Jul 12, 2023

Azure Cost Management – Azure Cost Planning and Management

Azure Cost Management

Azure Cost Management is provided through a Cost Management + Billing dashboard functionality in the Azure portal; it provides core functionality such as cost visibility, optimizations, and accountability.

The following capabilities are provided within the Cost Management + Billing function within the Azure portal:

• Billing: View and download invoices; view payment methods and make payments.
• Cost Management: Perform cost analysis, set cost alerts, and create budgets.

The following screenshot shows the cost analysis screen in the Azure portal:

Figure 11.1 – Azure Cost Management

In this section, we looked at Azure Cost Management. In the next section, we will look at the Azure pricing calculator.

Azure Pricing calculator

The Azure Pricing calculator is a publicly accessible browser-based tool where you can estimate the cost of services that can be created in Azure.

All Azure resources that can be purchased are displayed in categories that can be browsed through. The calculator has a search function; each resource you can add as an item to the estimate has a hyperlink to the product details for each resource, as well as its pricing page. This is useful if you need to understand the pricing structure for each resource and any factors that may impact costs.

To use the calculator to provide cost estimations for your chosen solution, you must add the required services for your solution to the estimate. Then, you will see a total estimate and breakdown; you can set the currency and then export, save, or share the estimate. Note that the estimates are not intended to be used as actual quotes; the resource’s availability, the pricing structure, and its costs may vary from the time of estimation to resource creation.

The Azure Pricing calculator is shown in the following screenshot and can be accessed from https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/calculator:

Figure 11.2 – Azure Pricing calculator

In this section, we looked at the Azure Pricing calculator. In the next section, we will look at the TCO calculator.