Estimate your monthly Azure virtual machine bill using real East US prices from the Azure Retail Prices API. This Azure VM cost calculator compares pay as you go, 1-year and 3-year reservations, and Spot for Linux and Windows. Part of our free cloud cost calculator.
Pick a VM size, operating system and pricing model to see the hourly, monthly and yearly cost in East US. The calculator compares pay as you go, 1-year and 3-year reservations, and Spot, using prices pulled from the Azure Retail Prices API.
| Pricing model | Hourly per VM | Monthly total | Yearly total | vs pay as you go |
|---|
Azure bills virtual machines per hour of compute, with Windows adding a licence charge on top. A D2s v5 (2 vCPU, 8 GB) costs $0.096 per hour on Linux, about $70.08 per month at 730 hours. Reservations and Spot cut that sharply.
This Azure VM cost calculator is the Azure-only companion to our multi-cloud cloud cost calculator, which compares Azure against AWS, GCP and five other providers. The prices below were pulled from the Azure Retail Prices API on November 11, 2026 for the East US region. Other regions are priced differently, so treat this as a baseline.
| Size | vCPU / RAM | Family | Linux per hour | Linux per month | Windows per hour | 1-yr reserved per month | 3-yr reserved per month | Spot per hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1s | 1 / 1 GB | Burstable B | $0.0104 | $7.59 | $0.0140 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| B2s | 2 / 4 GB | Burstable B | $0.0416 | $30.37 | $0.0496 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| B2ms | 2 / 8 GB | Burstable B | $0.0832 | $60.74 | $0.0912 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| B4ms | 4 / 16 GB | Burstable B | $0.1660 | $121.18 | $0.1820 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| D2s_v5 | 2 / 8 GB | General purpose D | $0.0960 | $70.08 | $0.1880 | $43.25 | $27.69 | $0.0192 |
| D4s_v5 | 4 / 16 GB | General purpose D | $0.1920 | $140.16 | $0.3760 | $86.50 | $55.36 | $0.0405 |
| D8s_v5 | 8 / 32 GB | General purpose D | $0.3840 | $280.32 | $0.7520 | $172.92 | $110.72 | $0.0811 |
| E4s_v5 | 4 / 32 GB | Memory optimized E | $0.2520 | $183.96 | $0.4360 | $108.50 | $72.67 | $0.0504 |
| F2s_v2 | 2 / 4 GB | Compute optimized F | $0.0846 | $61.76 | $0.1770 | n/a | n/a | $0.0190 |
| F4s_v2 | 4 / 8 GB | Compute optimized F | $0.1690 | $123.37 | $0.3540 | n/a | n/a | $0.0338 |
Reserved prices are the term total divided by 12 or 36 months and cover compute only. n/a means the price was not included in this snapshot, not that the option does not exist. Spot prices change often, so check the live rate before relying on them.
For a D2s v5 on Linux, a 1-year reservation saves about 38% and a 3-year reservation about 60% compared with pay as you go. Spot was about 80% cheaper when checked, but Azure can evict Spot VMs, so it suits batch jobs and CI runners, not databases.
| Model for D2s v5 (Linux) | Monthly per VM | Saving | Commitment | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay as you go | $70.08 | baseline | None | Short-lived and unpredictable workloads |
| 1-year reserved | $43.25 | 38% | 12 months | Steady production services |
| 3-year reserved | $27.69 | 60% | 36 months | Long-lived platforms you are sure about |
| Spot | $14.02 | 80% | None, can be evicted | Batch, CI runners, stateless workers |
If you run Windows Server or SQL Server, Azure Hybrid Benefit lets you bring existing licences and removes the Windows surcharge. In this calculator a Windows VM adds the difference between the Windows and Linux hourly price, and reservations do not include that licence unless you use Hybrid Benefit.
The hourly price covers compute only. Managed disks, public IP addresses, load balancers, backups and outbound data transfer are billed separately. For a realistic estimate, add storage and bandwidth. Azure charges for outbound data, which the AWS equivalent is covered in our AWS data transfer cost calculator.
To compare an Azure VM against the equivalent on AWS or GCP, use the instance sizer in the cloud cost calculator. For tips on trimming a bill you already have, read how to reduce cloud costs without breaking production.
Short answers to the questions people ask most about this calculator and the pricing behind it. Every figure is a public list price for the stated region.