Azure bandwidth zones: pricing by region
Azure groups regions into bandwidth zones. Zone 1 (US, EU) is the cheapest at $0.087/GB first tier. Zone 3 (Brazil, South Africa, UAE) is over double, starting at $0.181/GB. Your egress bill depends entirely on which zone hosts your workload.
Per-zone tier rates
| Zone | First 5 TB | 5-10 TB | 10-150 TB | Over 150 TB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zone 1 | $0.087 | $0.083 | $0.07 | $0.05 |
| Zone 2 | $0.12 | $0.085 | $0.082 | $0.08 |
| Zone 3 | $0.181 | $0.175 | $0.17 | $0.16 |
| DE Zone 1 | $0.087 | $0.083 | $0.07 | $0.05 |
Region to zone mapping
North America (East US, West US, Central US), Europe (West Europe, North Europe, UK South, France Central), and most secondary regions in those geos.
Asia Pacific (East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia East, Japan East, Korea Central, India Central).
Brazil South, South Africa North, UAE North.
Germany West Central, Germany North.
China regions are billed by 21Vianet under a separate contract and not covered by the standard Azure bandwidth tariff.
Practical implications
Choosing region by latency without checking zone can quadruple your egress bill. A workload serving 10 TB / month from Brazil South (Zone 3) costs ~$1,820 versus ~$850 in Zone 1. For Brazil-facing customers, the cost-aware pattern is to host in a Zone 1 region (East US 2 is close) and use Azure Front Door or a CDN to serve from a Brazilian edge.
Azure also offers committed bandwidth pricing via reservations: commit to a TB volume per month for 12 or 36 months and get rates similar to AWS Direct Connect tier. See ExpressRoute pricing for the dedicated-connection equivalent.