About
Azure Virtual Machines is Microsoft Azure's on-demand infrastructure service for creating and running Linux and Windows virtual machines in the cloud. It provides scalable compute capacity for a wide range of workloads, from enterprise applications and development environments to high-performance computing and migration scenarios.
The service is designed to help organizations deploy applications quickly on resilient infrastructure while maintaining flexibility over operating system choice, VM size, regional placement, and cost optimization options.
- Deploy Linux and Windows VMs in seconds.
- Run diverse workloads including SQL Server, Oracle, SAP, open-source software, and HPC applications.
- Scale across 60+ regions with high availability options.
- Use built-in security, monitoring, backup, and migration integrations.
- Optimize spend with reservations, Spot VMs, and Azure Hybrid Benefit.
Free Tier Value
This free tier is a 12-month introductory offer, so it is capped and time-limited rather than perpetual. Using the provided free quotas and conservative paid-rate anchors, 750 hours of each included burstable VM family for Linux and Windows comes out to about $21/month of value, and the account flow still requires normal Azure signup friction.
What's included in the free tier
- 750 hours each of B2pts v2 (Arm-based) burstable Linux VMs for 12 months.
- 750 hours each of B2ats v2 (AMD-based) burstable Linux VMs for 12 months.
- 750 hours each of B2pts v2 (Arm-based) burstable Windows VMs for 12 months.
- 750 hours each of B2ats v2 (AMD-based) burstable Windows VMs for 12 months.
See Azure Virtual Machines pricing for current limits.
Paid plans
Virtual Machines
- compute hours
- usage-based
- storage
- usage-based
- networking
- usage-based
- Linux and Windows virtual machines
- Multiple VM families and sizes
- Billed for compute, storage, and related resources
- Suitable for burstable and general-purpose workloads
Pricing extracted from Azure Virtual Machines's pricing page. Always verify current pricing before committing.
