Azure Pricing

Azure pricing

Fetch current Azure retail prices, normalize the user's service/SKU/region request into Azure Retail Prices API filters, calculate consumption or commitment estimates, and return a concise cost table with sources and assumptions.

When to invoke

• "How much does a D4s v5 VM cost in West Europe?"
• "Compare Azure SKU prices across regions."
• "Estimate monthly Azure costs for this architecture."
• "What is the Copilot Studio agent cost for these users?"
• "Show reservation, savings plan, or spot pricing for this service."

Prerequisites and context

• Use the public Azure Retail Prices API; no authentication is required.
• Use web access for Copilot Studio rates because Microsoft can change billing tables.
• Resolve human region names to armRegionName values; read references/REGIONS.md when unsure.
• Read references/SERVICE-NAMES.md, references/COST-ESTIMATOR.md, and references/COPILOT-STUDIO-RATES.md only when the request needs those details.

Retail Prices API

Always call:

GET https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?api-version=2023-01-01-preview

Append $filter with OData syntax. Keep api-version=2023-01-01-preview because savings plan data appears in that version. URL-encode spaces as %20 and quotes as %27 when constructing a full URL such as https://prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices?api-version=2023-01-01-preview&$filter=serviceName eq 'Functions' and armRegionName eq 'eastus' and priceType eq 'Consumption'.

Use eq for equality, and to combine predicates, and contains(field, 'value') for partial matches.

Common filters

serviceName eq 'Functions' and armRegionName eq 'eastus' and priceType eq 'Consumption'
armSkuName eq 'Standard_D4s_v5' and armRegionName eq 'westeurope' and priceType eq 'Consumption'
serviceName eq 'Storage' and armRegionName eq 'eastus'
armSkuName eq 'Standard_D4s_v5' and contains(meterName, 'Spot') and armRegionName eq 'eastus'
serviceName eq 'Virtual Machines' and priceType eq 'Reservation' and armRegionName eq 'eastus'
serviceName eq 'Foundry Models' and armRegionName eq 'eastus' and priceType eq 'Consumption'
serviceName eq 'Azure Cosmos DB' and armRegionName eq 'eastus' and priceType eq 'Consumption'

If a service name is uncertain, start with serviceFamily and inspect returned serviceName values before narrowing.

Response fields and pricing rules

Parse the Items array and follow NextPageLink only when the first page is insufficient. Prefer rows where isPrimaryMeterRegion is true unless the user asks for non-primary meters.

Supported serviceFamily values include Analytics, Compute, Containers, Data, Databases, Developer Tools, Integration, Internet of Things, Management and Governance, Networking, Security, Storage, Web, and AI + Machine Learning.

Procedure

1. Identify service, SKU, region, usage quantity, period, currency, and pricing model from the user's request.
2. Ask at most one focused clarifying question only when a missing value changes the estimate materially.
3. Resolve region names such as "East US", "West Europe", and "Southeast Asia" to eastus, westeurope, and southeastasia.
4. Build the narrowest safe $filter, fetch the API URL, parse Items, and broaden only when results are empty.
5. Calculate monthly and annual estimates using the units and formulas in references/COST-ESTIMATOR.md.
6. For Copilot Studio, fetch current rates from Microsoft before calculating and use references/COPILOT-STUDIO-RATES.md only as fallback context.
7. Return assumptions, unit prices, estimate math, and the exact pricing source.

Copilot Studio agent cost estimation

Use this section for Copilot Studio pricing, Copilot Credits, or agent usage costs.

Gather agent type, number of users, interactions_per_month, knowledge percentage, tenant graph percentage, tool calls per session, flow actions, and prompt modifier tier. Compute total_sessions = users × interactions_per_month, then apply current rates for knowledge, tenant graph grounding, generative answers, classic answers, agent actions, agent flows, and prompt modifiers.

Fetch these source URLs before calculating Copilot Studio billing when web access is available:

Troubleshooting

Progressive disclosure and bundled resources

• references/REGIONS.md: Azure display names mapped to armRegionName values.
• references/SERVICE-NAMES.md: common Azure serviceName casing.
• references/COST-ESTIMATOR.md: monthly and annual estimate formulas.
• references/COPILOT-STUDIO-RATES.md: cached Copilot Studio billing formulas and examples.

Compatibility vocabulary

Preserve these legacy terms, API names, command placeholders, and literal phrases when applying or migrating this skill:

• 'AI + Machine Learning'
• 'Compute'
• 'Consumption'
• 'D4s v5'
• 'Databases'
• 'DevTestConsumption'
• 'Functions'
• 'Reservation'
• 'Spot'
• 'Standard_D4s_v5'
• 'Standard_LRS'
• 'Storage'
• 'Virtual Machines'
• 'eastus'
• 'southeastasia'
• 'westeurope'
• 2023-01-01-preview
• JSON
• basic/standard/premium
• built-in
• by-step
• employee/customer
• interactions/month
• monthly/annual
• real-time

Open Horizons integration

• Scope pricing analysis to the platform objective, deployment environment, and current Horizon stage.
• Preserve Open Horizons Azure resource, region, ownership, and evidence boundaries where applicable.
• Route cross-domain sequencing through open-horizons-orchestration (skill).

Output template

## Azure pricing estimate — <service or workload>

**Status:** priced | estimated | blocked
**Pricing source:** <Azure Retail Prices API URL or Microsoft Copilot Studio URL>
**Assumptions:** <region, SKU, usage period, currency, and missing inputs>

| Item | Region | SKU/Meter | Price type | Unit price | Usage | Monthly estimate | Annual estimate |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| <service> | <armRegionName> | <skuName or meterName> | <Consumption/Reservation/SavingsPlan/Spot> | <price and unit> | <quantity> | <cost> | <cost> |

### Calculation
- <formula with numbers>

### Notes
- <primary meter, savings plan, Copilot Credit, or licensing caveat>

Quality gate

• The exact API URL or Microsoft pricing URL used for the answer is reported.
• Region names were resolved to armRegionName values and shown in the output.
• The estimate uses api-version=2023-01-01-preview when querying Azure Retail Prices.
• Items, NextPageLink, isPrimaryMeterRegion, and savingsPlan were handled when present.
• Unit conversions are explicit enough for the user to audit the monthly and annual totals.
• Copilot Studio estimates fetched current Microsoft billing rates or clearly used the cached fallback.

References

• Azure Retail Prices API
• Copilot Studio requirements, messages, and management
• Copilot Studio billing and licensing