Can we stop Azure App Service to save cost ?

MS Techie 2,676

Why have they given the Number of Hours for the Azure App Service. Anyways we cannot stop the Azure App Service to save some costs.
OR
is there an option to STOP the AppService to SAVE COST ? Can we schedule the Start and Stop of Azure App Service ?

My requirement is that the Web App should be running during Weekdays and shutdown during Weekends.

I am aware that for Azure VMs, we can stop the Azure VM , during non-working hours to save money .

Accepted answer

sadomovalex 3,626 Reputation points

2021-02-22T14:58:47.89+00:00
it is possible to stop whole app service (see Full stopping a Web App), but I'm not sure that it will affect pricing:

Go to https://resources.azure.com

Find needed app service from above list

In JSON view on the right side click Edit

Change “state” from “Running” to “Stopped” – this is the same as if you would stop App service form Azure portal

Find “scmSiteAlsoStopped” property and set it from “false” to “true” – it will stop SCM file
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MS Techie 2,676 Reputation points

2021-02-22T15:11:35.577+00:00

Hi, but will that stop the azure pricing charges ?

sadomovalex 3,626 Reputation points

2021-02-23T14:57:32.9+00:00

looks like it doesn't: Don't charge for app services in a stopped state:

Since billing is defined by the App Service Plan’s tier (free, shared, basic, standard, premium), to stop billing you’ll need to scale down to the free tier of the plan.

So the only way is to scale down to free tier of App Service plan.

MS Techie 2,676 Reputation points

2021-02-24T13:44:09.333+00:00

is it possible to automatically scale down from Standard tier to free tier for the Azure App Service plan ?

in other words, is it possible to automatically scale up and down across tiers .. i only know that from Standard tier onwards for App Service, we can scale out and scale in .... but not across tiers .

So is it possible to scale automatically across tiers ?

sadomovalex 3,626 Reputation points

2021-02-24T16:01:10.57+00:00

documentation says that it is possible in general:

Your App Service plan can be scaled up and down at any time. It is as simple as changing the pricing tier of the plan. You can choose a lower pricing tier at first and scale up later when you need more App Service features.For example, you can start testing your web app in a Free App Service plan and pay nothing. When you want to add your custom DNS name to the web app, just scale your plan up to Shared tier. ... The same works in the reverse. When you feel you no longer need the capabilities or features of a higher tier, you can scale down to a lower tier, which saves you money.

It means that it should be possible to do it automatically e.g. with Powershell.

MS Techie 2,676 Reputation points

2021-03-02T17:40:01.533+00:00

For the App Service , is it possible to automatically scale across tiers like Basic , Standard ?
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2 additional answers

MS Techie 2,676 Reputation points

2021-02-22T09:48:09.117+00:00

Can some expert or Microsoft Employee comment on this

if Azure App Service cannot be stopped to save money... then why in microsoft Azure Pricing site, they talk about number of hours of running App Service ?
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3 people found this answer helpful.
Julio César Hernández Sánchez 1 Reputation point

2021-03-02T17:58:25.243+00:00

Hi, I'm not a microsoft employe but i think that is because you can scale the app service plan.

for example

100 hours whit the S1 plan

and

644 hours whit the S2 plan

¡Regards!

Jani Hyytiäinen 0 Reputation points

2023-09-03T07:15:00.6566667+00:00

Because you might be scaling down your instance to another plan (f.ex. free tier) while your load is low. Which means you'll not be running the selected instance 730h/mo.
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Jack Roper 11 Reputation points

2021-02-18T17:01:50.307+00:00

I don't believe that is possible - one workaround would be to use autoscaling rules to move between free or lower cost app service tiers based on time of day or usage.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/overview-hosting-plans
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2 people found this answer helpful.
Cheong00 3,471 Reputation points

2021-02-22T10:20:10.48+00:00

Yup. Or you can set your spending limit in Cost and Billing so if it reaches the limit the service will stop automatically.

MS Techie 2,676 Reputation points

2021-02-22T12:01:03.777+00:00

In Auto-scaling , we can only scale in or scale out.. We cannot move between tiers in auto-scaling , i think
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