Microsoft Azure Pricing Overview

Microsoft Azure is the second-largest public cloud and the default choice for organizations already invested in Windows Server, SQL Server, Active Directory, and the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Azure pricing follows the same on-demand plus reservation model as AWS, but with naming conventions and reducere mechanics worth understanding before you commit.

Compute: Virtual Machine Series

Azure VMs are named with a letter prefix indicating the family and a number indicating the generation. Common series include:

• General purpose — Dv4, Dv5, B-series (burstable). D series is the closest analog to AWS m5; the B-series is burstable and ideal for low-traffic web servers.
• Compute optimized — Fv2, Fasv5. High CPU-to-memory ratio for analytics and gaming.
• Memory optimized — Ev4, Ev5. For SAP HANA and large in-memory caches.
• Storage optimized — Lsv2. Local NVMe for big-data and NoSQL.

A Standard_D2s_v5 (2 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM) on a Linux image in East US lists around $0.096 per hour, comparable to the AWS m5.large. Azure also offers the B2s burstable VM (2 vCPU, 4 GiB) at roughly $0.0416 per hour, useful for development environments that sit idle most of the day.

Storage: Blob Storage Tiers

Azure Blob Storage mirrors S3 with Hot, Cool, and Archive tiers. Hot tier in East US starts at approximately $0.018 per GB-month for the first 50 TB, slightly cheaper than S3 standard. The Cool tier costs around $0.011 per GB-month but charges per-GB retrieval, so it suits data accessed monthly rather than daily.

Free Tier

Azure offers 12 months of popular free services (750 hours of B1S VM, 5 GB of Blob stocare) plus an always-free tier with 55+ services. New accounts receive a $200 credit valid for 30 days, smaller than the AWS and GCP credits but enough for initial evaluation.

Discount Programs

• Reserved Instances — 1-year or 3-year commitments, up to 65 percent off on-demand pay-as-you-go pricing for Linux VMs.
• Azure Savings Plan — a compute spend commitment that applies across VM series and regiunes, useful when your sarcina de lucru mix is unpredictable.
• Spot VMs — spare capacity with up to 82 percent reducere, evictable with a 30-second notice.

Azure Reserved Instances can be combined with the Azure Hybrid Benefit to reuse existing Windows Server and SQL Server licenses, which can lower Windows-based sarcina de lucrus by up to 85 percent. See our AWS vs Azure compute comparatie for the side-by-side.