Azure VM Cost Calculator
Enter your VM's current hourly rate and disk rate from the Azure Pricing Calculator — pricing varies by VM size, disk tier, and region, and changes over time.
Compute and Managed Disks, Billed Separately
Azure prices a virtual machine's compute time separately from the managed disks attached to it, and the two follow different pricing logic entirely — VM compute is an hourly rate tied to size and series, while managed disks are billed by GB-month at a rate that depends on the disk tier (Standard HDD, Standard SSD, Premium SSD, and so on). A cost estimate that only accounts for the VM's hourly rate misses a meaningful part of the bill.
The Formula
Compute cost comes from the VM's hourly rate multiplied by hours run in the month; disk cost comes from the provisioned disk size multiplied by that disk tier's monthly rate. The two are added for a combined total.
Where This Estimate Helps
- Sizing before deployment — projecting the monthly cost of a VM size and disk configuration before provisioning it in the Azure portal.
- Disk tier tradeoffs — comparing the monthly cost delta between a Standard SSD and a Premium SSD of the same size, to weigh performance against price.
- Dev/test environment cost control — estimating what leaving a VM running around the clock costs versus stopping it outside business hours, since Azure only charges compute while the VM is running (though the disk keeps billing regardless).
- Multi-VM budgeting — running the same formula per VM size across a planned fleet to build up a total infrastructure estimate.
Illustrative Worked Example
| Item | Calculation | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Compute (at an example $0.08/hr rate) | $0.08 × 500 hr | $40.00 |
| Managed disk (at an example $0.05/GB-month rate) | 128 GB × $0.05/GB | $6.40 |
| Total | $46.40 |
The $0.08/hr and $0.05/GB figures above are placeholder example numbers, not current Azure pricing. VM and managed disk pricing varies by VM series, disk tier, and region, and changes over time — check the Azure Pricing Calculator for your exact configuration's current rate.
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter the Azure VM Hourly Rate for your chosen VM size.
- Enter Hours Run per Month (up to 744).
- Optionally enter Managed Disk Storage (GB).
- Optionally enter the disk's Storage Rate ($/GB-month) for your chosen disk tier.
- Select Calculate for the estimated total monthly cost.
Related Calculations
Pricing an AWS instance instead? Use the AWS EC2 Cost Calculator, or add data transfer costs to the picture with the general Cloud Cost Calculator.