This is the final installment in a series of 7 articles to help developers get started with Azure.
When creating applications that use Azure, you need to understand the factors that influence the cost of the solutions you create. You will also want to understand how you can estimate the cost of a solution, how you're billed, and how you can monitor the costs incurred in your Azure subscriptions.
What is an Azure Account?Your Azure account is what allows you to sign in to Azure. You may have an Azure account through the organization you work for or the school you attend. You may also create an individual Azure account for personal use linked to your Microsoft account. If you're looking to learn about and experiment with Azure, you can create an Azure account for free.
If you're using an Azure account from your workplace or school, your organization's Azure administrators has likely assigned different groups and roles to your account that govern what you can and cannot do in Azure. If you can't create a certain type of resource, check with your Azure administrator on the permissions assigned to your account.
What is an Azure subscription?Billing for Azure resources is done on a per-subscription basis. An Azure subscription therefore defines a set of Azure resources that will be invoiced together.
Organizations often create multiple Azure subscriptions for billing and management purposes. For example, an organization may choose to create one subscription for each department in the organization such that each department pays for their own Azure resources. When creating Azure resources, it's important to pay attention to what subscription you're creating the resources in because the owner of that subscription will pay for those resources.
If you have an individual Azure account tied to your Microsoft account, it's also possible to have multiple subscriptions. For example, a user might have both a Visual Studio Enterprise subscription that provides monthly Azure credits and a Pay-as-you-go subscription which bills to their credit card. In this scenario, you again want to be sure and choose the right subscription when creating Azure resources to avoid an unexpected bill for Azure services.
What factors influence the cost of a service on Azure?There are several factors that can influence the cost of a given service in Azure.
Most Azure solutions involve multiple Azure services, making it challenging to determine the cost of a solution upfront. For this reason, Azure provides the Azure Pricing Calculator to help estimate how much a solution will cost.
Where can I find our current spend in Azure?The Azure portal provides an easy to navigate and visual presentation of all the services your organization utilized during a particular month. You can view by service, by resource group, and so on.
To access billing information in the Azure portal, sign in to the Azure portal and follow these steps.
You can also access the Cost Management + Billing overview page directly.
Azure Cost Management in the Azure Portal
Cost information can also be accessed programmatically to create a customized and easily accessible view into your cloud spend for management via the Billing API.
Two services are available to set up and manage your cloud costs.
Learn more about cost alerts and Azure Cost Management:
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