Find the right Azure virtual machine size for your workload. Get a recommended VM series, estimated monthly cost, and alternative options based on your CPU, RAM, storage, and performance requirements.
| VM Size | vCPUs | RAM (GB) | Series | Linux/mo | Windows/mo | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B2s | 2 | 4 | Burstable | £23 | £30 | Dev/test, low traffic |
| B4ms | 4 | 16 | Burstable | £85 | £110 | Dev/test, small apps |
| D2s v5 | 2 | 8 | General | £62 | £80 | Web, small apps |
| D4s v5 | 4 | 16 | General | £123 | £160 | Medium workloads |
| D8s v5 | 8 | 32 | General | £246 | £320 | Larger applications |
| D16s v5 | 16 | 64 | General | £492 | £640 | Heavy workloads |
| E2s v5 | 2 | 16 | Memory | £73 | £95 | Small databases |
| E4s v5 | 4 | 32 | Memory | £146 | £190 | Medium databases |
| E8s v5 | 8 | 64 | Memory | £293 | £380 | Large databases |
| E16s v5 | 16 | 128 | Memory | £585 | £760 | In-memory analytics |
| F2s v2 | 2 | 4 | Compute | £42 | £55 | Batch processing |
| F4s v2 | 4 | 8 | Compute | £85 | £110 | Compute-heavy apps |
| F8s v2 | 8 | 16 | Compute | £169 | £220 | High CPU workloads |
| F16s v2 | 16 | 32 | Compute | £338 | £440 | Heavy compute |
Prices are approximate Azure UK South pay-as-you-go list prices, excluding VAT. Storage, networking, and backup costs are additional. Windows prices include OS licence cost. View our Azure solutions
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Match VM series to workload type - general-purpose B or D series for typical business applications, memory-optimised E series for databases, and compute-optimised F series for processing-heavy workloads. This calculator uses your required CPU cores, RAM, and storage IOPS to recommend a suitable VM size and family.
An undersized VM typically shows symptoms like slow application response times, high CPU or memory utilisation alerts, and disk queue bottlenecks under load. Azure allows resizing most VMs with a brief restart, but planning capacity correctly upfront avoids repeated performance issues and unnecessary resizing disruption.
Not necessarily - oversizing wastes budget on unused capacity, since Azure bills by VM size regardless of actual utilisation. Right-sizing based on real CPU, RAM, and IOPS requirements, with headroom for growth rather than worst-case peaks, generally delivers better value than defaulting to the largest available VM.
A small general-purpose VM suitable for a light business application might cost roughly £40 to £100 per month, while a larger VM for a database or demanding workload can run £300 to £1,000 or more, before reserved instance or hybrid benefit discounts that can meaningfully reduce ongoing spend.
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