I recently joined the Cloud Free Tier plan. I have no prior experience with Azure. I am in the process of learning the slightly different terminology and UI (from AWS and GCP). Yesterday I managed to create my first virtual machine. I took the suggested free tier defaults, thinking that during this Free Tier period (12 months max), I will incur $0 charges. I didn't install anything yet on the virtual machine. I only let it run for several hours, to track charges because the moment I created the VM, I was already charged $0.01 which baffled me: Is any of the options I selected not free? After letting it run for several hours (nothing of my own installed on the VM whatsoever), I checked the charges and was surprised to discover that it grew to $0.15, with the following breakdown: I tried to consult Copilot to understand how I can make those $0, but the answer I received was general and couldn't point me to what I mistakenly configured or misunderstood: As you can see, the charges are primarily related to Virtual Network and Storage services. The charges for these services account for 86.67% of the total charges. To bring the charges to $0, you can consider the following steps: Review the usage of the Virtual Network and Storage resources to identify any unnecessary or unused resources that can be deleted or scaled down. Optimize the storage usage by removing any unnecessary files or data. Monitor and manage the network traffic to minimize bandwidth consumption. I am not familiar with the subtleties that make the difference between exactly $0 and $0.01 for resources that I understood to be free during the Free Tier plan period. Would you be able to help me, please, to figure this out? Thank you

Only certain tiers within a service are included for free. So you will need to review deployed resources and see what causes the costs and if they are in the free tier. This may include storage type, networking and others. For VMs: For windows VMs 750 hours each of B1s, B2pts v2 (Arm-based), and B2ats v2 (AMD-based) burstable VMs While for Linux VMs 750 hours each of B1s, B2pts v2 (Arm-based), and B2ats v2 (AMD-based) burstable VMs See all free services here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/purchase-options/azure-account?icid=azurefaq#free-services To learn about services included with your free account, see the Azure free account FAQ. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/purchase-options/azure-account?icid=azurefaq You can mark it 'Accept Answer' and 'Upvote' if this helped you Regards, Abiola

How to reduce charges to $0 while in the Free Tier plan

Accepted answer

akinbade abiola 18,715 Reputation points

2024-11-11T07:29:16.2766667+00:00

Only certain tiers within a service are included for free. So you will need to review deployed resources and see what causes the costs and if they are in the free tier. This may include storage type, networking and others. For VMs:

For windows VMs 750 hours each of B1s, B2pts v2 (Arm-based), and B2ats v2 (AMD-based) burstable VMs

While for Linux VMs 750 hours each of B1s, B2pts v2 (Arm-based), and B2ats v2 (AMD-based) burstable VMs

See all free services here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/purchase-options/azure-account?icid=azurefaq#free-services

To learn about services included with your free account, see the Azure free account FAQ.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/purchase-options/azure-account?icid=azurefaq

You can mark it 'Accept Answer' and 'Upvote' if this helped you

Regards,

Abiola
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yzr 20 Reputation points

2024-11-11T08:51:20.2833333+00:00

Thank you Abiola for your answer. I am looking for more specific details about my own resources that surprised me with charges. For example, I know that in my VM:

Most of the charges are related to storage and networking:

But I don't see anything in my configuration that could hint on non-free charges.

Where should I be looking?

To clarify, the only used resources are listed in the following screenshot:

They all have the status "Unlikely to exceed".

My question: To exceed what? The $200 credit that I received upon creating this Free Tier account? AFAIK, at the rate I am being charged right now, this will far exceed the $200. What am I missing?

akinbade abiola 18,715 Reputation points

2024-11-11T16:01:18.9666667+00:00

could be some of those resources move beyond the threshold. Ensure that the services and tiers you’re using are included in the Free Tier. For instance, using premium storage or higher-tier VMs not covered by the Free Tier will result in charges.
I would recommend for more insight into your environment you reach out to the billing team. This service is free. You can create the ticket here and they will help you.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/create-ticket
Do remember to mark it 'Accept Answer' and 'Upvote' if this helped you

yzr 20 Reputation points

2024-11-11T16:20:30.0866667+00:00

Thanks again Abiola. That's the kind of answer I was looking for.

For instance, using premium storage or higher-tier VMs not covered by the Free Tier will result in charges.

Indeed, during the creation of my first VM ever on Azure, I had no clue that the premium storage isn't covered by the Free Tier.

For example, I think that I read somewhere that storage is free up to 5GB, but during the selection of the disk, there is no option to select a size of less than 30GiB:

or when selecting the OS disk type, nowhere can I see each type's associated cost:

Thanks for the link Azure's support ticket creation. I think that I need it.

Srinud 2,645 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-11-11T16:23:17.16+00:00

Hi yzr,
Based on the screenshot, your usage is indeed within the limits for each Free Tier service, as all entries show "Unlikely to exceed."
However, here are some possible reasons why you might still see charges:

Networking Costs: The Free Tier includes 15GB of free outbound data per month; any additional outbound data beyond this limit will incur charges. Ensure your VM isn’t generating significant outbound traffic that exceeds this limit.

Storage Charges: Azure provides limited free storage for specific types, but:

Additional Disks: Only the default OS disk is covered by the Free Tier. Any extra disks will incur charges.

Premium Disks: Ensure you’re using Standard HDD or SSD, as Premium disks are not included in the Free Tier.

Snapshots and Backups: Snapshots or backup storage created for your VM may lead to extra costs.

Public IP Address: A static public IP assigned to your VM can result in charges, even within the Free Tier.

Ensure VM is within Free Tier Limits: Confirm that your VM size qualifies for the Free Tier. See the Azure Free Account - Virtual Machines for eligible VM types.

Stop the VM: If you’re not actively using the VM, stop it to avoid compute charges (note that storage costs for the OS disk still apply).

Delete Unused Resources: If you no longer need the VM, delete it along with any associated resources (like disks or IPs) to prevent future charges.
Please refer the below document for more information
Azure subscription and service limits, quotas, and constraints
View your usage summary details and download reports for EA enrollments
If you have any further queries, do let us know in the comment.
Thank you.

yzr 20 Reputation points

2024-11-11T16:38:59.1933333+00:00

@Srinud Thank you so much for the details about Premium Disks, Public IP Address (etc.) which are the likely causes for my unexpected charges.

I wish there were a table that summarizes such caveats or "gotchas". The way the pricing information is organized is very confusing. The best I've been able to find is https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/ and specifically https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/#Pricing-by-product. Still, those tables don't show which options makes the "charge clock" not tick in the Free Tier.

Even after deleting my VM entirely, I continued to be charged (in smaller amounts). As I continued to explore, I discovered that these charges were for network monitoring resources that were automatically created unbeknownst to me, depicted in the following screenshot:

I am currently relying on this $0 Free Tier to study and gain some experience in Azure before using it to generate enough income to justify charges.

BTW, there is no way I was exceeding the 15GB of free outbound data per month, because I only created the VM yesterday and I didn't install anything on it yet.

Srinud 2,645 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-11-14T18:12:01.1766667+00:00

Hi yzr,
Are there any resources present in the existing resource groups within your subscription? If no resources are present delete that resource group, and you have created a virtual machine, you should manually delete the VM's associated disks to avoid incurring ongoing charges. Simply deleting the VM does not automatically remove the disks, and they will continue to incur charges.

To reduce costs, rather than deleting individual VMs, you can delete the entire resource group, as this will remove all associated resources, including the VM and its disks.

If the information is helpful, please consider by clicking the "Upvote" on the post.
Thank you.

yzr 20 Reputation points

2024-11-14T19:07:06.5333333+00:00

@Srinud AFAIK, I don't have any resources, yet I see the "charge clock" ticking:

Earlier today, when I saw that the "charge clock" is ticking even after deleting the VM with all of its associated resources, I noticed that I had the following resource (that I never asked to enable), named NetworkWatch_westus2:

I deleted it but I continue to see the "charge clock" ticking.

I really don't understand the Azure charge system works.

Srinud 2,645 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-11-15T10:05:38.7333333+00:00

Hi yzr,
Thank you for your patience!
This issue needs deeper investigation and Azure technical support team will be able to help with this. I would recommend you open an azure support case. If you don't have the ability to open a technical support ticket,
please let me know and I can help you further with this.

yzr 20 Reputation points

2024-11-17T06:29:24.6533333+00:00

After deleting the resource, NetworkWatch_westus2, and leaving my account free of any VM or resources, I tracked the account for a day and the charge rate went down to $0. This tells me that there is some delay (hours) between the moment I make a change in my account's resources and the time I see this reflected in cost analysis.

An Azure account without any VM, however, isn't very useful to me and so I intend to follow your advice and contact Azure support. Thank you @Srinud for your help.
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