Basic Tier price

Question

Basic Tier price

HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR 391

Hi

As of 2025, the Application Gateway Basic tier does not allow you to choose the instance count manually.

How can we calculate the pricing for the Basic tier in the East US region?

total price= fixed price + capacity unit

How many instances are included or available in the Basic tier?

regards

Hassan

Sindhuja Dasari 1,520 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-03T00:37:12.5766667+00:00

Hello HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR
Following up to see if the above information was helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.
HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR 391 Reputation points

2025-06-03T20:59:30.4166667+00:00

Hi Sindhuja,

Thank you for your reply.

Since you can't manually specify the number of instances, the Application Gateway automatically adjusts its capacity based on your application's needs. Azure calculates pricing based on capacity unitsrather than fixed instance counts.

This is a good feature of the Basic Tier is that the Application Gateway automatically adjusts its capacity based on the application’s needs. However, there is one drawback, we cannot control the cost. In the Standard v2 or WAF v2 tiers, we can set a limit on the number of instances to prevent costs from increasing. But with the Basic Tier, the Application Gateway can scale up to an unlimited number of instances, which may lead to higher costs.

Am I right?

regards

Hassan
Sindhuja Dasari 1,520 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-04T08:51:14.7133333+00:00

Hello HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR

Thanks for your reply.
The Basic Tier of Azure Application Gateway does automatically scale based on demand, which is great for flexibility. However, unlike Standard v2 and WAF v2, the Basic Tier does not allow manual instance control, meaning costs can fluctuate unpredictably.

While auto-scaling ensures performance, the lack of instance control in the Basic Tier could result in unexpected expenses if traffic spikes significantly.

For cost predictability, Standard v2 or WAF v2 would be better suited!
HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR 391 Reputation points

2025-06-05T00:24:39.6+00:00

Hi Sindhuja,

Thank you for the clarification.

For example, if there is high traffic on the web application and it is using 50 capacity units, the capacity units will decrease when the traffic is reduced?

Regards

Hassan
Sindhuja Dasari 1,520 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-05T08:43:19.62+00:00

Hello HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR

Yes, exactly! Capacity units in the Basic Tier automatically scale up and down based on traffic demand. When your web application experiences high traffic, the Application Gateway increases capacity units to handle the load. If traffic later decreases, the capacity units will reduce accordingly, helping optimize resource usage.

Hope this helps!
Converting my comment to answer.

Please don’t forget to close the thread by clicking "Accept the answer" and "Yes" wherever the information provided helps you, as this can be beneficial to other community members.

Accepted answer

1 additional answer

Your answer

Sindhuja Dasari 1,520 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-03T00:37:12.5766667+00:00

Hello HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR
Following up to see if the above information was helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know.
HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR 391 Reputation points

2025-06-03T20:59:30.4166667+00:00

Hi Sindhuja,

Thank you for your reply.

Since you can't manually specify the number of instances, the Application Gateway automatically adjusts its capacity based on your application's needs. Azure calculates pricing based on capacity unitsrather than fixed instance counts.

This is a good feature of the Basic Tier is that the Application Gateway automatically adjusts its capacity based on the application’s needs. However, there is one drawback, we cannot control the cost. In the Standard v2 or WAF v2 tiers, we can set a limit on the number of instances to prevent costs from increasing. But with the Basic Tier, the Application Gateway can scale up to an unlimited number of instances, which may lead to higher costs.

Am I right?

regards

Hassan
Sindhuja Dasari 1,520 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-04T08:51:14.7133333+00:00

Hello HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR

Thanks for your reply.
The Basic Tier of Azure Application Gateway does automatically scale based on demand, which is great for flexibility. However, unlike Standard v2 and WAF v2, the Basic Tier does not allow manual instance control, meaning costs can fluctuate unpredictably.

While auto-scaling ensures performance, the lack of instance control in the Basic Tier could result in unexpected expenses if traffic spikes significantly.

For cost predictability, Standard v2 or WAF v2 would be better suited!
HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR 391 Reputation points

2025-06-05T00:24:39.6+00:00

Hi Sindhuja,

Thank you for the clarification.

For example, if there is high traffic on the web application and it is using 50 capacity units, the capacity units will decrease when the traffic is reduced?

Regards

Hassan
Sindhuja Dasari 1,520 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-05T08:43:19.62+00:00

Hello HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR

Yes, exactly! Capacity units in the Basic Tier automatically scale up and down based on traffic demand. When your web application experiences high traffic, the Application Gateway increases capacity units to handle the load. If traffic later decreases, the capacity units will reduce accordingly, helping optimize resource usage.

Hope this helps!
Converting my comment to answer.

Please don’t forget to close the thread by clicking "Accept the answer" and "Yes" wherever the information provided helps you, as this can be beneficial to other community members.

Answer 1

Hello HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR

I totally get your confusion about the capacity unit pricing for the Application Gateway Basic tier, especially since there’s no manual instance selection involved.

So, here's the breakdown: In the Basic tier, the pricing is derived from a combination of the fixed hourly rate and "capacity units." Each capacity unit is priced at $0.0091 per unit-hour, and it's essentially a measure of the gateway's throughput.

Since you can't manually specify the number of instances, the Application Gateway automatically adjusts its capacity based on your application's needs. Azure calculates pricing based on capacity units rather than fixed instance counts.

The number of capacity units consumed is determined by the workload, including factors like request count and data processing rates.

To calculate your total cost, you'll need to consider how many capacity units your application uses over time. For example, if you were to use the gateway for 10,000 capacity unit-hours in a month, your total cost would be calculated as follows:

Fixed price per hour x number of hours
Capacity unit cost = 10,000 × $0.0091 = $91.00 for that month.

Azure automatically adjusts capacity units based on request rates, data processing, and connection load—ensuring efficient scaling without manual intervention.

Each instance in the Basic tier guarantees a minimum of 10 capacity units. Azure dynamically provisions instances based on traffic needs, meaning the number of instances may vary.

Please don’t forget to close the thread by clicking "Accept the answer" and "Yes" wherever the information provided helps you, as this can be beneficial to other community members.

HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR 391 Reputation points

2025-06-05T20:05:08.2466667+00:00

Hi,

If we deploy 2 instances, does that mean we get 20 capacity units?

If the application only uses 10 capacity units, will we still be charged for the remaining 10 unused units?

regards

Hassan
Sindhuja Dasari 1,520 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-09T07:37:18.5833333+00:00

Hello HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR

In the Basic Tier, Azure automatically scales capacity units, so you don't manually deploy instances.

Instances don’t equal fixed capacity units – The number of capacity units depends on workload demand.

You are only billed for used capacity units

Answer 2

Abiola Akinbade 29,490 Volunteer Moderator

Hello HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR,

Thanks for your question.

The basic tier is a fixed hourly rate and does not support manual instance count configuration.

Scaling is done internally based on your application’s requirement

The pricing is documented here:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/application-gateway/

You can mark it 'Accept Answer' and 'Upvote' if this helped you

Regards,

Abiola

HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR 391 Reputation points

2025-06-01T18:20:48.07+00:00

Hi

Thank you for the reply!

I have already read this article. I understand the fixed price, but I could not understand the capacity unit pricing.

The article mentions the capacity unit price as: $0.0091 per capacity unit-hour.

My question is: if we cannot choose the number of instances, then how is the price calculated per instance?

Regards

Hassan
HASSAN BIN NASIR DAR 391 Reputation points

2025-06-02T01:39:59.9566667+00:00

Hi

Thank you for the reply!

I have already read this article. I understand the fixed price, but I could not understand the capacity unit pricing.

The article mentions the capacity unit price as: $0.0091 per capacity unit-hour.

My question is: if we cannot choose the number of instances, then how is the price calculated per instance?

Regards

Hassan

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Basic Tier price

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