---
title: "Azure Price Increase Effective February 1, 2027: What does this mean?"
description: From 1 February 2027, Azure VM and Storage prices rise 8–17% in seven regions, 9% in West Europe. Read the licensing implications and what to do now.
---

[Software Licensing Blog | Geltec](https://www.geltec.nl/en/blog)

# [Azure Price Increase Effective February 1, 2027: What does this mean?](https://www.geltec.nl/en/blog/azure-price-increase-effective-february-1-2027-what-does-this-mean)

 Written by [Danny Gelens](https://www.geltec.nl/en/blog/author/danny-gelens) | Oct 15, 2026, 6:42:24 AM

Effective February 1, 2027, prices for selected Azure Virtual Machines and Azure Storage services will increase by **8% to 17% across seven regions**. For organizations in the Benelux, **West Europe (Amsterdam)** is particularly relevant, with a price increase of **9%**.

On the same date, Microsoft will also change the **exchange policy for Azure Reservations**. As these changes may affect each other, it makes sense to assess them together.

### What has been announced?

Microsoft is informing affected customers through a notification in Azure Service Health. As of early October, no public announcement was available.

The price increase applies to selected VMs and Storage services in the following regions:

| Region | Verhoging |
| --- | --- |
| West Europe (Amsterdam) | 9% |
| North Europe (Dublin) | 17% |
| France Central | 11% |
| France South | 11% |
| Norway East | 9% |
| Norway West | 9% |
| Southeast Asia (Singapore) | 8% |

Microsoft cites regional market conditions, greater consistency between regions, and continued investment in hardware as reasons for the adjustment.

### Which services are excluded?

The following VM series are excluded:

- **v1 series**, including Bv1, D, Ds, F, Fs, G and Gs
- **v2 series**, including Av2, Amv2, Dv2, Dsv2, Fsv2 and Lsv2
- Selected **v7 series**, including Dsv7, Ddsv7, Dlsv7, Dldsv7, Esv7 and Edsv7

A number of Storage services are also excluded, including **Queues, Tables, General Block Blob and Standard Page Blob**.

The notification only identifies these exclusions. To determine which series are affected, review the **Impacted Resources** tab together with your own Azure consumption data.

### What are the licensing implications?

**1. Reservations and savings plans.** Microsoft recommends comparing the new regional rates with your existing reservations and planned deployments. The notification does not explain in detail how existing commitments will be affected by the new rates. Therefore, review this on a per-agreement basis before drawing conclusions.

**2. Changes to the reservation exchange policy.** From February 1, 2027, reservations for services covered by savings plans will no longer be exchangeable. Existing reservations will remain eligible for one final exchange. The cancellation rules remain unchanged. This means that a reservation purchased after February 1 can no longer be adjusted through an exchange if your region or VM series changes.

**3. Older VM generations.** The Dv3, Dsv3, Ev3 and Esv3 series will retire on November 15, 2029. New or renewed 1-year and 3-year reservations for v1 to v3 variants are no longer available. Microsoft identifies Azure Savings Plan for Compute as its primary recommendation.

**4. Region selection.** Moving workloads to another region may help limit the impact of the price increase. However, this needs to be assessed against factors such as data residency, latency and migration costs. A regional price comparison that does not take these factors into account provides an incomplete picture.

### What can you do now?

1. Map your Azure consumption by region and VM series.
2. Compare this with your reservations and savings plans, including their end dates.
3. Determine before February 1, 2027 which commitments you want to adjust or purchase.
4. Include the retirement of the v3 VM series in the same analysis.

Geltec is an independent advisory firm with no affiliation with Microsoft or Microsoft resellers. We analyze your Azure consumption and commitments based on your own data.

**Sources:** Azure Service Health-melding (regionale prijswijziging) · [VM lifecycle overview](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/sizes/lifecycle/lifecycle-overview) · [Retirements and capacity restrictions](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/sizes/lifecycle/retirements-and-capacity-restrictions) · [Reservation exchanges, Microsoft Tech Community](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/finops-blog/reservation-exchanges-for-azure-services-covered-by-savings/ba-p/4542437)

[View full post](https://www.geltec.nl/en/blog/azure-price-increase-effective-february-1-2027-what-does-this-mean)

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