Migrate your NC6s_v3, NC12s_v3, NC24s_v3 virtual machine sizes by September 30, 2025

On September 30, 2025, Microsoft Azure will retire the Standard_NC6s_v3, Standard_NC12s_v3 and Standard_NC24s_v3 virtual machines (VMs) in NCv3-series virtual machines (VMs). To avoid any disruption to your service, we recommend that you change the VM sizing for your workloads from the current NCv3-series VMs to the newer VM series in the same NC product line.

Microsoft is recommending, the Azure NC A100 v4-series VMs, which offer greater GPU memory bandwidth per GPU, improved Accelerated Networking capabilities, larger and faster local solid state drives. Overall the NC A100 v4-series delivers better cost performance across midrange AI training and inference workloads.

How does the retirement of the NC6s_v3, NC12s_v3, NC24s_v3 virtual machine sizes in NCv3-series affect me?

After September 30th, any remaining tandard_NC6s_v3, Standard_NC12s_v3 and Standard_NC24s_v3 virtual machines (VMs) subscriptions will be set to a deallocated state. They'll stop working and no longer incur billing charges. The NCv3 will no longer be under SLA or have support included.

Note

This retirement only impacts the virtual machine sizes in the original NCv3-series powered by NVIDIA V100 GPUs. See Standard_NC24rs_v3 retirement guide. This retirement announcement doesn't apply to NCasT4 v3, and NC A100 v4 and NCads H100 v5 series virtual machines.

What action do I need to take before the retirement date?

You need to resize or deallocate your Standard_NC6s_v3, Standard_NC12s_v3 and Standard_NC24s_v3 VMs. We recommend that you change VM sizes for these workloads, from the original Standard_NC6s_v3, Standard_NC12s_v3 and Standard_NC24s_v3 VMs to the NC A100 v4-series (or an alternative).

The NC A100 v4 series is powered by NVIDIA A100 PCIe GPU and 3rd generation AMD EPYC™ 7V13 (Milan) processors. The VMs feature up to 4 NVIDIA A100 PCIe GPUs with 80 GB memory each, up to 96 non-multithreaded AMD EPYC Milan processor cores and 880 GiB of system memory. Check Azure Regions by Product page for region availability. Visit the Azure Virtual Machine pricing page for pricing information.

The NCads H100 v5-Series is another SKU in the same product line powered by NVIDIA H100 NVL GPU. These VMs are targeted for GPU accelerated midrange AI training, batch inferencing, and high performance computing simulation workloads.

Current VM Size	Target VM Size	Difference in Specification
Standard_NC6s_v3	Standard_NC24ads_A100_v4	vCPU: 24 (+18) GPU Count: 1 (Same) Memory: GiB 220 (+108) Temp storage GiB: 979 (+243) Max data disks: 12 (+0) Accelerated networking: Yes Premium storage: Yes
Standard_NC12s_v3	Standard_NC48ads_A100_v4	vCPU: 48 (+18) GPU Count: 2 (Same) Memory: GiB 440 (+216) Temp storage GiB: 1858 (+384) Max data disks: 24 (+0) Accelerated networking: Yes (+) Premium storage: Yes
Standard_NC24s_v3	Standard_NC96ads_A100_v4	vCPU: 96 (+18) GPU Count: 4 (Same) Memory: GiB 880 (+432) Temp storage (SSD) GiB: 3916 (+968) Max data disks: 32 (+0) Accelerated networking: Yes(+) Premium storage: Yes

Steps to change VM size

1. Choose a series and size. Refer to the above tables for Microsoft’s recommendation. You can also file a support request if more assistance is needed.
2. Request quota for the new target VM).
3. You can resize the virtual machine.

Help and support

If you have a support plan and you need technical help, create a support request.

1. Under Issue type, select Technical.
2. Under Subscription, select your subscription.
3. Under Service, click My services.
4. Under Service type, select Virtual Machine running Windows/Linux.
5. Under Summary, enter the summary of your request.
6. Under Problem type, select Assistance with resizing my VM.
7. Under Problem subtype, select the option that applies to you.