Azure Migration Cost Calculator
Calculate the true cost of migrating to Azure — including bandwidth charges, ExpressRoute fees, parallel running, staff retraining, and the costs Azure Migrate doesn't show you.
What drives Azure migration cost
Bandwidth & egress
Azure charges $0.087/GB for first 5 TB out. 100 TB = ~$8,700.
Parallel running period
Both old + new infra running for 3–18 months.
ExpressRoute setup
Private connectivity costs $500–$5,000/month + setup.
Staff retraining
Azure has distinct services and tooling from AWS/on-prem.
Azure Unified Support
Enterprise tier = 10% of monthly Azure spend.
AD/Identity migration
Azure AD complexity often underestimated for enterprises.
Where are you migrating from?
Select your current infrastructure environment.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an Azure migration typically cost?
Azure migration costs depend heavily on workload size, complexity, and whether you're migrating from on-premises or another cloud. Small workloads cost $50,000–$200,000. Mid-enterprise migrations typically run $500,000–$4M including professional services. Large-scale migrations with 1,000+ VMs often exceed $15M when all costs are accounted for. Azure Migrate estimates cover only the destination compute costs — not the significant migration project costs.
What is Azure Migrate and does it estimate full migration cost?
Azure Migrate is Microsoft's free tool for discovering and assessing on-premises workloads before migration. It provides a destination compute and storage cost estimate. However, Azure Migrate does not account for migration labour costs, Azure bandwidth charges during data transfer, parallel running costs, staff retraining, ExpressRoute setup, or re-architecture effort. These excluded costs typically add 60–150% to the Azure Migrate estimate.
What are the hidden costs of migrating to Azure?
The most commonly missed Azure migration costs are: (1) bandwidth charges for data transfer to Azure (first 5 TB/month at $0.087/GB), (2) ExpressRoute or VPN setup fees for secure hybrid connectivity, (3) Azure Unified Support costs (10% of monthly Azure spend for enterprise tier), (4) parallel running duration — often 6–18 months for enterprise, (5) Active Directory and Identity migration complexity, and (6) re-architecting workloads to use Azure PaaS services instead of IaaS.
Does Azure offer migration credits or incentives?
Yes. Microsoft Azure Migrate and Modernize program provides funding, credits, and partner resources for migrations. Azure Hybrid Benefit allows existing Windows Server and SQL Server licences to be used on Azure, saving 40–55% on VM costs compared to paying-as-you-go rates. FastTrack for Azure provides direct engineering support from Microsoft for qualifying migrations. Contact your Microsoft account team or a Microsoft Partner to access these programs.