and Business. The Web Edition supports up to a 5 GB maximum T-SQL based relational database. The Business Edition supports up to a 150 GB maximum size T-SQL-based relational database.
| Database Size | Price Per Database Per Month |
|---|
| 0 to 100 MB |
Flat $4.995 |
| Greater than 100 MB to 1 GB |
Flat $9.99 |
| Greater than 1 GB to 10 GB |
$9.99 for first GB, $3.996 for each additional GB |
| Greater than 10 GB to 50 GB |
$45.954 for first 10 GB, $1.998 for each additional GB |
| Great than 50 GB to 150 GB |
$125.874 for first 50 GB, $0.999 for each additional GB |
Billing Details
We charge at a monthly rate for each SQL Azure database you utilize, but we amortize that database fee over the month and calculate your fee on a daily basis. For databases greater than 1 GB, you will be billed in the next whole gigabyte increment. For example, if you utilized two Business Edition databases, one that was 4.4 GB and one that was 14.4 GB for 1 day during a billing month, you would be charged for a 5 GB and 15 GB database for that day, which would total $2.643. Below are the calculations:
- 5 GB: ($9.99 for the first GB + $3.996 per GB for the next 4 GB) / 31 days = $0.838
- 15 GB: ($45.954 for the first 10 GB + $1.998 per GB for the next 5 GB) / 31 days = $1.805
More about Databases
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Storage, measured in GB:
Price
Storage is billed in units of the average daily amount of data stored (in GB) over a monthly period. For example, if you consistently utilized 10 GB of storage for the first half of the month and none for the second half of the month, you would be billed for your average usage of 5 GB of storage.
For Windows Azure Drive storage, you will be billed only for the storage space used by the page blob and the read/write transactions to the page blob. You will not be charged for read transactions that utilize the local drive cache. Windows Azure Drive usage is billed at the same rates as standard Windows Azure Storage and is included in these totals on your bill. There will not be a separate line item for Windows Azure Drive on your bill. Windows Azure Drive storage is currently in its beta release and a service level agreement is offered for this service.
| Standard pay-as-you-go pricing for storage |
|---|
| $0.125 per GB stored per month based on the daily average |
| $0.01 per 10,000 storage transactions |
More about Storage
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Data transfers measured in GB (transmissions to and from the Windows Azure datacenter): All inbound data transfers are at no charge.
Price
All inbound data transfers, i.e. data going into the Window Azure platform datacenters, are free. Price for outbound data transfers, i.e. data going out of the Windows Azure platform datacenters, is shown below.
| Pricing details for outbound data transfers |
|---|
| North America and Europe regions: $0.12 |
| Asia Pacific Region: $0.19 |
Billing Details
Data transfers are charged based on the total amount of data moving in and out of the Windows Azure platform datacenters via the internet in a given billing period. Data transfers between Windows Azure services located within the same sub-region are not subject to charge. Data transfers between sub-regions are charged at normal rates on both sides of the transfer. A sub-region is the lowest level geo-location that you may select to deploy your applications and associated data. Below is a list of our regions and sub-regions for normal data transfer (except for CDN).
| Regions | Sub-Regions |
|---|
| Zone 1 |
North Europe |
| Western Europe |
| East US* |
| North Central US |
| South Central US |
| West US* |
| Zone 2 |
East Asia |
| Southeast Asia |
* SQL Azure is not available in the West US and East US datacenters currently.
Content Delivery Network:
Price
CDN charges are incurred for the data requests the CDN receives and for the data it transfers out to satisfy these requests.
| Standard pay-as-you-go monthly pricing for the CDN |
|---|
| $0.12per GB for data transfers from European and North American locations |
| $0.19per GB for data transfers from other locations |
| $0.01 per 10,000 transactions |
Billing Details
CDN charges shown above do not include charges associated with transferring this data from Windows Azure Storage to CDN. Any data transfers and storage transactions incurred to get data from Windows Azure Storage to the CDN will be charged separately at our normal Data Transfer and Storage transaction rates.
Windows Azure CDN data transfer charges are based on the data center location from where the traffic was served, not the end user's location. Below is a table that maps the data center locations to the appropriate zone for which they belong for billing purposes.
| Billing Regions | Geographic Location |
|---|
| Zone 1 |
North America |
| Europe |
| Zone 2 |
Asia Pacific |
| Latin America |
| Middle East / Africa |
Developers cannot control which locations are used to deliver content, so bills may reflect delivery charges from any of the Windows Azure CDN billing regions. User requests are directed to CDN nodes based on their Internet service provider's routing tables as well as network conditions. Users may be routed to locations that are preferred by their ISP, and/or nodes that are judged as "closer" in a logical sense, not necessarily physical proximity. For example, if a developer deploys content on the CDN and end users are in both Europe and Asia Pacific, the developer would likely see charges for delivery in both Zone 1 and Zone 2. However, some users may be served from one of our other geographic locations such as North America, based on routing tables and network status, if for example an Asia Pacific CDN node became unreachable. In this example, the developer would be charged for data transfers at Zone 1 rates for those users.
When the Windows Azure CDN receives a request for an object it does not have at an edge location, it will make a standard request of Windows Azure Storage to obtain the data. CDN charges do not include fees associated with transferring this data from Windows Azure Storage to CDN. Any data transfers and storage transactions incurred to get data from Windows Azure Storage to CDN will be charged separately at our normal Windows Azure Storage rates. CDN charges are incurred for data requests it receives and for the data it transfers out to satisfy these requests.
Availability of content in the Windows Azure CDN's local caches (often called "cache efficacy" or "offload") is nondeterministic but is influenced by multiple factors including:
- Expiration ("max-age") header values
- Overall total size of the developer's content library (how much could be cached)
- Active working set (how much is currently cached)
- Traffic (how much is being served)
- Cache churn (how often are objects being added to cache, or aging out)
For example, a developer with a large ("wide") library with high churn and high traffic will have less cache efficacy than other users, because cache turnover is higher, so objects will be swapped in and out more frequently. This developer's overall Windows Azure Storage data transfer charges will be proportionally higher, since more origin requests are required. The overall end-user experience in this example will also be slightly slower on average since fewer requests are served from cache. The main cost control for developers to affect cache efficacy is the "max-age" HTTP header. Longer max-age headers allow the CDN to hold objects longer, reducing the need to make origin requests.
More about CDN
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Caching, based on cache size per month:
Price
Caching is priced per cache size per month, no matter how much cache you actually end up using. In addition to the prices noted above for Caching, you will also be charged for the associated data transfers, for ingress and egress outside the data center that your app is provisioned.
| Standard pay-as-you-go pricing for caching |
|---|
| 128 MB cache for $45.00 |
| 256 MB cache for $55.00 |
| 512 MB cache for $75.00 |
| 1 GB cache for $110.00 |
| 2 GB cache for $180.00 |
| 4 GB cache for $325.00 |
Billing Details
Once you provision a cache of a certain size, the service limits the amount of data you put in the cache to that size. Your application might temporarily have more data in the cache than the size for which you signed up, but the system will soon take corrective action and delete data from your cache to keep your cache size within the provisioned size.
In order to make sure there is fair usage of resources, the service might enforce limitations based on the number of transactions being made against the cache, the total data transfer being consumed, or the number of concurrent connections being used. If you exceed the limitations enforced by the service, your application will be notified by receiving an exception specifying the specific quota limit you have reached.
The table below provides general guideline that can help you plan your usage of the service. This guideline is a high-level estimate and is subject to revision in the future.
| Cache Size | Transactions Per Hour | Data Transfers Per Hour (MB) | Concurrent Connections |
|---|
| 128MB |
400,000 |
1,400 |
10 |
| 256MB |
800,000 |
2,800 |
10 |
| 512MB |
1,600,000 |
5,600 |
20 |
| 1GB |
3,200,000 |
11,200 |
40 |
| 2GB |
6,400,000 |
22,400 |
80 |
| 4GB |
12,800,000 |
44,800 |
160 |
More about Caching
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Service Bus:
Price
Effective December 10, 2011, Service Bus will be offered at no charge (except for standard data transfer fees). This promotional period will end for all billing months beginning after May 31, 2012. Service Bus will then be charged at the following rates noted below:
- $0.01 per 10,000 messages
- $0.10 per 100 relay hours (this only applies when using the Service Bus Relay capability)
Billing Details
Messages are charged based on the number of messages sent to, or delivered by, the Service Bus during the billing month. This includes delivery of “null” messages in response to receive requests against empty queues/subscriptions. Messages over 64KB in size will be charged an additional message for each additional 64KB of data (rounded up).
Relay hours will be charged from the time of creation to deletion (from when the first listener opens to when the last listener closes on the endpoint) and rounded up to the next whole hour. There is no relay hour charge if you are only using Service Bus Queues and Topics.
In addition to the prices noted above for Service Bus, you will also be charged for the associated data transfers for egress outside the data center that your app is provisioned in.
Learn more about Service Bus pricing
More about Service Bus
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