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cost-considerations.md

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Cost Considerations
Testing budgets, cost tracking, and optimization strategies for contribution validation
Microsoft Robotics-AI Team
2026-02-03
concept

Note

This guide expands on the Cost Considerations section of the main contributing guide.

Full deployment testing incurs Azure costs. This guide provides cost transparency and optimization strategies.

Note

Cost estimates in this document were captured on 2026-02-03 and are subject to change. Use the Azure Pricing Calculator for current rates.

Testing Budget

Full Deployment Cost Estimate

  • GPU VMs: ~$3.06/hour per Standard_NC24ads_A100_v4 node
  • Managed services: ~$50-100/month (Storage, Key Vault, PostgreSQL, Redis)
  • Total for 8-hour testing session: ~$25-50

Cost by Component

Component Estimated Cost Notes
AKS Control Plane Free (tier) or ~$0.10/hour (standard) Standard tier for production
GPU Node Pool $3.06/hour per node Standard_NC24ads_A100_v4
System Node Pool ~$0.50/hour Standard_D4s_v3
Storage Account ~$20-30/month General Purpose v2
Key Vault ~$0.05/month + operations Secrets storage
PostgreSQL ~$15-25/month Flexible Server, Burstable tier
Redis Cache ~$15-20/month Basic tier
Log Analytics ~$5-15/month Based on ingestion volume

Cost-Effective Testing

Strategies for Minimizing Testing Costs

Use smaller deployments:

# Single GPU node instead of default pool size
terraform apply -var="gpu_node_count=1"

# Public network mode (simpler, faster)
terraform apply -var="network_mode=public"

# Burstable database tiers
terraform apply -var="postgres_sku=B_Standard_B1ms"

Time-bound testing:

# Set auto-shutdown timer
az vm auto-shutdown -g <rg> -n <vm> --time 2200

# Use Azure Dev/Test subscription pricing (if available)
# 40-60% savings on compute resources

Immediate cleanup:

# Destroy all resources after validation
terraform destroy -auto-approve -var-file=terraform.tfvars

# Verify resource deletion
az group list --query "[?starts_with(name,'rg-robotics')].name" -o table
az group delete -n <rg> --yes --no-wait

Cost Tracking

Monitor Spending During Testing

# Check recent usage
az consumption usage list \
  --start-date $(date -d '7 days ago' +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --end-date $(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --query "[].{Date:usageStart, Amount:pretaxCost, Currency:currency}" \
  --output table

# Create budget alert
az consumption budget create \
  --budget-name "PR-Testing-Monthly" \
  --amount 100 \
  --time-grain Monthly \
  --category Cost \
  --resource-group <rg>

Cost by Contribution Type

Contribution Type Typical Cost Recommended Testing
Documentation $0 Read-through, link check
Shell scripts $0-10 ShellCheck, minimal deployment
Terraform modules $10-25 Plan validation, short deployment
Training scripts $15-30 Single training job
Full infrastructure $25-50 Complete deployment cycle
Workflow templates $15-40 Workflow execution

Regional Pricing

GPU VM costs vary by region. Use Azure Pricing Calculator to estimate costs for your target region.

Region Standard_NC24ads_A100_v4 Hourly Cost
East US ~$3.06/hour
West US 2 ~$3.06/hour
West Europe ~$3.67/hour

Tip

Test in regions with lower GPU costs when region-specific features are not being validated.

Related Documentation