How Do I Cancel My Azure Subscription?
"Turning off Azure" generally refers to cancelling your Azure subscription, which stops billing and eventually deprovisions your associated resources. It can also imply stopping or deallocating individual Azure resources to pause their operation and reduce costs. This guide focuses primarily on cancelling your Azure subscription as the primary method to "turn off" your overall Azure usage, while also briefly covering resource management.
Cancelling an Azure subscription is a straightforward process managed within the Azure portal. Follow these steps to ensure a smooth cancellation:
- Access the Azure Portal: Begin by logging into the Azure portal with the account administrator or owner credentials for the subscription you wish to cancel.
- Navigate to Cost Management + Billing: Once logged in, use the search bar at the top or the left-hand navigation pane to find and select Cost Management + Billing. This section provides an overview of your billing and subscription details.
- Select Subscriptions: In the left menu of the Cost Management + Billing blade, select either Subscriptions or Azure subscriptions. The exact name may vary based on your account type. If you have a support plan, it will also appear in this list alongside your other subscriptions.
- Choose the Subscription to Cancel: From the list of your active subscriptions, select the specific subscription that you want to cancel.
- Initiate Cancellation: On the subscription's overview page, you will find an option (often in the top menu or under "Overview" settings) to Cancel subscription. Click this option and follow the on-screen prompts to confirm your cancellation. Azure will ask for a reason for cancellation and may offer options to switch to a different plan.
What Happens After Cancelling Your Azure Subscription?
Cancelling your subscription has immediate and long-term effects on your services, data, and billing. Understanding these implications is crucial:
Immediate Effects & Data Retention
Upon cancellation, your subscription status changes to Disabled. While your services stop immediately, Microsoft retains your data for a limited period—typically 30 to 90 days—in a soft-deleted state. This grace period allows you to reactivate the subscription if the cancellation was accidental or if you change your mind.
After the retention period, your data is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered. This includes all deployed resources, configurations, and stored data.
Billing After Cancellation
You will be billed for any usage accrued up to the exact point of cancellation. Any outstanding charges will appear on your next and final invoice. Azure charges are calculated per second for most services, so you only pay for what you used until the cancellation takes effect. There are no cancellation fees for standard subscriptions.
The following table summarizes the typical effects of subscription cancellation:
| Aspect | Initial State (After Cancellation) | Subsequent State (After Data Retention Period) |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription Status | Disabled | Deprovisioned |
| Resource Access | Limited/Suspended (read-only for a short period) | All resources deleted/de-provisioned |
| Data & Storage | Soft-deleted (retainable for 30-90 days) | Permanently deleted |
| Billing | Final bill for accrued usage generated | No further charges |
Alternatively: Turning Off Individual Azure Resources
If your goal is to reduce costs or temporarily suspend a service without fully cancelling your entire Azure subscription, you can manage individual resources. This is particularly useful for virtual machines (VMs) and other compute services.
- Deallocate Virtual Machines: For Azure VMs, "turning off" often means deallocating them. When a VM is deallocated, it stops running, and you are no longer charged for compute time or IP addresses, though you may still incur costs for managed disks (storage) attached to the VM.
- To deallocate a VM, navigate to its overview page in the Azure portal and click the Stop button. This action automatically deallocates the VM.
- Delete Resources: For other services, if you no longer need them, you can delete individual resources or entire resource groups. Deleting a resource permanently removes it and stops any associated charges. Be cautious when deleting, as this action is usually irreversible for the data contained within the resource.
By managing your resources effectively, you can control your Azure spend without necessarily needing to cancel your entire subscription.
