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MPVM-4833 avatar image
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MPVM-4833 asked shariqahmkhan commented

Azure VM Billing

Hello,

I am new to Azure portal. I signed up for a trial and created a Win 10 VM (which was not free for trial account). I hardly used VM for 2 hours but since last few days, my account was constantly billed. I switched off the machine every time after shutting down, never kept open. Now, I don't understand why the bill is keep accumulating? I raised 3 support tickets, got a few delayed responses from Azure support but it is awful to know that Azure support staff have no clue what I am talking about. They are beating about the bush and never answered a simple question: Why I am continuously billed when machine is deallocated and switched off?

I would appreciate if somebody can help me in understanding the billing method. It seems Azure has pile of hidden charges, on top of charges shown at the time of creating VMs.

Thanks

azure-virtual-machinesazure-cost-management
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1 Answer

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Manish082007 answered shariqahmkhan commented

You are billed because of storage of virtual machine image & your personal data in Azure. To store all this Azure required to storage account. So even if you are shutting down or deallocate VM, you are continuously being charged for disk you are using. Azure even charges you for the Public IP Address which you are using to connect your VM. Any data/traffic goes outside your VM (egress), you will be charge for that too. Azure even charges for the Windows 10 License you are using in VM. If you have genuine windows 10 License then you can use it VM by Software Assurance Program, your VM bill will be half. If you reserve your VM instance for 2-3 year, you will get 40% around discount in VM price. VM price also depend on Region too. Older region has lesser price.

When you don't require your VM then first deallocate/delete VM, then disk drive associated with it & delete public IP created with it.

Microsoft charges for everything whatever you are doing in on premise. Storage, egress bandwidth, OS license, Public IP address, hosting, electricity bill, networking etc.

Cloud billing & its optimization is a big topic. Hope my answer will give you what you are looking for.

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MPVM-4833 avatar image MPVM-4833 ·

Much appreciated. I think your response has more clarity.
I was weighing my options for buying a new desktop PC vs VM. Looks like VM is costly by a great margin.

Thanks once again.
Cheers!

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Manish082007 avatar image Manish082007 MPVM-4833 ·

If you are looking for buying new Desktop PC vs Cloud PC(VM) then you can look into Azure Windows Virtual Desktop. This is dedicated service for Cloud PC. Azure VM is ideal solution for Web hosting or SQL Database server or enterprise application hosting (Infrastructure as a service) like scenario.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/services/virtual-desktop/


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MPVM-4833 avatar image MPVM-4833 Manish082007 ·

Thanks.
I went through Azure Virtual Desktop page. It seems this is suitable for enterprise solutions only, since I saw minimum 100 users. Not sure if single user single desktop is available?

Regards,

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MPVM-4833 avatar image MPVM-4833 ·

A couple of ancillary questions.

Is it possible to custom choose disk type when creating VMs? Like I created D2SV4, but I was never asked which storage disk I want and what are their charges.
Secondly, it is possible to upgrade or downgrade disks after creating VMs?

Thanks

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Manish082007 avatar image Manish082007 MPVM-4833 ·

Yes, while creating Azure VM you can select 4 types of Disk (Standard HDD, Standard SSD, Premium SSD, Ultra Disk), Default type is premium SSD. If you choose Standard HDD then your price will be lower but as sacrifice of speed. It will take more time to start, shutdown & provision the VM.

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MPVM-4833 avatar image MPVM-4833 Manish082007 ·

Yes I saw that. But even if I choose Standard Disk, there is no option choose disk space. The default P10 or S10 is chosen and I don't see option to pick less disk space.

Regards,

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