Azure bandwidth & egress pricing
Azure is the cheapest hyperscaler at every volume tier, but the zone-based pricing system confuses engineers coming from AWS. This is the consolidated reference: zones, tiers, ExpressRoute, Front Door, with a calculator and a worked example.
Headline rate: $0.087/GB first 5 TB Zone 1, after the 100 GB free tier. Source →
Zone 1 internet egress tiers
USD per GBZone 1, post-free
5-10 TB band
10-20 TB band
20-50 TB band
high-volume
[01]Calculate your Azure egress
Tier-aware calculation, post-free-tier. Each GB charged at the rate of the tier it falls into.
[02]Azure pricing zones
Egress price depends on the source region's zone. Zone 1 is cheapest, Zone 3 most expensive. Pick the right region matters at scale.
| Zone | Regions | Entry rate |
|---|---|---|
| Zone 1 | US, Canada, EU, UK, Australia | $0.087/GB |
| Zone 2 | Asia Pacific (Japan, Singapore, India, Korea) | $0.12/GB |
| Zone 3 | South America, Africa, Middle East | $0.181/GB |
[03]Per-service notes
Most services use the standard zone tier rates. The ones below have specific gotchas.
Blob Storage
Standard zone tiers. ZRS replication is free in-region; GZRS adds geo-replication egress.
Azure CDN
Cheaper than direct egress at scale. Tier rates vary by partner (Verizon, Akamai, Microsoft).
Front Door
Premium CDN with WAF. $0.155/GB for first 10 TB on Standard tier; Premium higher.
VPN Gateway
Per-hour gateway charge plus standard outbound egress on top.
ExpressRoute Metered
Lower per-GB egress + port hourly. Cheaper than internet at >10 TB / mo.
ExpressRoute Unlimited
Flat-rate per port. Best for predictable high-volume hybrid traffic.
Private Link
Backbone routing eliminates egress for in-region service-to-service traffic.
App Service
Standard egress tiers. CDN integration recommended for content-heavy apps.
[04]Worked example, 20 TB / month from West Europe
A .NET SaaS serving 20 TB / month from a West Europe deployment with multi-zone Blob Storage and an App Service tier.
Equivalent AWS workload from us-east-1 would cost approximately $1,765 in base egress alone.
Azure vs AWS vs GCP, side by side
Azure undercuts AWS at every tier. GCP Premium is more expensive but has free cross-zone. Use the comparison tool to see exact costs at your volume.
[05]Frequently asked
Q.01How much does Azure charge for egress?
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Azure charges $0.087 per GB for the first 5 TB of internet egress from Zone 1 regions (US, EU, UK, Canada, Australia), $0.083 per GB for the next 5 TB, $0.07 per GB for the next 10 TB, $0.05 per GB for 20-50 TB, and $0.04 per GB above 50 TB. The first 100 GB per month is free across all services and regions. Zone 2 (Asia Pacific) and Zone 3 (South America, Africa, Middle East) regions have higher rates.
Q.02What are Azure pricing zones?
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Azure groups regions into three pricing zones for outbound bandwidth. Zone 1 includes US, Canada, EU, UK, France, Switzerland, Norway and Australia, with the lowest rates ($0.087/GB starting). Zone 2 includes Asia Pacific (Japan, Singapore, India, Korea), with mid-range rates. Zone 3 includes South America, Africa, and Middle East, with the highest rates. Each zone has its own tiered pricing structure.
Q.03Is Azure cheaper than AWS for egress?
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Azure is slightly cheaper than AWS at every volume tier. Headline rate is $0.087/GB versus AWS at $0.09/GB. The gap widens at high volume: at 50TB+/month, Azure drops to $0.04/GB while AWS bottoms out at $0.05/GB. For large enterprise workloads, Azure is the cheapest hyperscaler. The difference is small in percentage terms but meaningful at scale: at 100TB/month, Azure saves roughly $300/month versus AWS.
Q.04What is Azure ExpressRoute pricing?
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ExpressRoute pricing combines a port charge ($55-$10,500/month depending on bandwidth from 50 Mbps to 100 Gbps) with either metered or unlimited data plans. Metered plans charge per GB egressed (typically $0.025-0.05/GB depending on zone), but ingress is free. Unlimited plans are flat-rate per port. For high-volume hybrid workloads (>10 TB/mo egress), ExpressRoute is significantly cheaper than internet egress despite the port costs.
Q.05Does Azure charge for cross-zone traffic within a region?
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Yes, Azure charges $0.01/GB for traffic between Availability Zones within the same region. This is similar to AWS cross-AZ pricing. The charge applies in each direction (so $0.02/GB round trip). Same-zone traffic between VMs is free if using internal IP addresses. For multi-AZ HA architectures, plan for 20-40% of internal traffic to incur cross-zone charges.
Q.06What is MACC and how does it affect egress?
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Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment is an enterprise discount programme where customers commit to spending a set amount over 1-5 years in exchange for discounted pricing. Egress is included in MACC consumption. Discounts on egress are typically 5-20% depending on commitment size, but rarely advertised: customers must negotiate. For organisations spending $250K+/year on Azure, MACC is worth pursuing for egress savings alone.