Microsoft is raising prices for selected Azure virtual machines and storage services in seven regions on 1 February 2027. A Microsoft Q&A thread on the notification lists the increases as 9 percent in West Europe (Amsterdam), 17 percent in North Europe (Dublin), 11 percent in France Central and France South, 9 percent in Norway East and West, and 8 percent in Southeast Asia.
If you run workloads in those regions, the increase lands in the first quarter of the year, usually while budgets are still being finalised. This article explains what has been announced, who is affected and what to check now.
What Microsoft has announced
Microsoft told affected customers through an Azure Service Health advisory on 2 October. The advisory is titled Action required: Prepare for specific Azure VM series and Azure Storage service price updates in seven Azure regions globally. It is sent to subscriptions that use the affected services and is not available as a public page, so some teams will not have seen it.
The increase applies to specific virtual machine series and storage services, and Microsoft has published an exclusion list. The real impact therefore depends on which VM families and storage types your workloads use, not on the headline percentage.
Who is affected
Many UK organisations may be exposed even though the UK regions are not on the list. Some deployed to North Europe (Dublin) or West Europe (Amsterdam) before the UK regions launched in 2016, or chose them for cost or feature availability. If your environment predates the UK regions, check where the resources actually sit.
Pay-as-you-go, Enterprise Agreement and Microsoft Customer Agreement rates are reported to take the full increase on the date. A negotiated discount reduces what you pay, but the percentage applies to the underlying price.
Other changes on the same date
Two further changes are reported for 1 February. Older v1 and v2 virtual machine series are said to rise by about 25 percent in every region, and reservations bought on or after that date will no longer be exchangeable for services that also have a Savings Plan option. Reservations are often used to manage risk, so losing the ability to exchange them removes some flexibility.
One analysis notes that the reservation change lands on the same day as the regional price rise, which makes the timing of any reservation purchase more important.
What it could cost
As an illustration, imagine an organisation with 20,000 euros a month of in-scope virtual machine spend in North Europe. A 17 percent increase adds 3,400 euros a month, or 40,800 euros a year. The same spend in West Europe would rise by 9 percent, adding 1,800 euros a month, or 21,600 euros a year. These figures are invented and your own exposure depends on your mix of services, discounts and commitments, but the arithmetic shows why it is worth modelling.
What to do now
Start with an inventory. List the subscriptions and resources in the seven regions, and identify which VM series and storage services are in scope and which are excluded. Total the monthly spend for the in-scope items. Then apply the percentages to see the annual effect and compare it with your 2027 budget.
Next, review your commitments. Check which reservations and Savings Plans you hold, when they end and whether it makes sense to buy or renew before 1 February or after. Check whether any of your older workloads run on v1 or v2 series, because those may rise everywhere.
Finally, consider options. Moving a workload to a different region may avoid the increase, but it brings data residency, latency, transfer and migration costs that can exceed the saving. Moving to newer VM series can reduce cost and avoid the legacy uplift. Ask Microsoft or your partner for the exclusion list and a written confirmation of how the change applies to your agreement.
How to find your in-scope spend
Azure Cost Management lets you group spend by location and by service, which is the quickest way to see how much of your bill sits in the seven regions. Filter to virtual machines and storage first, since those are the services named in the advisory. Then export the list of VM series and storage types in those regions and compare it with the exclusion list Microsoft has published.
Do this for each subscription, not just the main one. Test and development subscriptions, and ones created by individual teams, often hold resources that nobody has reviewed for years, and they may be in older regions or on older VM series.
Planning the first quarter
The increase takes effect on 1 February, so the first full month at the new price is February. If your budget year starts in January, you will be setting 2027 numbers with the new prices known but not yet applied. Build them in now, and flag the increase to finance so that it is not read as unexplained overspend in the spring.
If you buy through a partner, ask when they expect to confirm the change in your price list, and whether your agreement allows you to adjust commitments in response. If you hold an Enterprise Agreement or Microsoft Customer Agreement, ask your account team to confirm in writing how the increase applies to your rates.
Conclusion
Azure prices in seven regions rise by 8 to 17 percent on 1 February 2027, with larger reported increases on older VM series and less flexibility for new reservations. Many European organisations will be affected, including some in the UK.
Find out which resources are in scope, model the effect, review your commitments and decide whether to stay, resize or move. Doing it before the end of the year gives you time to act on what you find.
