Microsoft Azure Cloud Services uses pay-as-you-go pricing based on the instance size you choose, ranging from $14.60/month for a small A0 instance up to $5,215.12/month for the largest E64 v3. You're billed per second for actual runtime, with monthly estimates based on 730 hours of usage.
Microsoft Azure Cloud Services costs between $14.60 and $5,215.12 per month with pay-as-you-go pricing across seven instance families, from A-Series General Purpose at $14.60/month to the memory-optimized E64 v3 at $5,215.12/month.
Azure doesn't sell fixed plans. You pick an instance size and pay per second for the time it runs. Here's how each family breaks down.
A-Series (General Purpose)
Price: $14.60–$467.20/month
Best For: Websites, small-to-medium databases, and everyday applications
Other Features:
- 1–8 cores and 0.75–14 GB RAM
- 20 GB to 2,040 GB temporary storage
This is the entry point. The A0 costs just $14.60 a month, so it's easy to test the waters. Need more power? Sizes scale up to the A4 with 8 cores at $467.20/month.
Av2 Standard
Price: $47.45–$615.39/month
Best For: Development workloads, build servers, code repositories, and low-traffic websites
Other Features:
- Latest A-Series generation with similar CPU performance and faster disk
- 1–8 cores and 2–64 GB RAM
- Works for micro services, early product experiments, and small databases
Av2 gives you newer hardware at a similar price point. The A1v2 starts at $47.45/month, making it a solid pick for developers running builds and experiments.
A-Series (Memory Intensive)
Price: $255.50–$1,029.30/month
Best For: Large databases, SharePoint server farms, and high-throughput applications
Other Features:
- 2–8 cores with 14–56 GB RAM
- Up to 2,040 GB temporary storage
When your app is RAM-hungry, this family fits. The A5 starts at $255.50/month with 14 GB of memory, and the A7 tops out at $1,029.30/month.
D-Series
Price: $102.20–$1,541.03/month
Best For: Applications that need faster CPUs, better local disk, or more memory
Other Features:
- Solid state drives (SSDs) and faster processors than A-Series
- General purpose (D1–D4) and memory intensive (D11–D14) options
D-Series adds SSDs and quicker processors. The D1 starts at $102.20/month, while the D14 with 16 cores and 112 GB RAM runs $1,541.03/month.
Dv2-Series
Price: $102.20–$1,926.47/month
Best For: Enterprise-grade applications that demand faster CPUs
Other Features:
- About 35% faster than D-Series on average
- Intel Xeon E5-2673 v3 with Turbo Boost up to 3.2 GHz
- Same memory and disk configurations as D-Series
Dv2 is the next generation of D-Series: same memory and disk, faster chips. The D1 v2 matches D-Series pricing at $102.20/month.
Dv3-Series
Price: $154.03–$4,934.80/month
Best For: General purpose workloads that need serious scale
Other Features:
- 2–64 vCPUs
- 8–256 GB RAM
- 50 GB to 1,600 GB temporary storage
Dv3 stretches much further, up to 64 vCPUs. The D64 v3 runs $4,934.80/month though, so save the top sizes for workloads that truly need them.
Ev3 (Memory Optimized)
Price: $181.04–$5,215.12/month
Best For: Relational database servers, medium-to-large caches, and in-memory analytics
Other Features:
- High memory-to-core ratio
- Up to 64 vCPUs and 432 GB RAM
Ev3 packs the most memory here, up to 432 GB. It's also the priciest family, topping out at $5,215.12/month for the E64 v3. Big databases and analytics teams will get the most from it.
A few billing details worth knowing. Prices don't include tax, and monthly estimates assume 730 hours of usage. You're billed for exactly the time an instance runs—partial hours aren't rounded up. If your service shows "Stopped (Deallocated)," billing stops; "Stopped Allocated" still bills you for allocated cores. Standard egress charges, Public IP addresses, and Key Vault certificate storage cost extra. Some families, like H-Series and G-Series, show no pricing in the selected region, so confirm availability for your region before committing.
Want to try before you buy? Azure offers a free trial with $200 in credit and free cloud services for 30 days. There's also a pricing calculator to estimate your exact monthly cost, and you can request a custom quote from the sales team.
