Azure Retail Prices overview

Article
08/07/2024

Azure customers have been looking for a programmatic way to retrieve retail prices for all Azure services. Now you can use the Retail Rates Prices API to get retail prices for all Azure services. Previously, the only way that you could retrieve prices for Azure services was to either use the Azure Pricing Calculator or use the Azure portal. This API gives you an unauthenticated experience to get retail rates for all Azure services. Use the API to explore prices for Azure services against different regions and different SKUs. The programmatic API can also help you create your own tools for internal analysis and price comparison across SKUs and regions.

Important

The currency that Microsoft uses to price all Azure services is USD. Prices shown in USD currency are Microsoft retail prices. Other non-USD prices returned by the API are for your reference to help you estimate budget expenses.

Preview version

You can use the new 2023-01-01-preview API version at https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?api-version=2023-01-01-preview. The preview version is backward compatible with previous API versions. The URL returns the full set of meters, including primary meters and nonprimary meters.

Using either https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices or https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?api-version=2023-01-01-preview returns the full set of meters.

Rates for savings plans are only available with the https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?api-version=2023-01-01-preview version.

Primary meter filtering

You can limit responses to retrieve only primary meter prices with:

https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?api-version=2023-01-01-preview&meterRegion='primary'

Primary meter filtering is supported with 2021-10-01 and later API versions including 2023-01-01.

Filter value is case sensitive

In previous API versions, the filter value wasn't case sensitive. However, in the 2023-01-01-preview version and later, the value is case sensitive.

For example:

https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?$filter=serviceName eq 'Virtual Machines' works.

In earlier API versions, Virtual Machines and virtual machines worked.

Now, only Virtual Machines works.

Azure saving plan support

As previously mentioned, Azure savings plan retail prices are only supported with the preview version (https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?api-version=2023-01-01-preview). For the meters eligible for a savings plan, results have a corresponding section for savings plan. When you commit to a savings plan, you get a cheaper price than the OnDemand price. For more information about Azure savings plans, see Azure savings plans documentation.

Here's an example API response with savings plan information:


        {
            "currencyCode": "USD",
            "tierMinimumUnits": 0.0,
            "retailPrice": 2.305,
            "unitPrice": 2.305,
            "armRegionName": "southindia",
            "location": "IN South",
            "effectiveStartDate": "2019-05-14T00:00:00Z",
            "meterId": "0084b086-37bf-4bee-b27f-6eb0f9ee4954",
            "meterName": "M8ms",
            "productId": "DZH318Z0BQ4W",
            "skuId": "DZH318Z0BQ4W/00BQ",
            "availabilityId": null,
            "productName": "Virtual Machines MS Series",
            "skuName": "M8ms",
            "serviceName": "Virtual Machines",
            "serviceId": "DZH313Z7MMC8",
            "serviceFamily": "Compute",
            "unitOfMeasure": "1 Hour",
            "type": "Consumption",
            "isPrimaryMeterRegion": true,
            "armSkuName": "Standard_M8ms",
            "savingsPlan": [
                {
                    "unitPrice": 0.8065195,
                    "retailPrice": 0.8065195,
                    "term": "3 Years"
                },
                {
                    "unitPrice": 1.5902195,
                    "retailPrice": 1.5902195,
                    "term": "1 Year"
                }
            ]
        },

API endpoint

https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices

API sample calls

Here are some examples:

Example calls filtered for only virtual machines:

https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?$filter=serviceName eq 'Virtual Machines'

Example calls filtered for only reservations:

https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?$filter=priceType eq 'Reservation'

Example calls filtered for reserved instance virtual machines:

https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?$filter=serviceName eq 'Virtual Machines' and priceType eq 'Reservation'

Example calls filtered for compute resources:

https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?$filter=serviceFamily eq 'Compute'

You can append the currency code to the API endpoint, as shown in the API sample call. For a complete list of supported currencies, see Supported currencies.

Example calls filtered for compute with currency in euro:

https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?currencyCode='EUR'&$filter=serviceFamily eq 'Compute'

API response examples

Here's a sample API response, without reservation prices.

{
            "currencyCode": "USD",
            "tierMinimumUnits": 0.0,
            "retailPrice": 0.176346,
            "unitPrice": 0.176346,
            "armRegionName": "westeurope",
            "location": "EU West",
            "effectiveStartDate": "2020-08-01T00:00:00Z",
            "meterId": "000a794b-bdb0-58be-a0cd-0c3a0f222923",
            "meterName": "F16s Spot",
            "productId": "DZH318Z0BQPS",
            "skuId": "DZH318Z0BQPS/00TG",
            "productName": "Virtual Machines FS Series Windows",
            "skuName": "F16s Spot",
            "serviceName": "Virtual Machines",
            "serviceId": "DZH313Z7MMC8",
            "serviceFamily": "Compute",
            "unitOfMeasure": "1 Hour",
            "type": "DevTestConsumption",
            "isPrimaryMeterRegion": true,
            "armSkuName": "Standard_F16s"
        }

Here's a sample API response with reservation prices and term in the response.

{
            "currencyCode": "USD",
            "tierMinimumUnits": 0.0,
            "reservationTerm": "1 Year",
            "retailPrice": 25007.0,
            "unitPrice": 25007.0,
            "armRegionName": "southcentralus",
            "location": "US South Central",
            "effectiveStartDate": "2020-08-01T00:00:00Z",
            "meterId": "0016083a-928f-56fd-8eeb-39287dcf676d",
            "meterName": "E64 v4",
            "productId": "DZH318Z0D1L7",
            "skuId": "DZH318Z0D1L7/018J",
            "productName": "Virtual Machines Ev4 Series",
            "skuName": "E64 v4",
            "serviceName": "Virtual Machines",
            "serviceId": "DZH313Z7MMC8",
            "serviceFamily": "Compute",
            "unitOfMeasure": "1 Hour",
            "type": "Reservation",
            "isPrimaryMeterRegion": true,
            "armSkuName": "Standard_E64_v4"
        }

Here's a sample response with a non-USD currency.

{
  "currencyCode": "EUR",
  "tierMinimumUnits": 0,
  "retailPrice": 0.6176,
  "unitPrice": 0.6176,
  "armRegionName": "westeurope",
  "location": "EU West",
  "effectiveStartDate": "2021-04-01T00:00:00Z",
  "meterId": "000a794b-bdb0-58be-a0cd-0c3a0f222923",
  "meterName": "F16s Spot",
  "productId": "DZH318Z0BQPS",
  "skuId": "DZH318Z0BQPS/00TG",
  "productName": "Virtual Machines FS Series Windows",
  "skuName": "F16s Spot",
  "serviceName": "Virtual Machines",
  "serviceId": "DZH313Z7MMC8",
  "serviceFamily": "Compute",
  "unitOfMeasure": "1 Hour",
  "type": "Consumption",
  "isPrimaryMeterRegion": true,
  "armSkuName": "Standard_F16s"
}

API response pagination

The API response provides pagination. For each API request, a maximum of 1,000 records are returned. At the end of the API response, it has the link to next page. For example:

"NextPageLink": https://prices.azure.com:443/api/retail/prices?$filter=serviceName%20eq%20%27Virtual%20Machines%27&$skip=1000

API property details

Here's all the property details that are a part of the API response.

Field	Example Values	Definition
`currencyCode`	USD	The currency in which rates are defined and returns prices in USD unless specified.
`tierMinimumUnits`	0	Minimum units of consumption to avail the price
`reservationTerm`	1 year	Reservation term – one year or three years
`retailPrice`	0.176346	Microsoft Retail Prices without discount
`unitPrice`	0.176346	Same as `retailPrice`
`armRegionName`	`westeurope`	Azure Resource Manager region where the service is available. This version only supports prices on Commercial Cloud.
`Location`	EU West	Azure data center where the resource is deployed
`effectiveStartDate`	2020-08-01T00:00:00Z	Optional field. Shows the date when the retail prices are effective.
`meterId`	000a794b-bdb0-58be-a0cd-0c3a0f222923	Unique identifier of the resource
`meterName`	F16s Spot	Name of the meter
`productid`	DZH318Z0BQPS	UniqueID of the product
`skuId`	DZH318Z0BQPS/00TG	UniqueID for the SKU
`productName`	Virtual Machines FS Series Windows	Product name
`skuName`	F16s Spot	SKU name
`serviceName`	Virtual Machines	Name of the service
`serviceId`	DZH313Z7MMC8	UniqueID of the service
`serviceFamily`	Compute	Service family of the SKU
`unitOfMeasure`	1 Hour	How usage is measured for the service
`Type`	DevTestConsumption	Meter consumption type. Other types are `Reservation` and `Consumption`.
`isPrimaryMeterRegion`	True	Indicates whether the meter region is set as a primary meter or not. Primary meters are used for charges and billing.
`armSkuName`	Standard_F16s	SKU name registered in Azure
`term`	3 Years	Term length for an Azure savings plan, associated with `savingsPlan` information.

API filters

Filters are supported for the following fields:

armRegionName
Location
meterId
meterName
productid
skuId
productName
skuName
serviceName
serviceId
serviceFamily
priceType
armSkuName

You append the filters to the API endpoint, as shown in the API sample calls.

Supported serviceFamily values

The following information is the list of supported serviceFamily values. The information is subject to change.

Analytics
Azure Arc
Azure Communication Services
Azure Security
Azure Stack
Compute
Containers
Data
Databases
Developer Tools
Dynamics
Gaming
Integration
Internet of Things
Management and Governance
Microsoft Syntex
Mixed Reality
Networking
Other
Power Platform
Quantum Computing
Security
Storage
Telecommunications
Web
Windows Virtual Desktop

Programmatic Example

The following simple python application employs the API to query the retail spot pricing of a virtual machine of the standard NP20 SKU in the South Central US region. The application filters the output of the query and presents the desired information in a table format.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import requests
import json
from tabulate import tabulate 


def build_pricing_table(json_data, table_data):
    for item in json_data['Items']:
        meter = item['meterName']
        table_data.append([item['armSkuName'], item['retailPrice'], item['unitOfMeasure'], item['armRegionName'], meter, item['productName']])
        
def main():
    table_data = []
    table_data.append(['SKU', 'Retail Price', 'Unit of Measure', 'Region', 'Meter', 'Product Name'])
    
    api_url = "https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?api-version=2021-10-01-preview"
    query = "armRegionName eq 'southcentralus' and armSkuName eq 'Standard_NP20s' and priceType eq 'Consumption' and contains(meterName, 'Spot')"
    response = requests.get(api_url, params={'$filter': query})
    json_data = json.loads(response.text)
    
    build_pricing_table(json_data, table_data)
    nextPage = json_data['NextPageLink']
    
    while(nextPage):
        response = requests.get(nextPage)
        json_data = json.loads(response.text)
        nextPage = json_data['NextPageLink']
        build_pricing_table(json_data, table_data)

    print(tabulate(table_data, headers='firstrow', tablefmt='psql'))
    
if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Running this code produces the following output:

+----------------+----------------+-------------------+----------------+------------+------------------------------------+
| SKU            |   Retail Price | Unit of Measure   | Region         | Meter      | Product Name                       |
|----------------+----------------+-------------------+----------------+------------+------------------------------------|
| Standard_NP20s |       0.828503 | 1 Hour            | southcentralus | NP20s Spot | Virtual Machines NP Series Windows |
| Standard_NP20s |       0.448207 | 1 Hour            | southcentralus | NP20s Spot | Virtual Machines NP Series         |
+----------------+----------------+-------------------+----------------+------------+------------------------------------+

Next steps

Learn about other Cost Management APIs.

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