Virtual Machines
Azure Virtual Machines — commitment brief
Data sourced: March 2026. Verify current figures at the Azure Pricing Calculator.
Coverage summary
Azure Virtual Machines support two commitment instruments: Reserved VM Instances (1-yr and 3-yr) and the Azure Compute Savings Plan (1-yr and 3-yr). Reservations are scoped to a specific VM series, size group, and region, and deliver the deepest discounts for stable, predictable workloads. The Compute Savings Plan is flexible across VM families, regions, and other eligible compute services, at a slightly lower maximum discount. Both instruments can be held simultaneously — reservations apply first, then savings plan to remaining eligible spend.
What is covered: VM compute infrastructure costs (the underlying hardware). Instance Size Flexibility allows a reservation to spread across VM sizes within the same flexibility group by default.
What is not covered: Windows Server OS license (charged separately per vCPU; offset with Azure Hybrid Benefit), SQL Server or other software licenses, OS disk and data disk storage, networking and bandwidth, Azure Monitor/diagnostics, backup costs. Spot VMs are never covered by reservations or savings plans.
Azure Hybrid Benefit
AHB applies. Existing Windows Server licenses with Software Assurance remove the Windows OS license cost from your bill. Combined with a 3-year reservation, total savings can reach ~80–82% vs. pay-as-you-go with license included. AHB stacks with both Reserved VM Instances and the Compute Savings Plan and is applied separately at the VM configuration level.
SKU / tier coverage
D/Ds/Dv2–Dv5 (General Purpose)
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
~36–40%
~55–62%
Largest reservation catalog; instance size flexibility within series group
E/Es/Ev3–Ev5 (Memory Optimized)
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
~36–40%
~55–65%
F/Fs/Fsv2 (Compute Optimized)
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
~36–40%
~55–65%
M-series (Memory Extreme)
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
~36–40%
up to ~72%
Highest discount ceiling; stable footprint required
N-series NC/ND/NV (GPU)
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
~36–40%
~55–65%
GPU compute covered; software licenses extra
H / HBv2 (HPC)
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
~36–40%
~55–65%
HBv2 also offers a 5-year term
B-series (Burstable)
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
~36–40%
~55–65%
Av2-series
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
~36–40%
~55–65%
L-series (Storage Optimized)
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
~36–40%
~55–65%
A-series (legacy)
❌ No
❌ No
—
—
Explicitly excluded from reservations
G-series
❌ No
❌ No
—
—
Explicitly excluded from reservations
Spot VMs
❌ No
❌ No
—
—
Spot pricing model; no commitment instruments available
Preview / Promo VMs
❌ No
❌ No
—
—
Not eligible while in preview or using promotional meters
Reservation vs. Compute Savings Plan
Reservation: Scoped to a specific VM series/family and region. Delivers the highest discount ceiling (up to ~72% at 3-yr for some series). Supports instance size flexibility within the same series group. Best when VM family, size group, and region are stable and predictable. 1-yr and 3-yr terms; HBv2 also offers 5-yr.
Compute Savings Plan: Hourly spend commitment flexible across VM families, regions, App Service (Premium v3/Isolated v2), Dedicated Host, Container Instances, and Azure Functions Premium. Up to ~65% savings at 3-yr — slightly lower ceiling than reservations but covers workloads that shift regions or change VM families. Azure applies reservation discounts first, then savings plan discounts to any remaining eligible compute spend.
Regional availability
Azure Reserved VM Instances are available in all commercial Azure regions for eligible VM series. Reservations are region-scoped — each reservation applies to VM usage in the selected region and VM series group. The Azure Compute Savings Plan is available globally across all commercial regions. Azure Government regions support VM reservations on most eligible VM families — verify availability in the portal for Government subscriptions.
Notable exclusions: A-series and G-series VMs are explicitly excluded from reservations in all regions. Spot VMs are never eligible. Azure China (21Vianet) does not support traditional Reserved VM Instances — a separate Compute Pre-Purchase (CPP) mechanism applies there instead. Preview and promotional VM SKUs are excluded while in that status.
⚠️ Availability varies by SKU and region. Always verify in the Azure portal or via the Azure Retail Pricing API before purchasing.
Archera
Azure Virtual Machines is a core service within Archera's commitment management scope. Archera can automate reservation purchase across VM families, monitor utilization by instance size flexibility group, right-size commitments as your fleet evolves, and wrap reservations in a GRI/GSP — eliminating downside risk on over-commitment while preserving the full reservation discount.
Sources
⚠️ Discount percentages are approximate and region/SKU-dependent. Always verify with the Azure Pricing Calculator.
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