Azure Egress & Bandwidth Costs Explained UK 2026
How Azure charges for outbound internet traffic and inter-region data transfer — tiered pricing in plain English for UK South in GBP. Updated March 2026.
Prices last verified: March 2026
Outbound internet egress and inter-region transfer costs explained in plain English. The first 100 GB/month is free — here is how the tiers work above that.
Built and verified by an independent Azure engineer, frustrated with the official calculator.
Overview
Start with what is free, because there is more of it than most engineers realise. Inbound data — everything coming into Azure from the internet — is free with no cap. Availability zone (AZ) to AZ data transfers within UK South have been free since 2023. The first 100 GB of outbound internet egress per month is free. If your application mostly receives data and processes it within a single region, your bandwidth bill may genuinely be zero.
What costs money: outbound internet traffic above 100 GB/month, inter-region transfers (for example UK South to UK West or to West Europe), CDN origin pull traffic, and Private Endpoint data processing charges. These meters compound — the same data can generate a charge when it leaves a VM, a second charge when it crosses a regional boundary, and a third if it passes through a gateway with its own data-processing meter.
Outbound internet egress is tiered: the more data you transfer, the lower the per-GB rate. Inter-region transfers within Europe are a flat rate from the first byte with no free tier. All prices below are for UK South in GBP, sourced from the Azure Retail Prices API and updated nightly.
Outbound Internet Tiers
Outbound internet egress is charged in five tiers. Each tier applies only to the data within that band — not retroactively to all data once you cross a threshold.
| Tier | Monthly volume | Rate (GBP) |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | First 100 GB | Free |
| Tier 2 | 100 GB – 10,000 GB | ~£0.070/GB |
| Tier 3 | 10,000 GB – 50,000 GB | ~£0.067/GB |
| Tier 4 | 50,000 GB – 150,000 GB | ~£0.056/GB |
| Tier 5 | 150,000 GB – 500,000 GB | ~£0.040/GB |
GBP rates are approximate — use the calculator below for exact current figures. Rates are converted from USD at the time of the Azure Retail Prices API update. The USD source rates are $0.087, $0.083, $0.070, and $0.050/GB for tiers 2–5.
Inter-Region Transfer
Data transferred between Azure regions (for example, from UK South to UK West, or from UK South to West Europe) is charged separately from internet egress. There is no free tier for inter-region transfers — billing starts from the first byte.
| Transfer type | Rate (GBP) |
|---|---|
| Within Europe (e.g. UK South ↔ UK West) | ~£0.016/GB |
| Europe to North America | ~£0.070/GB |
| Europe to Asia Pacific | ~£0.080/GB |
| Same region (within UK South) | Free |
Data transferred between services within the same Azure region is free — for example, a VM in UK South reading from a storage account in UK South incurs no bandwidth charge. Always co-locate services in the same region to avoid inter-region costs.
Inbound Data — Always Free
All inbound data transfer to Azure is free regardless of volume, source, or service. This includes:
ExpressRoute has its own pricing model — the circuit itself has a monthly fee and metered data plans charge per GB for outbound data. Inbound over ExpressRoute is free on unlimited plans and charged per-GB on metered plans.
Worked Examples
Example 1 — Small web application (50 GB/month outbound)
| Monthly outbound | 50 GB |
| Tier 1 (first 100 GB) | Free |
| Total bandwidth cost | £0.00 |
| Monthly total | Free |
Small workloads often pay nothing for bandwidth — the 100 GB free tier covers most low-traffic applications.
Example 2 — Media streaming platform (8,000 GB/month outbound)
| Monthly outbound | 8,000 GB |
| Tier 1: first 100 GB | Free |
| Tier 2: next 7,900 GB × £0.070 | £553.00 |
| Total bandwidth cost | £553.00 |
| Monthly total | ~£553 |
Example 3 — Multi-region replication (500 GB/month UK South → UK West)
| Monthly inter-region transfer | 500 GB |
| Rate (within Europe) | ~£0.016/GB |
| Inter-region cost | 500 × £0.016 = £8.00 |
| Free tier applies? | No — inter-region has no free tier |
| Monthly total | ~£8 |
Bandwidth Calculator
Use our UK South bandwidth calculator to estimate exact outbound internet and inter-region costs for your workload. Enter your monthly GB volumes to see the tiered breakdown.
Reducing Egress Costs
Bandwidth costs can be one of the largest unexpected items on an Azure bill for data-heavy workloads. These strategies reduce or eliminate egress charges:
Use Azure CDN for public content
CDN egress rates are lower than origin egress rates. Serving assets via Azure CDN (or Azure Front Door) reduces the volume of direct origin egress and improves performance.
Co-locate services in the same region
Data transfer between services in the same Azure region is free. Moving a database and its application server to the same region eliminates inter-region charges.
Use Private Endpoints for internal traffic
Traffic routed through Private Endpoints stays on the Microsoft backbone and avoids internet egress charges. Essential for high-volume internal service-to-service communication.
Use Azure ExpressRoute Unlimited for high volumes
ExpressRoute Unlimited plans have a flat monthly fee with no per-GB outbound charge. Cost-effective for workloads moving hundreds of TB/month to on-premises.
Compress data before transfer
Azure charges for bytes transferred, not logical data. Enabling compression (gzip/Brotli at the application layer) reduces billable egress volume directly.
Official Resources
AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
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