Clarification on Azure VM Billing for Short Runtime (Less than 5 Minutes) – Effective 1st June 2025

Question

Hello Microsoft Team,

I recently received the following communication regarding an upcoming billing policy change for Azure Virtual Machines:

Effective from 1st June 2025, Microsoft will begin billing for Azure VMs even if they are shut down within 300 seconds (5 minutes) of being started. This change ensures consistency in usage-based billing and applies across all VM types.

I understand that this impacts VMs that are started and stopped within short intervals (e.g., 1–4 minutes), especially in automated or CI/CD workflows.

1. How exactly will the cost be calculated in this case?
   • Will the VM be billed per second, per minute, or rounded up to a certain threshold?
   • Does the minimum 1-minute charge still apply as per current documentation?
2. If I start a VM and shut it down after 90 seconds, will I be billed for:
   • 90 seconds?
   • Rounded up to 2 minutes?
   • Or just 1 minute (minimum)?
3. Will this change apply to all VM sizes and SKUs, including Spot VMs, Reserved Instances, and B-series?
4. Can you confirm that no compute cost applies when a VM is in the Stopped (Deallocated) state?
5. Does this affect other services like Azure Container Instances or Functions, or is it exclusive to Virtual Machines?References:

• Azure VM Power States and Billing
  • Azure VM Pricing
  Appreciate any insights or documentation links for deeper understanding. Thank you!

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A,

​As of June 1, 2025, Microsoft is updating its billing policy for Azure Virtual Machines (VMs). Here's how this change affects your usage and billing:​

Minimum Billing Duration: Starting June 1, 2025, Azure will implement a minimum billing duration of 5 minutes (300 seconds) for all VM instances. This means:​

• If a VM is started and then stopped or deallocated within 5 minutes, you will still be billed for the full 5 minutes.​
• For VMs running longer than 5 minutes, billing will continue to be calculated per second beyond the initial 5-minute minimum.​

Scenario 2: You start a VM and stop it after 90 seconds.​

• Before June 1, 2025: Billed for 90 seconds.​
• After June 1, 2025: Billed for 5 minutes (300 seconds).​

#3 This policy applies to all VM types and sizes, including:​

• Standard VMs​
• B-series burstable VMs​
• Spot VMs​
• Reserved Instances​
• VM Scale Sets​

#4 Stopped (Deallocated):

• Compute Charges: No compute charges are incurred.​
• Storage Charges: You continue to incur charges for storage resources, such as OS and data disks.​

#5 - Azure Container Instances and Azure Functions are not affected by the VM billing policy change

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