More cloud, less cost

Significantly reduce costs—up to 72 percent compared to pay-as-you-go prices—with one-year or three-year terms on Windows and Linux virtual machines (VMs). When you combine the cost savings gained from Azure RIs with the added value of the Azure Hybrid Benefit, you can save up to 80 percent.

Lower your total cost of ownership by combining Azure Reserved Instances with pay-as-you-go prices to manage costs across predictable and variable workloads. In many cases, you can further reduce your costs with reserved instance size flexibility.

What's more, you can now improve budgeting and forecasting with a single upfront payment, making it easy to calculate your investments. Or, lower your upfront cash outflow with monthly payment options at no additional cost.

Simplicity meets flexibility
Select and purchase Azure Reserved VM Instances in three easy steps—specify your Azure region, virtual machine type, and term (one year or three years)—that's it.

While Azure Reserved VM Instances require making upfront commitments on compute capacity, they also provide flexibility should your business needs change. Easily exchange or cancel reserved instances at any time.
- Exchange reserved instances across any region and any series as your workload or application needs change.
- Cancel a reserved instance at any time and return the remaining months to Microsoft—up to the yearly limit—for an early termination fee.
Azure Reserved VM Instances can be assigned at the enrollment or subscription level, so you can manage reserved instance usage at an organizational or individual department level. Assignments are easy to change post-purchase also.

Optimize your reservation with instance size flexibility
Your business and applications requirements continuously evolve, so committing to a specific VM size ahead of time—to take advantage of the price discounts that Azure Reserved VM Instances offer—can be limiting.

Simplify the management of reserved instances by choosing to optimize for instance size flexibility. With instance size flexibility, Azure can automatically apply your reserved instances to other VM sizes within the same group and region. You'll spend less time managing your reservations and you may also reduce costs. Let Azure increase your overall reserved instance usage while you focus on innovative projects that can fuel business growth.