Azure pricing changes and billing changes since 2026-01-01, as a dated log: one row per change to a price list, a commitment programme, an export format or a billing mechanism, with who it affects and the Microsoft source behind it. A feature without an effect on the bill is not a row. The log starts on 2026-01-01, is extended by the handbook's monthly rescan, and never loses a row: a correction is a new row with its own date. A change that takes effect in the future sits at the top, under the date on which it applies.
Changes
| Date | What changed | Who is affected | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2027-02-01 | Reservation exchanges end for services a savings plan covers: Virtual Machines (including the switch between standard and premium storage), Dedicated Host, App Service, SQL Database, SQL Managed Instance, Database for PostgreSQL and MySQL, Cosmos DB, DocumentDB. A reservation bought before keeps one final exchange, a renewal after the date counts as a new purchase; the cancellation policy, instance size flexibility and the trade-in for a savings plan stay. Announced on 2026-07-30 | Everyone holding compute or database reservations | Changes to the Azure reservation exchange policy |
| 2026-10-12 | Flex processing (preview): Azure OpenAI requests with service_tier flex on Global Standard deployments cost half the Standard token rate, without a latency SLA, on their own Flex meters; the first model is gpt-5.6-sol; a request rejected for lack of capacity is not billed | Delay-tolerant Azure OpenAI workloads | Flex processing |
| 2026-09-01 | Microsoft Foundry deployments outside the global pool cost more: EU Data Zone 20 percent above Global (10 before), regional deployments outside the US 25 to 50 percent above Global (Germany 30, France and the UK 40, EU North and EU West 50); pay as you go only for models released from this date on, provisioned throughput for all. Announced on 2026-07-09 | Azure OpenAI and Foundry models in the EU Data Zone or European regions | Foundry model deployment pricing update |
| 2026-06-17 | GitHub Pre-Purchase Plans: twelve-month prepaid commitments bought as Azure reservations, up to 15 percent off GitHub usage (Copilot, Enterprise, Advanced Security, Actions, AI Credits) billed through the linked Azure subscription; unused units expire at the end of the term | Organizations paying for GitHub through Azure | GitHub Pre-Purchase Plans |
| 2026-03-18 | Savings plan for databases: an hourly spend commitment across Azure SQL Database, SQL Managed Instance, Database for PostgreSQL and MySQL, Cosmos DB, DocumentDB and the Database Migration Service, one or three years, up to 35 percent against pay-as-you-go prices | Database workloads without a reservation | Announcing savings plan for databases |
| 2026-02-01 | Commercial Cloud list prices in local currencies move towards the USD level: EUR minus 7.4 percent, CHF minus 9.5, DKK minus 7.4, NOK minus 7.2, SEK minus 13.5; on-premises licences unchanged. Announced on 2025-12-12 | Every customer billed in those currencies | Local currency price adjustments |
How to read your bill after a change
A list price change in local currency (the euro adjustment of 2026-02-01) lowers the rate per meter from the effective date: in the UnitPrice and EffectivePrice columns of the actual cost export, in ListUnitPrice and ContractedUnitPrice of the FOCUS export. Comparing with the January price sheet shows the difference per meter, and per SKU it differs slightly from the announced 7.4 percent through rounding. Customers on a Microsoft Customer Agreement also see the monthly rate at which USD prices are converted into euro; customers on an Enterprise Agreement see the euro list price itself. A euro budget built on the old prices runs under plan from February without any change in usage. The columns are described in Azure cost exports, the currency question in EUR and GBP reporting.
A commitment programme change (the savings plan for databases, the end of reservation exchanges, the GitHub prepayments) shows in the rows that carry a commitment: rows with PricingModel SavingsPlan name the plan in benefitId and benefitName, rows with PricingModel Reservation carry the ReservationId. A reservation exchanged one last time appears afterwards under a new ID, and the old one ends with a refund; after 2027-02-01 a wrong size leaves only the trade-in for a savings plan or a cancellation within the limit. A prepayment sits as a purchase (ChargeType Purchase) on the invoice of the month it was bought, and later usage draws down the balance. The mechanics are in Azure savings plans, Azure reservations and commitment exchange, cancellation and expiry.
A price change on Foundry models sits in the meter name: MeterName carries model, version and deployment type (Global, Data Zone, Regional), MeterRegion the region. From 2026-09-01 the rate of meters with EU Data Zone or a European region shows the new premium, but on pay-as-you-go deployments only with a model released after the date; whoever stays on the old model pays the old price. Provisioned throughput pays the premium at once. Flex usage sits on its own meters, and grouping by Meter separates it from Standard. What the AI meters measure is under AI and machine learning services and AI provider billing.
Sources
Read on 2026-10-21. Azure updates, Microsoft FinOps Blog, What are savings plans, Azure pricing; each row links its source.