Use the Pricing calculator to estimate costs

  • 5 minutes

With Azure's cloud-based subscription model, most of Contoso's IT costs are operating expenditures. Because the IT director wants more detail on how costs can be managed, you can use the Pricing calculator to get an estimate of the expected costs.

What is the Pricing calculator?

The Pricing calculator is a webpage that you can use to get estimates of Azure costs. The calculator provides links that enable you to select the specific services that you intend to use, and then determine estimated costs based on planned configurations.

A screenshot of the Azure Pricing calculator webpage.

Tip

You can access the Pricing calculator here. https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/calculator/.

On the Products tab, you can select specific products, such as:

  • VMs
  • Azure Functions
  • Cloud Services
  • Virtual Network
  • Azure DNS
  • Storage Accounts
  • App Service
  • Event Hubs

Products are grouped into collections, such as Compute, Networking, Storage, and Analytics. You can also review example scenarios and add those to your estimate. Scenarios currently include:

  • Advanced analytics on big data
  • Modern data warehouse
  • Real-time analytics

These example scenarios identify all the components that you'll need to create the scenario, and then provide an easy way to estimate the costs for that scenario.

A screenshot of the Azure Pricing calculator webpage. The administrator has selected the Example scenarios tab, and chosen the Real-time analytics scenario. In the details pane, an diagram represents the scenario's components together with a text list of those components.

Create an estimate

To create an estimate, browse to the Pricing calculator webpage. Sign in, so that your estimate can be saved for later. Then use the following procedure:

  1. On the Products tab, select the products that you anticipate using. For example, for a simple compute estimate, in the navigation list, select Compute, and then select Virtual Machines.

  2. Select Networking, and then select Virtual Network.

  3. Also select Azure DNS and Azure Bastion.

  4. Scroll down the webpage, where you can review the features you've added to your estimate.

  5. You can now configure the details. For example, in the Virtual Machines section, select the OPERATING SYSTEM, TYPE, TIER, INSTANCE, and number of VIRTUAL MACHINES.

  6. In the Savings options section, select any Compute savings. For example, select 1 year reserved (~32% discount).

    A screenshot of the Azure Pricing calculator site. The administrator has added a number of components, as described in the preceding text, and is reviewing the Your Estimate details.

  7. Scroll down and review the information for additional products and components. In this case, review the Virtual Network, Azure DNS, and Azure Bastion pricing.

  8. Make any changes to reflect your specific configuration.

  9. At the end of the estimate, add any Support options or Programs and Offers you want, such as Microsoft Online Services Agreement.

  10. Then review the final estimated monthly cost.

You can choose to save the estimate for future reference. If you save the estimate, when you return to Pricing calculator you'll find the saved estimate on the Saved estimates tab.

A screenshot of the Azure Pricing calculator site. The administrator is reviewing the estimate monthly cost. Options are available to Save and Export the estimate

Tip

You can also export the estimate to Microsoft Excel by selecting Export.

A screenshot of Excel. The administrator is reviewing the estimate in a workbook in Excel.

Try it with Pricing calculator

If you'd like to try estimating costs with Pricing calculator, you can complete the exercise at Exercise - Estimate workload cost by using the Pricing calculator. (This exercise doesn't require an Azure subscription.)

Additional reading

You can learn more by reviewing the following document: