Regarding Savings Plan

Question

We understand that Amortized Cost with Pricing Model = SavingsPlan helps identify the resources consuming the Savings Plan benefit.

Is there any Microsoft-supported method or report available to determine the actual savings realized from an existing Savings Plan without manually comparing the PAYG and effective prices from the Cost Details export?

2. Azure Advisor recommendation validation

While validating the Advisor recommendation, apart from the filters below:

• Metric: Actual Cost
• Pricing Model: OnDemand
• Service Family: Compute
• Granularity: Daily
• Group By: Resource/Service

Are there any additional Cost Analysis filters or meter-level filters recommended by Microsoft to accurately identify the eligible on-demand compute usage that contributes to the Savings Plan recommendation?

3. Calculating realized Savings Plan savings

Is the Cost and usage details (Actual) and Cost and usage details (Amortized) export the recommended approach to calculate the realized Savings Plan savings?

If so, could you please share the relevant fields (for example, EffectivePrice, UnitPrice, BenefitId, BenefitName, PricingModel, etc.) that should be compared to derive the exact savings?

4. Azure Advisor recommendation with existing Savings Plans

The tenant currently has two active Azure Savings Plans.

We observed that one of the Savings Plans has a Last 7-day utilization of 96%, indicating that it is not being fully utilized at all times. Despite this, Azure Advisor is recommending the purchase of an additional Savings Plan.

Could you please help us understand the recommendation logic in this scenario? Specifically:

• Why is an additional Savings Plan being recommended when one of the existing Savings Plans is not consistently achieving 100% utilization?
• Does Advisor evaluate uncovered eligible PAYG compute usage independently of the utilization of existing Savings Plans?
• Under what conditions would Advisor still recommend an additional Savings Plan even when an existing plan shows less than 100% utilization? We understand that Amortized Cost with Pricing Model = SavingsPlan helps identify the resources consuming the Savings Plan benefit. Is there any Microsoft-supported method or report available to determine the actual savings realized from an existing Savings Plan without manually comparing the PAYG and effective prices from the Cost Details export?

Answer 1

Hello Shreeraksha.G,

Thank you for your detailed questions.

1. Determining realized Savings Plan savings

Yes. Azure Cost Management provides Savings Plan usage and cost information through both Actual** Cost and Amortized **Cost views. These datasets can be used to understand which resources consumed Savings Plan benefits, analyze utilization, and evaluate the cost impact of Savings Plan usage.

For Savings Plan analysis, the most useful fields are:

• BenefitId
• BenefitName
• PricingModel
• EffectivePrice
• ProductOrderId
• ProductOrderName
• Term

In the Actual** Cost dataset, usage receiving a Savings Plan benefit has an EffectivePrice of 0. In the Amortized **Cost dataset, the same usage is assigned a prorated portion of the Savings Plan commitment, allowing cost allocation and utilization analysis.

2. Azure Advisor recommendation validation

Savings Plan recommendations are generated from actual on-demand compute usage and costs over the selected lookback period (7, 30, or 60 days). Azure evaluates historical usage patterns and simulates different commitment amounts to identify opportunities for additional savings.

The filters you're already using are aligned with recommendation analysis:

• Metric = Actual Cost
• Pricing Model = OnDemand
• Service Family = Compute
• Granularity = Daily
• Group By = Resource or Service

In addition, it is helpful to ensure the analysis scope matches the recommendation scope (Shared, Subscription, or Resource Group) and to focus on compute resources that are eligible for Savings Plan benefits.

https://docs.azure.cn/en-us/cost-management-billing/savings-plan/purchase-recommendations

3. Calculating realized Savings Plan savings

The recommended approach is to use the Cost** and Usage Details (Actual Cost) and Cost and Usage Details (Amortized **Cost) exports together. These datasets provide the information required to identify Savings Plan consumption and understand how Savings Plan costs are allocated across resources.

Commonly used fields include:

• BenefitId
• BenefitName
• PricingModel
• EffectivePrice
• ProductOrderId
• ProductOrderName
• Term

The Actual Cost dataset reflects billing charges, while the Amortized Cost dataset distributes the Savings Plan commitment across the resources that consumed the benefit. Reviewing both views provides a comprehensive picture of Savings Plan utilization and cost impact.

4. Additional Savings Plan recommendation when utilization is below 100%

This behavior can be expected because Savings Plan utilization and Savings Plan recommendations are evaluated differently.

Savings Plans are applied on an hourly basis, and recommendation calculations analyze historical hourly usage across the selected lookback period. Azure evaluates actual on-demand compute consumption, existing Savings Plans, existing Reservations, and projected savings opportunities before generating recommendations.

As a result:

• A Savings Plan may show less than 100% utilization during certain hours.
• At the same time, there may still be eligible compute usage that remains uncovered during other hours.
• Azure Advisor evaluates the overall usage pattern and may identify additional commitment opportunities that can further reduce costs.

To answer your specific questions:

Why** is Azure Advisor recommending another Savings Plan when utilization is **96%?

Because recommendation calculations are based on overall hourly consumption patterns and potential savings opportunities rather than utilization percentage alone.

Does** Advisor evaluate uncovered eligible PAYG compute usage separately from existing Savings **Plans?

Yes. Recommendation calculations consider actual eligible on-demand usage while also taking existing Savings Plans and Reservations into account when estimating potential savings.

When** can Azure still recommend an additional Savings **Plan?

When historical usage analysis shows that additional eligible compute consumption exists and simulation results indicate that increasing the commitment amount could further reduce total costs.

References

• View savings plan cost and usage details [learn.microsoft.com], [github.com]
• Savings plan recommendations [docs.azure.cn]
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cost-management-billing/reservations-savings-plan-faq

I hope this helps clarify how Savings Plan utilization, amortized cost reporting, realized cost impact, and Azure Advisor recommendations are evaluated within Azure Cost Management.

Answer 2

Your proposed exports are the Microsoft-supported way to quantify realized savings; Cost Analysis alone is not an exact savings ledger. Use Amortized Cost details, filter PricingModel=SavingsPlan, and group by BenefitId/BenefitName or ProductOrderId. Retain ChargeType, Quantity, UnitPrice or PayGPrice, Cost, EffectivePrice, resource, and meter fields. Estimate baseline PAYG as UnitPrice multiplied by Quantity (or PayGPrice multiplied by Quantity), then subtract total savings-plan Cost, including ChargeType=UnusedSavingsPlan; otherwise underutilization is understated.

For Advisor validation, use Actual Cost records with ChargeType=Usage and PricingModel=OnDemand, scoped to savings-plan-eligible compute. Microsoft does not prescribe one extra meter filter that reproduces Advisor exactly; its recommendation evaluates eligible usage hourly and accounts for existing savings plans and reservations.

A 96% seven-day utilization does not contradict another recommendation: some hours can leave commitment unused while other hours exceed it and incur uncovered PAYG. Review hourly coverage, scope, term, and forecasted commitment before buying.