Savings estimator
Estimate savings across Azure, AI, and Fabric
Enter monthly Azure spend for an ungated range. Add AI and Fabric details when you have them. Every rate and assumption is shown.
Your Azure spend
Your all-in monthly Azure bill, including any AI and Fabric spend. From Azure Cost Management; a round number is fine.
Scales the rate published for your estate size: a mature practice has less of it left to capture, and the estimate says so.
A few subscriptions and tidy tagging, or sprawling multi-team estates with drift. More sprawl means more idle, orphaned, and mis-sized resources to reclaim.
Roughly how much of your bill is IaaS (VMs, disks) versus managed PaaS (App Service, SQL DB, Cosmos). IaaS-heavy estates carry more right-sizing, reservation, and Azure Hybrid Benefit headroom.
Add your AI & LLM spend Batch, model mix, PTUs
Inference spend only. The estimate deliberately excludes vector databases, embeddings, and egress.
Model mixRight-sizing existing PTUs only. Provisioned capacity is a performance purchase, not automatically a savings one.
Adjust the AI assumptions
Default 20%. Microsoft's Batch API discount applies to this slice.
Prompt-caching dollars are excluded. Savings depend on the selected model version and its current cache-read and cache-write rates.
Add your Fabric capacity SKU right-size, reservations, pause schedules
We map it to the nearest F-SKU at pay-as-you-go rates.
Use the smoothed Capacity Metrics view for the last 30 days. Do not use a simple average or a raw peak.
Add this only when non-production runs on its own pay-as-you-go capacity. A share of a mixed capacity cannot be paused independently.
Adjust the Fabric assumptions
Primary capacity billing todayA 1-year reservation enters the estimate only at or above ~14.3 hours/day. Primary-capacity pause savings are not modeled.
10–20%
Published baseline by estate size
< 1 min
Ungated estimate
1
Required input
Published results from larger estates, not calculator output, include Clinic to Cloud's 46% reduction in two weeks and Transport for NSW's 22% data-lake saving.
Unlock your full Savings Pulse Report
The lever-by-lever breakdown, the formula behind each number, an audit of every assumption, and a PDF you can put in front of your CFO. Rendered right here; nothing is emailed to you.
Methodology
Every rate, sourced and dated.
The Azure estimate starts with the 10–20% baseline published for your estate size. It removes entered AI and Fabric costs first, then adjusts for optimization stage, complexity, and infrastructure mix. AI levers run in sequence so the same spend is not counted twice. Fabric right-sizing uses 24-hour-smoothed P95 utilization and the billing basis you select. A reservation is modeled only for a pay-as-you-go primary capacity needed at least 14.3 hours a day. Pause savings require a separately entered pay-as-you-go non-production capacity and its schedule.
| Assumption | Value | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure savings baseline | 10% of spend at $60K/year, rising to 20% at $3M | CloudMonitor published savings ladder: 10% of consumption at $60K annual spend, rising to 20% at $3M | 2026-08-25 |
| Optimization-stage multipliers | 100% / 70% / 35% of the estate-size baseline | CloudMonitor estimate, owner-approved 2026-07-11; scales the published estate-size baseline | 2026-07-11 |
| Estate-complexity multipliers | 85% / 100% / 115% of the baseline (low / moderate / high) | CloudMonitor estimate, owner-approved 2026-07-11; scales the published estate-size baseline around a moderate estate | 2026-07-11 |
| Infrastructure-mix multipliers | 85% all-PaaS → 115% all-IaaS (linear; 100% at a 50/50 split) | CloudMonitor estimate, owner-approved 2026-07-11; IaaS carries more right-sizing, reservation, and Hybrid Benefit headroom than managed PaaS | 2026-07-11 |
| Model right-sizing headroom | 25% frontier / 15% balanced / 5% mini | CloudMonitor estimate, owner-approved 2026-07-11; based on published inter-tier per-token price spreads | 2026-07-11 |
| Batch API discount | 50% on batchable workload | Microsoft-documented Azure OpenAI Batch API discount (Global-Batch, 24-hour turnaround) | 2026-07-11 |
| Prompt caching | Excluded until model-specific read and write rates are selected | Prompt-caching dollars are excluded until a model version and current cache-read and cache-write rates are selected | 2026-08-25 |
| PTU right-sizing headroom | 0% / 30% / 10% of the PTU slice by utilization | Reclaim unallocated PTUs, size to average load with spillover, move non-prod to pay-as-you-go, and buy reservations on the retained base | 2026-07-11 |
| Fabric pay-as-you-go rate | $0.18 per CU-hour | Azure Retail Prices API: Microsoft Fabric pay-as-you-go compute in US regions ($/CU-hour) | 2026-08-25 |
| Fabric 1-year reservation | $938 per CU per year (40.5% below 24/7 pay-as-you-go) | Azure Retail Prices API: Microsoft Fabric 1-year reserved capacity in US regions ($/CU/year) | 2026-08-25 |
| Right-sizing target | 70% of 24-hour-smoothed P95 CU utilization | CloudMonitor sizing target applied to 24-hour-smoothed P95 CU utilization; leaves 30% headroom | 2026-08-25 |
| Separate non-prod pause schedule | 12 hours × 5 days for an explicitly separate pay-as-you-go capacity | Default schedule for an explicitly separate pay-as-you-go non-production capacity: 12 hours × 5 days | 2026-08-25 |
| Global estimate ceiling | 40% of total entered spend | Hard ceiling — the optimistic estimate never exceeds 40% of total entered spend | 2026-07-11 |
| Conservative bound | 60% of the optimistic estimate | Conservative bound shown as 60% of the optimistic estimate to avoid false precision | 2026-07-11 |
What the estimate does not cover
- Prompt-caching dollars until you select a model version and its current cache-read and cache-write rates.
- AI harness costs such as vector databases, embeddings, egress, and observability.
- OneLake storage, capacity overage billing, and Spark autoscale.
- Rate changes: Microsoft reprices these services; each rate above carries the date we last verified it.
Estimates vary with your actual usage. Industry benchmarks, where cited, come from the State of FinOps 2026 Report.
Questions
About this estimate.
Is there a minimum Azure spend to get value from CloudMonitor?
There is no universal break-even point. It depends on your estate size, optimization stage, infrastructure mix, and the work your team still handles manually. Use the savings calculator to compare its conservative range with the license fee shown for your annual Azure consumption band. Treat that result as an estimate until eligibility and usage are measured from your billing data.
How does the savings calculator work out its estimate?
The estimate combines core Azure spend, AI usage, and Fabric capacity. Core Azure spend uses CloudMonitor's published savings baseline, from 10% at $60K annual spend to 20% at $3M, then adjusts for your optimization stage, estate complexity, and infrastructure mix. The AI section models model right-sizing, Batch API routing, and existing provisioned-throughput right-sizing. The Fabric section uses current Azure prices for SKU right-sizing, one-year reservations, and explicit pause schedules for a separate non-production capacity. Every rate appears in the methodology section with its source and last-verified date. The result is always a range.
Do I have to enter my details to see a savings number?
No. The headline savings range, the pillar breakdown, and the license comparison are free to use with no form. Your work email and company name unlock the full report: the lever-by-lever breakdown with the formula behind each number, an audit of every assumption you kept or changed, and a PDF you can share internally.
How accurate is the savings estimate?
It is an estimate built from your inputs and published rates, not from your billing data. Treat it as a range, not a promise. Mature FinOps teams see smaller numbers by design because less optimization headroom remains. Connect CloudMonitor to measure spend and opportunities from your billing data. Eligibility, workload requirements, and the actions your team approves still determine realized savings.
Does the estimate cover AI and Microsoft Fabric costs?
Yes. The AI section models Azure OpenAI token spend through model mix, Batch API routing, and existing provisioned-throughput right-sizing. Prompt-caching dollars are excluded until a model version and current cache-read and cache-write rates are selected. The Fabric section models SKU right-sizing, reservations, and pause schedules for a separate pay-as-you-go non-production capacity. AI harness costs and OneLake storage are also excluded and listed beside the methodology.
Measure opportunities from your billing data.
CloudMonitor reads your billing export through scoped permissions and measures spend and opportunities from your usage. Eligibility, workload requirements, and the actions your team approves determine realized savings.
