Direct answer: at the Azure Retail Prices API on 9 November 2026 (eastus, USD, excluding tax/discounts), Azure NetApp Files bills on provisioned capacity: Standard $0.000202/GiB-hour ≈ $0.14746/GiB-month ($151.00/TiB-month), Premium $0.29419/GiB-month ($301.25/TiB) and Ultra $0.39274 ($402.17/TiB). Flexible separates capacity and throughput: capacity $0.11023/GiB-month plus throughput $2.24986/MiBps-month, with a minimum of 1 TiB + 128 MiB/s ≈ $400.86/month. A 100 TiB one-year reservation is Standard $148,583, Premium $296,431 and Ultra $395,731 (about 18% off); Premium/Ultra three-year reservations save about 30%. Cool access is $0.05986/GiB-month with $0.02/GiB retrieval; moving 70% of 100 TiB to cool costs about $8,820.73/month versus $15,099.90 all-hot, saving $6,279.17 (41.6%). Backup is $0.05/GiB-month and restore $0.02/GiB; cross-region replication (CRR) bills by replicated volume at about $0.12/GiB (US East to US East 2 example). Snapshots are not billed separately but consume volume quota; capacity pools start at 1 TiB, reach 2,048 TiB and resize in 1 TiB steps.
This guide is for enterprise architects, storage/SRE, finance and procurement teams choosing enterprise file storage, NAS, Oracle/SAP, VDI, media or a backup target. It explains ANF's provisioned-capacity billing, Standard/Premium/Ultra/Flexible, 1/10/100 TiB TCO, cool access, snapshots/backup/CRR, reservations and selection. Prices come from the Azure NetApp Files pricing page, the Azure Retail Prices API and Microsoft Learn (eastus, 9 November 2026). Official price facts, editorial calculations and exclusions are kept separate. This is not procurement advice.
(1) You pay for provisioned capacity, not written data: a 1 TiB pool costs 1 TiB even if you write 100 GiB. (2) Standard/Premium/Ultra scale throughput with capacity (16/64/128 MiB/s per TiB); Flexible decouples the two, with a 128 MiB/s minimum. (3) Snapshots are not billed separately (they consume volume quota); backup, CRR and cool-access retrieval are the extra lines.
Four service levels: capacity price, throughput and 1 TiB monthly
The capacity pool is the billing unit: Standard provides 16 MiB/s per TiB, Premium 64 MiB/s and Ultra 128 MiB/s, with throughput scaling linearly with pool capacity. Flexible sells capacity and throughput separately, suiting "high capacity, low throughput" or "low capacity, high throughput". Pools start at 1 TiB, resize in 1 TiB steps and reach 2,048 TiB; volumes run from 50 GiB to 100 TiB, with large volumes up to 2 PiB. One TiB per month costs $151.00 on Standard, $301.25 on Premium and $402.17 on Ultra.
| Service level | $/GiB-hour | $/GiB-month | $/TiB-month | Throughput/TiB | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 0.000202 | 0.14746 | 151.00 | 16 MiB/s | General files, backup target, dev/test |
| Premium | 0.000403 | 0.29419 | 301.25 | 64 MiB/s | Databases, VDI, analytics |
| Ultra | 0.000538 | 0.39274 | 402.17 | 128 MiB/s | High-performance DB, HPC |
| Flexible capacity | 0.000151 | 0.11023 | 112.88 | Purchased separately | High-capacity low-throughput or reverse |
| Flexible throughput | $0.003082/MiBps-hour | 2.24986/MiBps-month | 128 MiB/s minimum | Decoupled from capacity | |
| Cool access tier | 0.000082 | 0.05986 | 61.30 | — | Inactive data |
| Standard double encryption | 0.00024 | 0.17520 | 179.40 | 16 MiB/s | Double-encryption compliance |
| Premium double encryption | 0.00048 | 0.35040 | 358.81 | 64 MiB/s | Double-encryption compliance |
Sources: Azure Retail Prices API (eastus, 9 November 2026) and the Azure NetApp Files pricing page; 1 TiB = 1,024 GiB, 730 hours/month. Flexible is only supported on new manual-QoS pools; minimum throughput 128 MiB/s, maximum 5 × 128 MiB/s/TiB × pool TiB.
1 / 10 / 100 TiB TCO: linear scaling
Because Standard/Premium/Ultra are linear, cost scales directly by TiB: Standard 1/10/100 TiB = $151.00 / $1,509.99 / $15,099.90; Premium = $301.25 / $3,012.51 / $30,125.06; Ultra = $402.17 / $4,021.66 / $40,216.58. Throughput scales too: Standard 10 TiB gets 160 MiB/s and 100 TiB gets 1,600 MiB/s; Premium 640/6,400 and Ultra 1,280/12,800. If you only need 128 MiB/s, 100 TiB of Standard buys more than 10× the throughput you need.
| Capacity | Standard/month | Premium/month | Ultra/month | Standard throughput |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 TiB | 151.00 | 301.25 | 402.17 | 16 MiB/s |
| 10 TiB | 1,509.99 | 3,012.51 | 4,021.66 | 160 MiB/s |
| 100 TiB | 15,099.90 | 30,125.06 | 40,216.58 | 1,600 MiB/s |
Editorial calculation: provisioned capacity only; excludes snapshots/backup/CRR/cool access, tax and discounts; 1 TiB = 1,024 GiB. Pool minimum 1 TiB, maximum 2,048 TiB.
Flexible: decoupled capacity and throughput
Flexible capacity is $112.88/TiB-month, below Standard, but throughput is separate at $2.24986/MiBps-month with a 128 MiB/s minimum ($287.98/month). So 100 TiB + 128 MiB/s = $11,575.53/month, $3,524.37 (23.3%) below Standard 100 TiB ($15,099.90, which includes 1,600 MiB/s), at the cost of reducing throughput from 1,600 to 128 MiB/s. Conversely, 10 TiB + 500 MiB/s = $2,253.69, more than Standard 10 TiB ($1,509.99, 160 MiB/s), but with more than 3× the throughput.
| Flexible configuration | Capacity/month | Throughput/month | Total/month | Standard comparison |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 TiB + 128 MiB/s | 112.88 | 287.98 | 400.86 | 151.00 (16 MiB/s) |
| 10 TiB + 128 MiB/s | 1,128.76 | 287.98 | 1,416.74 | 1,509.99 (160 MiB/s) |
| 100 TiB + 128 MiB/s | 11,287.55 | 287.98 | 11,575.53 | 15,099.90 (1,600 MiB/s) |
| 100 TiB + 500 MiB/s | 11,287.55 | 1,124.93 | 12,412.48 | 15,099.90 (1,600 MiB/s) |
| 100 TiB + 1,000 MiB/s | 11,287.55 | 2,249.86 | 13,537.41 | 15,099.90 (1,600 MiB/s) |
| 10 TiB + 500 MiB/s | 1,128.76 | 1,124.93 | 2,253.69 | 1,509.99 (160 MiB/s) |
Editorial calculation: Flexible capacity $0.11023/GiB-month, throughput $2.24986/MiBps-month; minimum 1 TiB and 128 MiB/s; new manual-QoS pools only. Excludes snapshots/backup/CRR/cool access, tax and discounts.
Cool access: $0.05986 cold tier plus $0.02/GiB retrieval
Cool access moves inactive blocks from the hot tier to an Azure storage cool tier. The coolness period is 2–183 days (default 31) and every service level supports it. The Standard cold tier is $0.05986/GiB-month with $0.02/GiB retrieval. With 100 TiB, moving 70 TiB cold and keeping 30 TiB hot costs $8,820.73/month versus $15,099.90 all-hot, saving $6,279.17 (41.6%). Using the Standard hot/cold difference and the retrieval fee, cool access pays when each GiB is read fewer than about 4.4 times/month; more frequent reads favour hot storage.
| Item | Price | 100 TiB example |
|---|---|---|
| Hot tier | $0.14746/GiB-month | 15,099.90 (all hot) |
| Cool tier | $0.05986/GiB-month | 4,290.76 (70 TiB) |
| Hot retention | $0.14746/GiB-month | 4,529.97 (30 TiB) |
| Retrieval | $0.02/GiB | 1 TiB read = 20.48 |
| 70% cold total | — | 8,820.73 |
| Saving vs all-hot | — | 6,279.17 (41.6%) |
Sources: Azure Retail Prices API Standard Storage with Cool Access Capacity $0.000082/GiB-hour and Data Transfer $0.02/GiB; 2–183 day coolness period/default 31 from Learn. Other service levels also support cool access; their hot price is higher and the cold-tier price follows the pricing page. Example excludes reads and rewarm.
Snapshots, backup, restore and CRR
Snapshots are not billed separately, but consume the parent volume's quota and share blocks with active data; short-term clones consume capacity only for new blocks. For long-term retention use ANF backup: $0.05/GiB-month for backup storage and $0.02/GiB for restore, with no minimum. Cross-region replication (CRR) bills by replicated volume, about $0.12/GiB (US East to US East 2 example), covering regular replication and resync; the destination volume also needs its own capacity pool. A 100 TiB one-year reservation is Standard $148,583, Premium $296,431 and Ultra $395,731, about 18% off; Premium/Ultra three-year reservations save about 30%.
| Item | Price | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Snapshots | $0 (consumes volume quota) | No separate line |
| ANF backup | $0.05/GiB-month | 5 TiB backup = 256.00/month |
| Backup restore | $0.02/GiB | 1 TiB restore = 20.48 |
| CRR | About $0.12/GiB replicated | 860 GiB ≈ 103.20 |
| CRR destination pool | Target service-level capacity | Separate, from 1 TiB |
| 100 TiB 1-year reserved | Standard 148,583; Premium 296,431; Ultra 395,731 | About 18% off |
| 100 TiB 3-year reserved | Premium 759,151; Ultra 1,013,458 | About 30% off |
Sources: Azure Retail Prices API (Backup $0.05/GiB-month, Volume Restore $0.02/GiB, CRR $0.12/GiB example, Reserved Capacity) and Learn backup/replication docs (9 November 2026). CRR is per replicated GiB, not per stored GiB-month; reservation prices are from the 100 TiB SKU, so check the purchase page.
How to choose: Standard / Premium / Ultra / Flexible
Choose by "capacity + throughput + latency + data temperature": Standard for general files/backup targets; Premium for databases, VDI and analytics; Ultra for high-performance databases/HPC; Flexible when capacity is much larger or smaller than throughput needs. Enable cool access for cold data read infrequently; use CRR for cross-region DR (destination pool extra); use backup for long-term retention and snapshots for near-term recovery; evaluate reservations once the baseline is stable above 100 TiB.
| Scenario | Prefer | Check first |
|---|---|---|
| General files/NAS, backup target | Standard | Is 16 MiB/s per TiB enough? |
| Oracle/SAP, VDI, analytics | Premium | 64 MiB/s per TiB, latency |
| High-performance DB/HPC | Ultra | 128 MiB/s per TiB |
| 100 TiB but only 128 MiB/s | Flexible | 128 MiB/s minimum, manual QoS |
| 10 TiB but 500 MiB/s | Flexible | Costs more than Standard, more throughput |
| Inactive/archive data | Cool access | Read rate, rewarm, $0.02/GiB |
| Cross-region DR | CRR + destination pool | $0.12/GiB replicated, target capacity |
| Long-term retention | ANF backup | $0.05/GiB-month, restore $0.02/GiB |
| Stable 100 TiB+ | Reserved | 1 year 18%, Premium/Ultra 3 years 30% |
Editorial selection framework, not a vendor recommendation; the Elastic service level is still preview and is excluded from the price comparison. Validate with performance testing, regional availability and compliance.
90-day optimization checklist
Use 90 days to move through "inventory → tier → hot/cold → backup/replication → reservation → review". Weeks 1–2: measure provisioned capacity, written data, throughput peaks, snapshots/backup/CRR and read patterns per pool. Weeks 2–4: confirm whether Standard can replace Premium/Ultra, or whether Flexible should decouple capacity and throughput. Weeks 4–6: enable cool access for inactive data with a 31-day coolness period and watch rewarm/retrieval. Weeks 6–8: move long-term retention from snapshots to backup and evaluate whether the CRR destination pool is necessary. Weeks 8–10: evaluate one-/three-year reservations after a stable 100 TiB+ baseline. Weeks 10–12: review over-provisioning in 1 TiB steps, snapshot quota pressure and expired backup retention.
FAQ
How is Azure NetApp Files billed?
By the capacity pool's provisioned capacity, not written data: Standard $0.14746/GiB-month, Premium $0.29419, Ultra $0.39274; Flexible capacity $0.11023 plus throughput $2.24986/MiBps-month. Pools start at 1 TiB, reach 2,048 TiB and resize in 1 TiB steps; storage/backup/CRR/cool-access reads are extra.
How much is 1 TiB per month?
Standard $151.00, Premium $301.25, Ultra $402.17 (1 TiB = 1,024 GiB, 730 hours). Flexible 1 TiB + the 128 MiB/s minimum is about $400.86; if you need 128 MiB/s with a lot of capacity, Flexible is usually cheaper than Standard.
How do I choose Standard, Premium or Ultra?
Standard gives 16 MiB/s per TiB for general files, backup targets and dev/test; Premium 64 MiB/s for databases, VDI and analytics; Ultra 128 MiB/s for high-performance databases/HPC. Throughput scales with capacity, so confirm peak throughput, not just the capacity unit price.
Who is Flexible for?
Workloads where capacity and throughput do not scale together: high-capacity low-throughput (archive/media) or low-capacity high-throughput (Oracle/SAP). Minimum 1 TiB and 128 MiB/s, new manual-QoS pools only; 100 TiB + 128 MiB/s is about $11,575.53/month, 23.3% below Standard 100 TiB, but with 128 MiB/s instead of 1,600.
How much does cool access save?
Standard cold tier $0.05986/GiB-month plus $0.02/GiB retrieval; 70% of 100 TiB cold costs about $8,820.73/month, 41.6% below all-hot $15,099.90. Based on the hot/cold difference and retrieval fee, cool access pays when each GiB is read fewer than about 4.4 times/month; frequent or latency-sensitive reads should stay hot.
How are snapshots and backup charged?
Snapshots are not billed separately but consume the parent volume's quota and share blocks with active data; short-term clones consume capacity only for new blocks. ANF backup is $0.05/GiB-month for backup storage and $0.02/GiB for restore, with no minimum; use backup for long-term retention and snapshots for near-term recovery.
How is CRR charged?
By the GiB replicated across regions, about $0.12/GiB (US East to US East 2 example), including regular replication and resync; the destination volume also needs its own capacity pool at the target service level. Example: 500 GiB baseline + 360 GiB incremental = 860 GiB, about $103.20 in replication, plus the destination pool.
How much do reservations save?
100 TiB one year: Standard $148,583, Premium $296,431, Ultra $395,731, about 18% off; Premium/Ultra three years are about $759,151/$1,013,458, about 30% off. Standard's three-year API rate is still about 18%. Reservations suit a stable 100 TiB+ baseline; check scope and exchange rules on the purchase page.
Research method and limitations
This article separates "official price facts" from "editorial calculations": Standard $0.000202, Premium $0.000403, Ultra $0.000538, Flexible capacity $0.000151/throughput $0.003082, cool access $0.000082 and $0.02/GiB, backup $0.05/GiB-month, restore $0.02/GiB, CRR $0.12/GiB example, 100 TiB reservations $148,583/$296,431/$395,731 and three-year $445,749/$759,151/$1,013,458 come from the Azure Retail Prices API (eastus, 9 November 2026); the 1 TiB pool minimum/2,048 TiB maximum, provisioned-capacity billing, Standard 16/Premium 64/Ultra 128 MiB/s per TiB, Flexible 128 MiB/s minimum, cool access 2–183 days/default 31, snapshot quota treatment and backup/CRR billing come from Microsoft Learn (cost model, service levels, cool access, backup, replication).
Eight limitations: (1) only eastus list prices, excluding tax/CSP/enterprise discounts; (2) 730-hour months and 1 TiB = 1,024 GiB; (3) the main TCO excludes snapshots/backup/CRR/cool-access reads/double encryption/tax; (4) the cool-access example assumes 70% cold and no reads/rewarm, so actual results depend on block temperature and access patterns; (5) the backup example is a 5 TiB estimate without modelling daily change rate; (6) the CRR example uses US East to US East 2 at $0.12/GiB; other pairs differ; (7) reservation prices are converted from the 100 TiB SKU, and purchase-page scope/term/exchange rules may differ; (8) the Elastic service level is still preview and excluded, and no performance benchmark was run. Prices/features change, so recheck official pages and bills before purchase.
Sources and basis
- Microsoft Azure, Azure NetApp Files Pricing: azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/netapp. Standard/Premium/Ultra/Flexible, cool access, backup, CRR, reserved capacity. Accessed 9 November 2026.
- Azure Retail Prices API (productName contains NetApp, eastus): prices.azure.com/api/retail/prices. $0.000202/$0.000403/$0.000538, $0.000151, $0.003082, $0.000082, $0.02, $0.05, $0.12, $148,583/$296,431/$395,731, $445,749/$759,151/$1,013,458. Accessed 9 November 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, Azure NetApp Files cost model: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-netapp-files/azure-netapp-files-cost-model. Provisioned-capacity billing, 1 TiB–2,048 TiB pools, snapshot quota, cool access/backup/CRR billing. Accessed 9 November 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, Service levels for Azure NetApp Files: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-netapp-files/azure-netapp-files-service-levels. Standard 16/Premium 64/Ultra 128 MiB/s per TiB, Flexible 128 MiB/s minimum and manual QoS. Accessed 9 November 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, Storage with cool access: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-netapp-files/cool-access-introduction. 2–183 day coolness period, default 31, all service levels, reads/rewarm. Accessed 9 November 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, Azure NetApp Files backup / replication: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-netapp-files/backup-introduction, cross-region-replication-introduction. Backup by stored volume, restore by restored volume, CRR by replicated GiB. Accessed 9 November 2026.
Data cut-off 9 November 2026; prices/availability follow Microsoft official pages and bills; this is not procurement, commercial or legal advice.