How can I avoid costs on a free Azure account?

Question

A few days ago, I created a free account to host my .NET API. This application uses SQL Server, so I decided to work with Azure SQL Server. Since I was in the design phase, I opted for their free-tier offering. However, at some point, I must have created a database with a configuration outside the free tier. Upon reviewing it, I noticed that, despite not using that database at all, it had accumulated a cost of €45. I immediately deleted the resource, but costs have continued to accrue.

I’m not sure if I configured the backups or how I might have done it, but I understand that these ongoing charges might be related to that. My question is: how can I delete these backups? Additionally, I would like to know how to properly monitor and manage my resources to avoid unnecessary expenses. Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi @Ignacio Ferrando

Firstly, some key tools you can use for managing costs are:

1. Azure Cost Management + Billing:
   1. Cost Analysis will visualize and analyze your costs by resource, resource group, etc.
   2. Setup budgets to track your spend and configure alerts when your approach your configured caps.

Start with these tools so you can ascertain where the €45 is indeed coming from. As a side note, I really think the costs is coming from somewhere.