Azure Disk Billing Questions

Hi Gerome,

Thanks for your question on the Microsoft Q&A portal!

To help us investigate and resolve this for you quickly, could you please provide a few additional details:

• Which disk type are you referring to? Billing behavior can vary depending on the disk type.
• Are you referring to provisioned disk size or actual usage?
• Is the disk attached to a VM or used independently?

Looking forward to your response so we can assist you further.

Thanks,

Pranitha

Hi Gerome,

Following up to see if you have a chance to check my previous response and help us with requested information to check and assist you further on this. 

Thank you!

Hello Gerome!

Assuming the scenario that you are using Azure managed disks which are being used in VM hosting web and apps.

As per checking, yes, your statement is accurate. Azure managed disks are billed on an hourly basis, meaning that even if you use a disk for just a few minutes, you're billed for the full hour.

Azure Managed Disks are billed per hour, not per minute or second. This means:

• If you use a disk for 5 minutes, you are billed for 1 full hour.
• If you use a disk for 1 hour and 54 minutes, you are billed for 2 full hours.

This applies to all Azure Managed Disk types including Premium SSDs, Standard SSDs, Standard HDDs, and Ultra Disks.

Supporting Sources

1. Microsoft Learn – Azure Disk Billing Documentation Azure confirms that disk usage is billed hourly, and charges are pro-rated based on the monthly price. For example, if a Premium SSD P15 costs $38.013/month, the hourly rate is calculated as:

      $38.013 / (31 days × 24 hours) ≈ $0.052/hour
   

   So even if you use the disk for just a few minutes, you are charged for the full hour. References:
   1. Microsoft Q&A – Premium disk billing per month or per hour
   2. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/99879/premium-disk-billing-per-month-or-per-hour
   3. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/401021/is-disk-usage-billed-in-hours-used-or-monthly
   4. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/disks-understand-billing

Please click Accept Answer if the above was helpful.

Thanks

Pratyush

@Pratyush Vashistha The information you have posted above is incorrect. Please see my answer above. My answer is based on actual billing data over many years of paying for Azure disks every month.

One of things that can be confusing is when the documentation mentions hourly. Just because it says hourly, does not mean the meter granularity is hourly.