Shared billing meter regions

An Azure billing meter is a collection of information in the Azure billing system that helps define the cost of using a specific service or resource in Azure. It helps determine the amount you're charged based on the quantity of the resource consumed. The billing meter varies depending on the type of service or resource that you use.

Some billing meters might apply to only one Azure region or location. Other billing meters are shared across multiple or all Azure regions. This difference means that a billing meter can have a different Azure region from the geographical location where you deploy a resource. This situation occurs when a billing meter is shared across physical locations.

Most Azure billing experiences, including the Azure portal, Cost Management + Billing, APIs, your invoice, and cost and usage files generally show a billing meter region. The meter region shown in these experiences is to identify the cost any quantity of the consumed service or resource. The billing meter region shown doesn't identify the physical location of the resource.

Consider a situation where you deploy an Azure service in the China North 3 region. The billing meter shown in billing experiences for the deployed resources is in the US East region. In this example, the billing meter has a shared billing meter region.

The Azure region where you deploy a resource determines its physical location. The billing meter's location doesn't affect the actual resource location. So, the meter region location can differ from the resource location, causing the variation.

To avoid any confusion, keep the distinction between a billing meter region and an Azure resource region in mind.

• For more information about updates to billing meter IDs, see Azure billing meter ID updates.