Understanding billing
Azure is a service utility that has the following features:
- No upfront costs
- No termination fees
- Billing per second, per minute, or per hour depending on the type of resource
- Payment based on consumption-on-the-go
In such circumstances, it is very difficult to estimate the upfront cost of consuming Azure resources. Every resource in Azure has its own cost model and charge based on storage, usage, and time span. It is very important for management, administration, and finance departments to keep track of usage and costs. Azure provides usage and billing reporting capabilities to help upper management and administrators generate cost and usage reports based on multiple criteria.
The Azure portal provides detailed billing and usage information through the Cost Management + Billing feature, which can be accessed from the master navigation blade, as shown in Figure 6.1:
