One of the most common (and expensive) Azure mistakes is assuming a VM stops costing money the moment it's shut down from inside Windows. It doesn't — you have to deallocate it.

Stop vs. Deallocate

• Stopped (from inside the OS) — shutting down Windows or Linux from within the VM stops the operating system, but Azure still reserves the compute resources for it. You're still billed for compute.
• Stopped (Deallocated) — stopping the VM from the Azure portal (or CLI/PowerShell) releases the compute resources back to Azure entirely. Compute billing stops; you're only billed for the storage the VM's disks still use.

How to Deallocate a VM

1. In the Azure portal, go to Virtual machines and select the VM.
2. Click Stop in the toolbar — the Azure portal's Stop button always deallocates, unlike shutting down from inside the OS.
3. Wait for the status to change to Stopped (deallocated).

Automating It

For VMs that only need to run during business hours (like a test or dev server), set up an Auto-shutdown schedule: open the VM, click Auto-shutdown in the left-hand menu, set a time and time zone, and optionally a notification. This deallocates the VM automatically every day without anyone remembering to do it manually.

Common Questions

Does deallocating change the VM's IP address?

If the VM uses a dynamic public IP, yes — it can change when the VM is restarted after deallocation. If you need a stable address, assign a static public IP to the VM instead.

Am I still charged anything while a VM is deallocated?

Yes, but only for the storage used by its disks — compute charges stop, but the disks themselves still incur a (typically much smaller) storage cost until you delete them.