Determining Your Azure Services Platform Usage Charges
I see many questions from Azure Services Platform users about determining usage of Windows Azure compute, storage and AppFabric resources, as well as SQL Azure Databases, but seldom see an answer.
Updated 2/11/2010: Changes to Online Bill page and addition of Data Transfer Usage, SQL Azure and Windows Azure Usage Charges pages, as well as sample monthly charge estimate.
Here’s how to estimate monthly charges and determine your daily usage of these resources:
1. Sign into Microsoft Online Service’s Customer Portal and log in with the Windows Live ID for your Windows Azure and SQL Azure services (click reduced-size images to display 1024x768 captures):
2. Click the View my Bills link (highlighted above) to open the Profile Orders page:
3. Click the View Online Bill/Invoice item (highlighted above) for your service in the list to open the Online Bill page for the selected Order Number:
Update 2/11/2010: Addition of links to Data Transfer Usage, SQL Azure and Windows Azure Usage Charges pages.
4. New! Click the Data Transfer Usage, SQL Azure or Windows Azure Usage Charges link to display the selected page. The following composite screen capture (updated 2/11/2010) show all three pages’ content:
The capture occurred on 2/11/2010 at 10:00 AM PST which includes about five days of usage:
- Estimated SQL Azure consumption for the month will be 28 * 0.357 / 5 = 1.992, which corresponds to the 2 databases (Northwind and AdventureWorks) in use and is less than the 3 databases included in my MSDN Premium benefit. (Estimated consumption values close to an expected integer indicate the the calculation is correct.)
- Estimated Windows Azure Compute hours consumption for the month will be 28 * 114 / 5 = 638.4, which corresponds to one Web (or Worker) Role instance and is less than the 750 hours included in my MSDN Premium benefit.
Data storage and transfer consumption, which occurs during development and when visitors run my live OakLeaf Azure Table Test Harness demonstration project, aren’t significant.
5. Return to the Online Bill page and click the Daily Usage link to display the latest daily resource usage page:
Consumed amounts are in resource units, not currency.
6. Click the Export button (highlighted above) to open a File Download dialog to open or save an Exported Daily Usage Data.csv file:
7. Click Open to download and open the .CSV file in Excel:
The Windows Azure Team promised to provide a preview of charges for January 2010, while platform services remain free. However, I haven’t been able to find such a report. One could import the *.CSV file for the month into Access and run queries to determine the charges to date, but this wouldn’t be a trivial pursuit.
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