# Usage Examples š
Real-world examples of using the Azure Pricing MCP Server with VS Code Copilot or Claude Desktop.
---
## Table of Contents
- [Basic Price Queries](#basic-price-queries)
- [Reserved Instance Pricing](#reserved-instance-pricing)
- [Multi-Node & Cluster Pricing](#multi-node--cluster-pricing)
- [Price Comparisons](#price-comparisons)
- [Region Recommendations](#region-recommendations)
- [Cost Estimations](#cost-estimations)
- [SKU Discovery](#sku-discovery)
- [Retirement Warnings](#retirement-warnings)
- [Storage Pricing](#storage-pricing)
- [Sample API Responses](#sample-api-responses)
- [Reference Tables](#reference-tables)
---
## Basic Price Queries
### Virtual Machine Pricing
**Query:**
```
What's the price of a Standard_D4s_v3 VM in East US?
```
**What happens:**
- Tool: `azure_price_search`
- Filters: `service_name=Virtual Machines`, `sku_name=D4s v3`, `region=eastus`
**Sample Response:**
```
Standard_D4s_v3 in East US:
- Linux: $0.192/hour
- Windows: $0.384/hour
- 1-Year Savings Plan: $0.134/hour (30% savings)
- 3-Year Savings Plan: $0.106/hour (45% savings)
```
---
### Database Pricing
**Query:**
```
What are the prices for Azure SQL Database in West Europe?
```
**What happens:**
- Tool: `azure_price_search`
- Filters: `service_name=Azure SQL Database`, `region=westeurope`
---
### GPU VM Pricing
**Query:**
```
Show me NVIDIA GPU VM pricing in East US 2
```
**What happens:**
- Tool: `azure_price_search`
- Filters: `service_name=Virtual Machines`, `sku_name=NC`, `region=eastus2`
---
## Reserved Instance Pricing
### Compare RI vs On-Demand
**Query:**
```
Show me Reserved Instance pricing for D4s v3 in East US
```
**What happens:**
- Tool: `azure_ri_pricing`
- Filters: `service_name=Virtual Machines`, `sku_name=D4s v3`, `region=eastus`
**Sample Response:**
```
### Reserved Instance Savings Analysis
- **D4s v3** (East US) - 1 Year
- Savings: **41.5%**
- RI Rate: $0.112/hr vs OD Rate: $0.192/hr
- Break-even: **7.0 months**
- Est. Annual Savings: $700.80
- **D4s v3** (East US) - 3 Years
- Savings: **62.0%**
- RI Rate: $0.073/hr vs OD Rate: $0.192/hr
- Break-even: **13.7 months**
- Est. Annual Savings: $1,042.44
```
---
## Multi-Node & Cluster Pricing
### AKS Node Pool Pricing
**Query:**
```
Price for 20 Standard_D32s_v6 nodes in East US 2 for AKS
```
**Sample Response:**
```
Standard_D32s_v6 in East US 2:
| Option | Hourly/Node | Monthly/Node | 20 Nodes/Month |
|---------------------|-------------|--------------|----------------|
| Linux On-Demand | $1.613 | $1,177.49 | $23,549.80 |
| 1-Year Savings Plan | $1.113 | $812.49 | $16,249.82 |
| 3-Year Savings Plan | $0.742 | $541.65 | $10,832.93 |
| Windows | $3.085 | $2,252.05 | $45,041.00 |
| Linux Spot | $0.313 | $228.43 | $4,568.66 |
```
---
### Kubernetes Cluster Cost Estimate
**Query:**
```
Estimate monthly cost for a Kubernetes cluster with:
- 5 D8s_v5 nodes for system
- 20 D16s_v5 nodes for workloads
- All in East US
```
---
## Price Comparisons
### Cross-Region Comparison
**Query:**
```
Compare D4s_v5 VM prices between eastus, westeurope, and southeastasia
```
**What happens:**
- Tool: `azure_price_compare`
- Parameters: `service_name=Virtual Machines`, `sku_name=D4s v5`, `regions=[eastus, westeurope, southeastasia]`
**Sample Response:**
```
D4s_v5 Price Comparison:
| Region | Hourly Price | Monthly (730h) |
|---------------|--------------|----------------|
| eastus | $0.192 | $140.16 |
| westeurope | $0.211 | $154.03 |
| southeastasia | $0.221 | $161.33 |
š” East US is 13% cheaper than Southeast Asia
```
---
### SKU Comparison
**Query:**
```
Compare storage options: Premium SSD vs Standard SSD vs Standard HDD
```
---
## Region Recommendations
The region recommendation tool supports multiple SKU name formats for convenience:
- **Display format**: `D4s v5`, `E4as v5`
- **ARM format**: `Standard_D4s_v5`, `Standard_E4as_v5`
- **Underscore format**: `D4s_v5`, `E4as_v5`
All formats are automatically normalized and will return the same results.
### Find Cheapest Regions for VMs
**Query:**
```
What are the cheapest regions for D4s v5 VMs?
```
or equivalently:
```
What are the cheapest regions for Standard_D4s_v5 VMs?
```
**What happens:**
- Tool: `azure_region_recommend`
- Parameters: `service_name=Virtual Machines`, `sku_name=D4s v5`, `top_n=10`
**Sample Response:**
```
š Region Recommendations for Virtual Machines - D4s v5
Currency: USD
Total regions found: 34
Showing top: 10
š Summary:
š„ Cheapest: IN Central (centralindia) - $0.023400
š„ Most Expensive: BR South (brazilsouth) - $0.117000
š° Max Savings: 80.0% by choosing the cheapest region
š Ranked Recommendations:
| Rank | Region | Location | Price | Savings vs Max |
|------|--------|----------|-------|----------------|
| š„ 1 | centralindia | IN Central | $0.0234/hr | 80.0% |
| š„ 2 | eastus2 | US East 2 | $0.0336/hr | 71.2% |
| š„ 3 | eastus | US East | $0.0336/hr | 71.2% |
| 4 | westus3 | US West 3 | $0.0336/hr | 71.2% |
| 5 | northcentralus | US North Central | $0.0364/hr | 68.9% |
```
---
### AKS Cluster - Find Cheapest Region
**Query:**
```
Find the cheapest regions for running D8s v6 nodes
```
or with ARM format:
```
Find the cheapest regions for Standard_D8s_v6
```
**What happens:**
- Tool: `azure_region_recommend`
- Parameters: `service_name=Virtual Machines`, `sku_name=D8s v6`, `top_n=5`
---
### Region Recommendations with Discount
**Query:**
```
Show cheapest regions for E4s v5 VMs with my 15% enterprise discount
```
**What happens:**
- Tool: `azure_region_recommend`
- Parameters: `service_name=Virtual Machines`, `sku_name=E4s v5`, `discount_percentage=15`
---
## Cost Estimations
### Development Environment
**Query:**
```
Estimate monthly cost for D4s_v5 running 10 hours per day, 22 days per month
```
**What happens:**
- Tool: `azure_cost_estimate`
- Parameters: `service_name=Virtual Machines`, `sku_name=D4s v5`, `region=eastus`, `hours_per_month=220`
**Sample Response:**
```
Cost Estimate for D4s_v5 (Dev Environment)
Usage: 220 hours/month (10hr/day Ć 22 days)
On-Demand:
- Hourly: $0.192
- Monthly: $42.24
- Yearly: $506.88
With 1-Year Savings Plan:
- Monthly: $29.48
- Yearly: $353.76
- Savings: $153.12/year (30%)
With 3-Year Savings Plan:
- Monthly: $23.32
- Yearly: $279.84
- Savings: $227.04/year (45%)
```
---
### Production 24/7 Workload
**Query:**
```
Estimate yearly cost for E8s_v5 running 24/7 in West US 2
```
---
## SKU Discovery
### Find Available VM Sizes
**Query:**
```
What VM sizes are available for compute-intensive workloads?
```
**What happens:**
- Tool: `azure_sku_discovery`
- Parameters: `service_hint=compute`
---
### App Service Plans
**Query:**
```
What App Service plans are available?
```
**What happens:**
- Tool: `azure_sku_discovery`
- Parameters: `service_hint=app service`
- Uses fuzzy matching: "app service" ā "Azure App Service"
**Sample Response:**
```
SKU Discovery for 'app service' (mapped to: Azure App Service)
š¦ Azure App Service Basic:
ā¢ B1: $0.018/hour
ā¢ B2: $0.036/hour
ā¢ B3: $0.072/hour
š¦ Azure App Service Standard:
ā¢ S1: $0.10/hour
ā¢ S2: $0.20/hour
ā¢ S3: $0.40/hour
š¦ Azure App Service Premium v3:
ā¢ P1v3: $0.125/hour
ā¢ P2v3: $0.25/hour
ā¢ P3v3: $0.50/hour
```
---
### Fuzzy Service Name Matching
The `azure_sku_discovery` tool supports common aliases:
| You Say | Maps To |
|---------|---------|
| "vm", "virtual machine" | Virtual Machines |
| "app service", "web app" | Azure App Service |
| "sql", "database" | Azure SQL Database |
| "kubernetes", "aks", "k8s" | Azure Kubernetes Service |
| "storage", "blob" | Storage |
| "redis", "cache" | Azure Cache for Redis |
| "cosmos", "cosmosdb" | Azure Cosmos DB |
| "functions", "serverless" | Azure Functions |
---
## Storage Pricing
### Block Blob Operations
**Query:**
```
How much does 100,000 write operations on Block Blob LRS GPv1 in East US cost?
```
**Sample Response:**
```
Block Blob LRS (GPv1) - East US:
- Write Operations: $0.00036 per 10K
- 100,000 operations = 10 Ć 10K
- Total: $0.0036
With 10% customer discount: $0.00324
```
---
### Storage Tiers Comparison
**Query:**
```
Compare Hot, Cool, and Archive storage pricing in East US
```
---
## Sample API Responses
### Price Search Response
```json
{
"items": [
{
"service": "Virtual Machines",
"product": "Virtual Machines Dsv6 Series",
"sku": "D32s v6",
"region": "eastus2",
"location": "US East 2",
"discounted_price": 1.4517,
"original_price": 1.613,
"unit": "1 Hour",
"type": "Consumption",
"savings_plans": [
{"retailPrice": 0.742, "term": "3 Years"},
{"retailPrice": 1.113, "term": "1 Year"}
],
"savings_amount": 0.1613,
"savings_percentage": 10.0
}
],
"count": 1,
"currency": "USD",
"discount_applied": {
"percentage": 10.0,
"note": "Prices shown are after discount"
}
}
```
### Cost Estimate Response
```
Cost Estimate for Virtual Machines - D4s v5
Region: eastus
Product: Virtual Machines Dsv5 Series
Unit: 1 Hour
Currency: USD
š° 10.0% discount applied - All prices shown are after discount
Usage Assumptions:
- Hours per month: 730
- Hours per day: 23.98
On-Demand Pricing:
- Hourly Rate: $0.1728
- Daily Cost: $4.15
- Monthly Cost: $126.14
- Yearly Cost: $1,513.73
Savings Plans Available:
1 Year Term:
- Hourly Rate: $0.1206
- Monthly Cost: $88.04
- Yearly Cost: $1,056.46
- Savings: 30.21% ($457.27 annually)
3 Years Term:
- Hourly Rate: $0.0954
- Monthly Cost: $69.64
- Yearly Cost: $835.70
- Savings: 44.80% ($678.03 annually)
```
---
## Reference Tables
### Common Azure Service Names
> ā ļø Service names are **case-sensitive**!
| Service | Exact Name |
|---------|------------|
| Virtual Machines | `Virtual Machines` |
| Storage | `Storage` |
| SQL Database | `Azure SQL Database` |
| Cosmos DB | `Azure Cosmos DB` |
| Kubernetes | `Azure Kubernetes Service` |
| App Service | `Azure App Service` |
| Functions | `Azure Functions` |
| Redis Cache | `Azure Cache for Redis` |
| PostgreSQL | `Azure Database for PostgreSQL` |
| MySQL | `Azure Database for MySQL` |
| OpenAI | `Azure OpenAI` |
| AI Services | `Azure AI services` |
---
### Common Azure Regions
| Region Code | Location |
|-------------|----------|
| `eastus` | US East |
| `eastus2` | US East 2 |
| `westus` | US West |
| `westus2` | US West 2 |
| `westus3` | US West 3 |
| `centralus` | US Central |
| `westeurope` | West Europe |
| `northeurope` | North Europe |
| `uksouth` | UK South |
| `eastasia` | East Asia |
| `southeastasia` | Southeast Asia |
| `japaneast` | Japan East |
| `australiaeast` | Australia East |
| `canadacentral` | Canada Central |
| `brazilsouth` | Brazil South |
---
### Service Families
| Family | Includes |
|--------|----------|
| `Compute` | VMs, AKS, Container Instances, App Service |
| `Storage` | Blob, Files, Disks, Data Lake |
| `Databases` | SQL, Cosmos DB, PostgreSQL, MySQL |
| `Networking` | VNet, Load Balancer, Application Gateway, CDN |
| `AI + Machine Learning` | OpenAI, Cognitive Services, ML |
| `Analytics` | Synapse, Data Factory, HDInsight |
---
## Tips for Best Results
| Tip | Example |
|-----|---------|
| ā
Be specific with SKU names | `D4s_v5` not just `D4` |
| ā
Use exact region codes | `eastus` not `East US` |
| ā
Check savings plans | Always compare 1yr and 3yr options |
| ā
Use fuzzy discovery | `azure_sku_discovery` for unknown services |
| ā
Specify currency if needed | Add `currency_code=EUR` |
| ā
Filter by price type | `Consumption`, `Reservation`, `DevTestConsumption` |
---
## Retirement Warnings
The server automatically warns you when querying VM SKUs that are retiring, retired, or previous-generation.
### Querying a Retiring SKU
**Query:**
```
What's the price of L32s v2 in East US?
```
**Sample Response:**
```
ā ļø RETIREMENT WARNING: Lsv2-series
Status: Retirement Announced
Retirement Date: 11/15/28
Recommendation: Migrate to Lsv3, Lasv3, Lsv4, or Lasv4 series
Migration Guide: https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/...
Found 5 Azure pricing results:
- L32s v2 Spot: $0.313/hour
- L32s v2 Low Priority: $0.496/hour
- L32s v2: $2.480/hour
```
### Querying a Previous-Generation SKU
**Query:**
```
What's the price of E32 v3 in East US?
```
**Sample Response:**
```
ā¹ļø PREVIOUS GENERATION: Ev3-series
Status: Newer versions available
Recommendation: Consider upgrading to Ev5 or Ev6 series
Found 3 Azure pricing results:
- E32 v3: $2.016/hour
- E32 v3 Low Priority: $0.403/hour
```
### Warning Types
| Icon | Status | Meaning |
|------|--------|--------|
| ā ļø | Retirement Announced | SKU will be retired - plan migration |
| š« | Retired | SKU is no longer available |
| ā¹ļø | Previous Generation | Newer versions available, consider upgrading |
---
## Troubleshooting
### No Results Returned
- ā Service name misspelled or wrong case
- ā SKU doesn't exist in that region
- ā Region name incorrect
**Fix:** Try a broader search first, then narrow down.
### Unexpected Prices
- Check if you're looking at Spot vs On-Demand
- Windows vs Linux pricing differs significantly
- Some meters show per-hour, others per-month
### Too Many Results
- Add more filters (region, SKU name)
- Use `limit` parameter to reduce results
---
<p align="center">
<b>Questions?</b> Check <a href="README.md">README.md</a> or open an <a href="https://github.com/msftnadavbh/AzurePricingMCP/issues">issue</a>!
</p>
