pricing-models

name	pricing-models
description	Compare PAYG vs Reserved Instance vs Savings Plan vs Spot

Pricing Models

When to use this skill

• You're deciding which pricing model fits a workload
• Cost optimization review

Key concepts

• PAYG — full flexibility, no commitment, highest unit price.
• Reserved Instance (RI) — 1y/3y commitment on a specific VM SKU + region (with instance flexibility group). ~30–60% discount.
• Savings Plan for Compute — 1y/3y commitment on $/hour spend, applies across compute SKUs/regions/families. ~25–50% discount.
• Spot — interruptible capacity at up to 90% discount; evictable with 30s notice.
• Hybrid Use Benefit stacks on top of any of these for Windows/SQL/RHEL/SUSE with eligible licenses.

Azure CLI examples

# Surface unused commit coverage
az consumption reservation summary list-by-reservation-order \
  --reservation-order-id <id> --grain monthly

Common pitfalls

• Buying RI before validating SKU stability — exchanges have limits.
• Comparing only headline % without modeling actual hours.
• Forgetting Hybrid Benefit stacks on top of RI — easy 40%+ extra savings on Windows.

References

• Microsoft Learn: search for "Pricing Models Azure VM" on https://learn.microsoft.com

---

Validation-first: verify every Azure fact against the Microsoft Learn MCP server (cite the Learn URL); Learn overrides built-in knowledge. If no Learn MCP server is configured, flag the answer ⚠️ unverified and mark specs as indicative. Analysis only — verify against Microsoft documentation before applying.