Example Scenarios

If you want to find out about upcoming changes to Azure pricing, we recommend that you use the Azure Pricing Calculator, which can help you evaluate your budget more effectively. In this section, we will use the billing logic for key services that we mentioned earlier, together with a common scenario, to help you break down your bills in detail.

In the scenario above, we used load balancing technology to distribute traffic, with an external load balancer distributing external access traffic to different front-end servers, and an internal load balancer distributing frontend traffic to backend application servers and database servers, while the multi-server architecture supports horizontal scaling of service systems.

All the servers are located within a VM availability set, which ensures that VMs deployed on Azure can be distributed across multiple isolated hardware nodes spanning different clusters. This ensures that if there is a hardware or software failure in Azure, only some VMs will be affected, and the solution as a whole will still be usable.

Integrating VM availability sets and Azure network resources makes it easy to balance loads between multiple VMs. VM availability sets in different tiers are configured with different subnets and network security groups (NSG). Administrators can also use jump servers to connect to specific VM instances for troubleshooting purposes.

List of Billable Resources

1. Virtual Machines

The two database servers in this example use BS Series Windows - B1s - CN East 2 virtual machines.

On your bill, you will see the costs for the B1 VM. If you choose to create your database server using a VM image that contains SQL Server, you will also be charged for licensing fees for SQL Server. See the “Database Charges” section for details. If you choose a VM image with a different configuration, the corresponding VM usage charges will be shown on your bill.

2. Database Charges

If you choose to create your database server using a VM image that contains SQL Server, your bill will show not only the costs of using the VM, but also the licensing fees incurred for SQL Server. For example, the licensing fees for the 32-core standard version of SQL Server will appear on your bill as SQL Server Standard - 32 vCPU VM License - CN. See https://www.azure.cn/zh-cn/pricing/details/virtual-machines/ for detailed pricing information. It is important to note that the unit prices shown on the pricing page are the hourly unit price and monthly estimated cost for the sum of the VM usage fees and the SQL Server licensing fees, but your bill will show VM usage costs and SQL Server licensing fees separately.

If you use Platform as a Service (PaaS) database products such as SQL Database or Azure Database for MySQL, you will have to pay the corresponding usage fees.

3. Storage

In this scenario, your bill will show:

• Premium SSD Managed Disks - P10 - Disks - CN East 2
• Standard Page Blob - LRS Data Stored - CN East 2
• Tables - LRS Data Stored - CN East 2

The VM storage in this example uses advanced managed disks, so you will see charges for the item “Premium SSD Managed Disks - P10 - Disks - CN East 2”. If you select standard managed disks or use unmanaged disks, you will also incur the corresponding storage fees. See https://www.azure.cn/zh-cn/pricing/details/storage/managed-disks/ for details.

Using Non-managed Disks

• Standard Page Blob - Disk Read Operations - CN East 2

• Standard Page Blob - Disk Write Operations - CN East 2

• General Block Blob - Read Operations - CN East 2

• General Block Blob - Write Operations - CN East 2

• General Block Blob - Delete Operations - CN East 2

• General Block Blob - List and Create Container Operations - CN East 2

• Tables - Read Operations - CN East 2

• Tables - Write Operations - CN East 2

• Tables - Batch Write Operations - CN East 2

With unmanaged disks, we will charge for Page Blobs, Block Blobs and Table Storage based on the number of transactions and the type of redundant storage. See https://www.azure.cn/zh-cn/pricing/details/storage/page-blobs/ for details.

4. Networks

• IP Addresses - Basic - Static Public IP – CN

We will charge the corresponding IP fees based on the type of IP address and the authorization for different deployment methods. See https://www.azure.cn/zh-cn/pricing/details/ip-addresses/ for details.

• Bandwidth - Data Transfer In - CN Zone 1
• Bandwidth - Data Transfer Out - CN Zone 1

5. Other

This example uses a basic load balancer. If you choose a Standard Load Balancer, you can enjoy up to 1,000 instances, greater backend pool flexibility, and high availability (HA) ports, as well as regional and zone-redundant solutions. See https://www.azure.cn/zh-cn/pricing/details/load-balancer/ for detailed pricing information.

Other Service FAQs

SQL Databases

Q1: How will I be billed if I created an SQL database or SQL server?

A: There is no charge for SQL servers. You will be billed for the database on a daily basis.

Q2: How is usage shown in bills?

A: For vCore-based models, services will be billed at a predictable hourly rate based on the vCore compute provisioned, the provisioned storage (GB/month), and the backup storage used. If the backups exceed the total size of the database (i.e. 100% of the database size), you will incur additional costs. For vCore, the bill will list the number of hours, provisioned database storage, IOs used, and backup storage, so that you can easily see detailed information about the resources you have used. Backup storage includes a maximum of 100% of the maximum database size. Beyond this limit, you will be billed for the number of gigabytes used per month.

For example:

• If an SQL database exists for 12 hours in one month, the bill will show the cost of using vCore for 12 hours. If the SQL database is provisioned with an additional 100 GB, then the bill will show the storage usage in GB/month to the nearest minute, and the number of IOs used per month.
• If the SQL database running time is less than one hour, the hourly cost of running the database for that hour will be calculated on the basis of the highest service level, provisioned storage and IO number, with no consideration to the actual usage or the fact that the database was running for less than the full hour.

For example:

• If you create a managed instance and then delete it 5 minutes later, you will still be billed for 1 hour of database usage.
• If you create a managed instance with 8 vCores in the general purpose tier, and then immediately upgrade it to 16 vCores, you will still be billed for 16 vCores for the first hour.

Q3: How are backups billed?

A: Backup storage is influenced by the automatic backups for the instance. If you increase the backup retention period, the amount of backup storage space used by the instance will also increase. If the backup storage space does not exceed 100% of the total provisioned server storage space, you will not be charged any additional fees. Any additional backup storage space that exceeds this amount will be charged by GB/month. For example, if your database storage space is 100 GB, then you can have 100 GB of backups without paying any additional fees. However, if you have 110 GB of backups, then you will be charged for 10 GB of additional storage space.

Azure Database for MySQL

Q1: How are bills calculated?

A: Services in all tiers are billed at a predictable hourly rate based on the pricing tier, the vCore compute provisioned, and the amount of storage space provisioned for servers and backups (in GB/month). The number of vCore hours, the server store space (GB/month) and backup storage space (GB/month) will be listed separately on your bill.

Q2: How will I be billed if a MySQL server is active for less than 1 hour, or I use a higher pricing tier for less than one hour?

A: You have to pay for every hour or period of less than one hour that the MySQL exists, regardless of whether the server existed or was active for the full hour. If you scaled the database, you will be billed for the highest service tier, provisioned vCores and storage space used within this hour.

For example:

• If you create a MySQL databased and then delete it 5 minutes later, you will still be billed for a full hour based on the provisioned compute and storage space.
• If you create a MySQL server with 8 vCores in the general purpose tier, and then immediately upgrade it to 16 vCores in the general purpose tier, you will still be billed for 16 vCores for the first hour.

Q3: How are backups billed?

A: Backup storage is influenced by the automatic backups for the instance. If you increase the backup retention period, the amount of backup storage space used by the MySQL server will also increase. If the backup storage space does not exceed 100% of the total provisioned server storage space, you will not be charged any additional fees. Any additional backup storage space that exceeds this amount will be charged by GB/month. For example, if your database storage space is 100 GB, then you can have 100 GB of backups without paying any additional fees. However, if you have 110 GB of backups, then you will be charged for 10 GB of additional storage space.

Web Apps

Q1: Are web apps still billed when they are in a stopped state?

A: Yes, web apps are still billable when stopped. Please delete any unused apps or change their tier to “free” to avoid incurring additional costs.

Cloud services

Q: If a cloud service I deployed is in a “stopped” state, will I still be charged for it?

A: Yes. Stopped services still occupy compute resources provided to support the instance, so they are still billable. In order to stop incurring charges, you need to delete your deployment.

*Compute Pre-Purchase (CPP)

Q1: If I have purchased using Compute Pre-Purchase (CPP), how can I view my bill?

A: If you purchased via CPP as an enterprise customer, please go to the EA portal to view details of your purchases and usage. To view details of your usage, please refer to this section.

Q2: I selected a Promo (promotional) VM deployment in Azure Portal, but it wasn’t calculated in my CPP fees. Why is this?

A: Standard VMs and Promo VMs are completely different types of virtual machine, and there is no CPP program for Promo VMs. To avoid losing out, please check the type of VM you purchased using CPP before deployment.