Azure Kubernetes Service Pricing: Complete Guide to Optimizing AKS Spend

Tired of managing your Kubernetes clusters all on your own? Don’t have the time to figure out how to deploy, run, and optimize usage? Azure has just the thing for you: Azure Kubernetes Services. 

This article will cover everything you need to know about Azure Kubernetes Services, how it works, what the Azure pricing will be, whether you should use it, and, if so, how to save on your cloud cost. 

What is AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service)?

Azure Kubernetes Service, or AKS, is Azure’s container management service. AKS simplifies deploying and managing Kubernetes clusters by handling annoying tasks like infrastructure scaling, provisioning, and patching. You can do it all from Azure’s cluster of virtual machines (VMs). 

AKS is a flexible tool. It lets you integrate with other standard Azure services that make managing and optimizing your cloud usage easy (ex, Azure Monitor, Azure Policy, Azure Container Registry, and more). 

You can view your new Kubernetes cluster setup from Azure’s command-line interface (CLI) or a web-based dashboard. That means pushing automatic scaling, rolling updates, and self-healing features live is as easy as clicking a button. 

How does AKS pricing work?

 

Good news: AKS has a pretty simple pricing structure. 

Management of Kubernetes clusters comes completely free. You’ll only have to pay for the following: 

• Nodes where Kubernetes clusters are stored 
• Virtual Machines (VMs) 
• Storage 
• Networks

If you’re using AKS, you can access other Azure resources like Azure DevOps, Azure Virtual Networks, Azure Functions – you can even use Azure Backup to restore old clusters. But remember: you will be charged for these resources as you use them. 

 

AKS prices vary from user to user. The following are the main culprits behind a larger bill: 

• Service type 
• Location 
• Usage 
• Payment plan

Azure offers a wide range of payment plans, so you have some flexibility in deciding when and how much you want to pay for Kubernetes services. 

Free

Azure Kubernetes Service’s free trial lasts for up to 12 months. You’ll get access to monitoring, logging, automatic updates, and other basic features. Azure will also grant you a $200 credit that you must use within your first 30 days. Once you’ve used that money, you’ll be moved to a pay-as-you-go Azure pricing model. 

Why use the free tier? 

It’s perfect if you’re just looking to test AKS’ features. It’s also a good place to start if you only work with a small-scale testing and development environment. However, it’s not the best choice if you’re trying to find a home for larger-scale, long-term projects. 

Pay-as-you-go

As mentioned above, pay-as-you-go prices vary depending on your location. For the Eastern U.S., prices can start as low as $0.10 per cluster per hour and increase to $0.60 per cluster per hour. Azure offers a service level agreement promising 99.95% uptime for Availability Zone clusters and 99.9% for any other cluster. 

Why go with this option? 

If you need more resources than the free tier offers, you’ll likely want to choose the pay-as-you-go tier. This option should also appeal if you’re managing a variable workload or only need to deploy quickly. 

This choice might suit you if you’re uncertain about committing to a long-term contract with Azure but require more resources than the free plan offers. You’ll pay a bit more, but you’ll get a lot more flexibility in return. 

Reserved VM instances

Azure reserved instances are cheaper than the pay-as-you-go pricing model but require a one- or three-year agreement to a set amount of services. You can save up to 72% on your pay-as-you-go price, but you’ll want to make sure you know exactly how many VMs and how many storage resources you need for either a one or three-year period. This is because if you use under your chosen amount, you’re losing money, and if you use over, you’re back to pay-as-you-go prices for however much you exceed your agreed-upon resources.

If your workload is unpredictable, this isn’t the best choice, but if you can estimate how many resources you’ll need, you can save big with reserved instances. 

Savings Plans

Azure Savings Plans are still pretty new to the scene, having only been introduced in 2022. Like reserved instances, users have to commit to a fixed hourly amount for either a one- or three-year period. You can save up to 65% on pay-as-you-go compute spend. 

Where Savings Plans don’t offer as much discount as reserved instances, you’ll have more access to other services like Azure SQL database, Azure Cosmos DB, other types of compute, various VMs, and more. 

Spot VMs

If you’re really looking to save big, go with Spot VMs. Just be prepared for unpredictability. 

Spot VMs let you purchase Azure capacity for up to 90% discounts, but Azure can evict you at will with only a 30-second notice. Azure uses Spot VMs to sell unused compute space at lower prices, but once that speed becomes needed, Azure can start to lower your discount rate, and, if necessary, remove you from the Spot VM. 

Spot VMs are really only a good choice if you’re managing a workload that doesn’t mind being interrupted, like a production workload or a development and testing environment. 

Azure Hybrid Benefit

Azure Hybrid Benefit allows on-premise users with current Windows Server subscriptions, SQL licenses, or Software Assurance to get reduced rates for VMs. Applicable users can pay for a lower rate to run VMs on either a Windows or SQL Server, saving you up to 85% compared to pay-as-you-go prices. 

Azure Hybrid Benefit isn’t specific to AKS. You can apply it to any Azure tool if you’re running it on an Azure VM.

 

How to optimize your Azure Kubernetes Service costs

Beyond picking out a savings plan that helps you cut back on costs, there are other ways you can make your accounting team happy by decreasing your AKS spend. 

AKS node pools

Node pools are how VMs are grouped to run your Kubernetes nodes. Depending on your application needs, you can create various node pools of different VM sizes. Save money by optimizing each for maximum performance and using cost-effective VM sizes. 

Dynamic autoscaling

Dynamic autoscaling is an AKS-specific feature. It lets you automatically adjust how many nodes you have in a cluster based on how your resources are used, helping you cut your budget with a single click. 

Pick the right VM type 

Azure offers a wide variety of VM types: 

• General Purpose 
• GPU 
• High-Performance 
• Compute Memory 
• Optimized Storage 
• Optimized Compute 

Review these different options and pick the VM that best suits your resource requirements and workload type. If your workload can support lower cost-per-performance VMs, consider them. 

Rightsize pods & containers

Make sure your pods and containers match your resources needs. Do this by carefully monitoring containers and even adjusting container limits to prevent waste. This helps you avoid overprovisioning and makes you much more efficient. If you don’t have the time to take on this task yourself, using a third-party monitoring tool like Anodot can make this task as simple as a click of a button. 

Eliminate unused resources

Regularly reviewing and reducing unused resources can save you a hefty sum in the long run. Just make sure you remain diligent.

Is there anything that has remained idle for a notable length of time? Consider if you really need that extra storage space or VM. 

This task works great if outsourced to a cloud-monitoring organization like Anodot! 

Use a cost management tool

 

As we mentioned above, AKS comes with various dashboards and (good news!) cost management tools. You can see an example of what this dashboard would look like for you. 

Tools like Azure Cost Management and Azure Advisor can tell you where you should pull back or spend more… but (bad news!) there’s one serious drawback: these are tools powered by Azure. They typically don’t offer in-depth analyses, and they certainly can’t offer you a multicloud view. If you’re really looking for an AKS cloud cost management tool that can actually help you save considerable time, you’re going to want to go third-party. 

Get complete visibility into your AKS spend

 

The 2022 State of Cloud Strategy survey stated 94% of users felt they were wasting money on their cloud investments. Even with AKS managing your Kubernetes clusters and Azure-powered monitoring at your fingertips, it’s easy to overspend on the cloud. Azure’s insights are useful to start with, but cost management, especially multicloud cost management, can quickly become more than a full time job, especially when navigating such low visibility.

That’s where third-party cloud cost management tools like Anodot come in. 

Anodot prides itself on providing 100% visibility into your entire multicloud environment. That means access to data down to the hour for up to a two year retention period. 

Anodot offers unparalleled insights into your Kubernetes deployment that no other cloud optimization platform can match. Effortlessly monitor usage and spending across clusters with comprehensive reports and dashboards. Leveraging Anodot’s advanced algorithms and multi-dimensional filters, you can delve into performance metrics and pinpoint under-utilization at the node level.

Kubernetes Costs

With Anodot’s continuous monitoring and in-depth visibility, engineers are empowered to eliminate unpredictable expenses. The platform automatically learns usage patterns for each service. It alerts relevant teams to any irregularities in cloud spending and usage anomalies, ensuring they have complete context for the quickest resolution.

 

Cloud Cost Alerts

Anodot seamlessly consolidates all your cloud expenditures into a single platform, allowing you to optimize costs and resource utilization across AWS, GCP, and Azure. Revolutionize your FinOps, take control of cloud spending, and minimize waste with Anodot’s cloud cost management solution.

Want a proof of concept? Talk to us to learn how much you can save with Anodot’s tools.