Azure Functions Durable Task Scheduler Pricing and SKU Options

The Durable Task Scheduler offers two pricing models to accommodate different workload requirements, usage patterns, and preferred billing models:

In this article, you learn about actions, the available SKU options, and their pricing structures.

What is an action?

An action is a message dispatched by the Durable Task Scheduler to your application, triggering the execution of an orchestrator, activity, or entity functions. Functions triggered by an action include:

  • Starting an orchestration or suborchestration
  • Starting an activity
  • Completing a timer
  • Triggering an external event
  • Executing an entity operation
  • Suspending, resuming, or terminating an orchestration
  • Processing the result of an activity, entity call, entity lock, or suborchestration

The following diagram explains how to calculate actions in your orchestration.

Diagram of actions calculation.

Example

Let's say you have an orchestration that calls three different activities.

Screenshot of orchestration code showing function calls and action breakdown.

In this example, you can see how Durable Task Scheduler processes each action:

  • Orchestrator start (RunOrchestrator) uses one action
  • Activity 1 ((nameof(SayHello), "Tokyo")) uses two actions:
    • Scheduling the activity
    • Processing the result
  • Activity 2 ((nameof(SayHello), "Seattle")) uses two actions:
    • Scheduling the activity
    • Processing the result
  • Activity 3 ((nameof(SayHello), "London")) uses two actions:
    • Scheduling the activity
    • Processing the result

Available SKUs

Durable Task Scheduler offers two SKU options: Dedicated and Consumption (preview).

Dedicated SKU

The Dedicated SKU provides performance and pricing through preallocated Capacity Units (CUs). You can purchase up to three CUs.

Key features

Feature Description
Base cost Fixed monthly cost per CU (regional pricing). Not "per action" billing.
Performance Each CU supports up to 2,000 actions per second and 50GB of orchestration data storage
Orchestration data retention Up to 90 days
Custom scaling Configure CUs to match your workload needs. 1 CU required per deployment.
High availability High availability with multi-CU deployments. A minimum of 3 CUs is required.

Calculating Capacity Units for the Dedicated SKU

Example 1

You have an orchestration with 5 activities, plus error handling, and averaging 12 actions per orchestration (orchestrator and activity invocations). Let's calculate running 20 million orchestrations per month.

Calculation Result
Monthly actions 20,000,000 × 12 240,000,000 actions
Actions per second 240,000,000 ÷ 2,628,000 (seconds in a month) ≈ 91 actions/second
Required CUs 91 ÷ 2,000 240,000,000 actions
CUs needed: 0.046 → 1 CU sufficient
Example 2

A large enterprise runs 500 million complex orchestrations monthly, with an average of 15 actions per orchestration (multiple activities with orchestrator coordination).

Calculation Result
Monthly actions 500 million × 13 6.5 billion actions
Actions per second 6.5 billion ÷ 2,628,000 ≈ 2,473 actions/second
Required CUs 2,473 ÷ 2,000 240,000,000 actions
CUs needed: 1.23 → 2 CUs sufficient
Example 3

A Software as a Service (SaaS) platform supports 800 million orchestrations monthly, each with an average of 15 actions (user interactions, background processing, and external API calls).

Calculation Result
Monthly actions 800 million × 15 12 billion actions
Actions per second 12 billion ÷ 2,628,000 ≈ 4,571 actions/second
Required CUs 4,571 ÷ 2,000 240,000,000 actions
CUs needed: 2.29 → 3 CUs sufficient

Consumption SKU (preview)

Note

The Consumption SKU is currently in preview. Learn more about the SKU and orchestration framework recommended for production use.

The Consumption SKU offers a pay-as-you-use model, ideal for variable workloads and development scenarios.

Key Features

Feature Description
Pay-Per-Use Only pay for actions dispatched. No upfront costs, minimum commitments, or base fees
Performance Up to 500 actions per second.
Data retention 30-day maximum retention
Example 1

A development team is testing simple orchestrations, each with three actions (using the "Hello City" pattern), and runs 10,000 orchestrations per month.

Calculation Result
Monthly actions 10,000 × 3 30,000 actions
Cost 30,000 × $0.003 $90/month
Example 2

An e-commerce application experiences dynamic workload scaling during promotional sales events, especially on weekends. It uses an orchestration comprising seven total actions, which executes approximately 20,000 times per month.

Calculation Result
Monthly actions 20,000 × 7 140,000 actions
Cost 140,000 × $0.003 $420/month

Next steps

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