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Azure virtual machine sizes naming conventions

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Applies to: ✔️ Linux VMs ✔️ Windows VMs ✔️ Flexible scale sets ✔️ Uniform scale sets

This page outlines the naming conventions used for Azure VMs. VMs use these naming conventions to denote varying features and specifications.

Naming convention explanation

[Family] + [Sub-family]* + [# of vCPUs] + [Constrained vCPUs]* + [Additive Features] + [Accelerator Type]* + [Version]

Value Explanation
Family Indicates the VM Family Series
*Subfamily Used for specialized VM differentiations only
# of vCPUs Denotes the number of vCPUs of the VM
*Constrained vCPUs Used for certain VM sizes only. Denotes the number of vCPUs for the constrained vCPU capable size
Additive Features Lower case letters denote additive features, such as:
a = AMD-based processor
b = Block Storage performance
d = diskful (that is, a local temp disk is present); this feature is for newer Azure VMs, see Ddv4 and Ddsv4-series
i = isolated size
l = low memory; a lower amount of memory than the memory intensive size
m = memory intensive; the most amount of memory in a particular size
p = ARM Cpu
t = tiny memory; the smallest amount of memory in a particular size
s = Premium Storage capable, including possible use of Ultra SSD (Note: some newer sizes without the attribute of s can still support Premium Storage, such as M128, M64, etc.)
C = Confidential
NP = node packing
*Accelerator Type Denotes the type of hardware accelerator in the specialized/GPU SKUs. Only the new specialized/GPU SKUs launched from Q3 2020 have the hardware accelerator in the name.
Version Denotes the version of the VM Family Series

Example breakdown

[Family] + [Subfamily]* + [# of vCPUs] + [Additive Features] + [Accelerator Type]* + [Version]

Example 1: M416ms_v2

Value Explanation
Family M
# of vCPUs 416
Additive Features m = memory intensive
s = Premium Storage capable
Version v2

Example 2: NV16as_v4

Value Explanation
Family N
Subfamily V
# of vCPUs 16
Additive Features a = AMD-based processor
s = Premium Storage capable
Version v4

Example 3: NC4as_T4_v3

Value Explanation
Family N
Subfamily C
# of vCPUs 4
Additive Features a = AMD-based processor
s = Premium Storage capable
Accelerator Type T4
Version v3

Example 4: M8-2ms_v2 (Constrained vCPU)

Value Explanation
Family M
# of vCPUs 8
# of constrained (actual) vCPUs 2
Additive Features m = memory intensive
s = Premium Storage capable
Version v2

Next steps

Learn more about available VM Sizes in Azure.