CostLensAzure Reservation Opportunity

Azure Reservation Opportunity

CostLens surfaces Azure's reservation recommendations — commit to 1- or 3-year Reserved Instances to save on steady-state usage.

Updated July 20261 min read

CostLens surfaces Azure reservation recommendations for steady-state usage that Microsoft recommends covering with a 1- or 3-year Reserved Instance. Reservations trade a term commitment for a large discount (often 40–70%) on predictable baseline usage.

Advisory only

This is a purchase decision, not an automated fix. CostLens shows the economics — break-even, term, and projected savings — so you can buy with confidence in the Azure portal.

How it works

Consumption API is queried

CostLens reads Azure's reservationRecommendations (Consumption API), which analyses your recent usage.

Economics are computed

For each recommendation CostLens shows the term (1yr / 3yr), the normalised monthly saving, and the affected SKU/region.

What to do

  1. Review the recommended quantity and term against your expected baseline over the commitment period.
  2. Buy only your steady-state coverage to capture the discount without over-committing.
  3. Purchase the reservation in the Azure portal (Reservations → Add).

Reading the recommendation

The recommendation strip shows: term (1 or 3 years), estimated monthly savings, estimated annual savings, and the break-even point after which the commitment pays for itself.

Required permissions

Read-only, included in the Azure Accounts setup:

Cost Management Reader   # reservation recommendations

Limitations

  • Reservation execution is intentionally left to you — CostLens does not auto-purchase reservations.
  • Recommendations reflect recent usage; a large upcoming change in your workload should be factored in before committing.
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