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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/skills

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cost-estimation

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Use cost-estimation to estimate hypothetical Azure pricing for [planned resources], with [region and OS] and [usage period and currency] clearly stated.

Required inputs

  • [planned resources]
  • [region and OS]
  • [usage period and 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

IntentWorkflowPrimary tools
Forecast existing spendCost forecastforecast_costs
Price planned resourcesPricing estimatePricing tools

When to Use This Skill

Use for forecasts, pricing, and planning targets.

MCP Tools

ToolUse
forecast_costsForecast a scope.
get_retail_pricesGet public prices.
start_pricesheet_download, get_pricesheet_statusGet Enterprise Agreement (EA) or Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) prices.

Fallback: API mappings.

Workflow

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

Error Handling

ErrorAction
Ambiguous meterAsk for OS, term, tier, or usage.
Forecast unavailableExplain the history requirement.
Pricesheet pendingHonor the returned polling interval.
Multiple currenciesNever combine currencies.
Server errorRetry once; then report the trace ID.
cost-estimation by microsoft · The Skill Leaderboard