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cost-estimation

Forecast Azure spend and price planned resources or workloads. WHEN: "forecast Azure spending", "project next month cost", "compare forecast to my planning target", "how much will Azure cost", "estimate VM cost", "compare storage tiers", "compare Azure regions", "retail price", "EA rate card", "negotiated pricesheet". DO NOT USE FOR: configured budget health or alerts, bill analysis, cost spikes, rightsizing, or commitments.

Published by microsoft ↗microsoft/azure-skills

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cost-estimation

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Use cost-estimation to forecast Azure spend for [workload scope] over [period] in [currency], stating assumptions for region, OS, and usage.

Required inputs

[workload scope]
[period]
[currency]

User-approved starter prompt based on a pinned source version; check current skill requirements before running. Task evidence ↗

SKILL.md

name: cost-estimationdescription: "Forecast Azure spend and price planned resources or workloads. WHEN: \"forecast Azure spending\", \"project next month cost\", \"compare forecast to my planning target\", \"how much will Azure cost\", \"estimate VM cost\", \"compare storage tiers\", \"compare Azure regions\", \"retail price\", \"EA rate card\", \"negotiated pricesheet\". DO NOT USE FOR: configured budget health or alerts, bill analysis, cost spikes, rightsizing, or commitments."license: MITmetadata:   author: Microsoft  version: "1.1.1"

Azure Cost Estimation

Quick Reference

Intent	Workflow	Primary tools
Forecast existing spend	Cost forecast	`forecast_costs`
Price planned resources	Pricing estimate	Pricing tools

When to Use This Skill

Use for forecasts, pricing, and planning targets.

MCP Tools

Tool	Use
`forecast_costs`	Forecast a scope.
`get_retail_prices`	Get public prices.
`start_pricesheet_download`, `get_pricesheet_status`	Get Enterprise Agreement (EA) or Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) prices.

Fallback: API mappings.

Workflow

Distinguish forecasts from hypothetical pricing.
Confirm scope, assumptions, period, region, OS, and currency.
Load the matching workflow and label every value type.
Never transform MCP results in a shell or interpreter; request tool-side filtering or bounded follow-up queries.

Error Handling

Error	Action
Ambiguous meter	Ask for OS, term, tier, or usage.
Forecast unavailable	Explain the history requirement.
Pricesheet pending	Honor the returned polling interval.
Multiple currencies	Never combine currencies.
Server error	Retry once; then report the trace ID.