AzureAzure Backup and Site RecoveryStorage

`azurerm_recovery_services_vault` cost estimation

The container for Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery. The vault is free. Cost lives on what you protect: per-instance backup fees, backup storage, and Site Recovery per-instance replication.

The azurerm_recovery_services_vault resource creates the management container that Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery run inside. It holds backup policies, replication configuration, soft-delete settings, and the recovery points. Creating a vault and defining policies on it costs nothing. Billing begins the moment a resource is actually protected.

Azure Backup bills a protected-instance fee that scales with the size of what you protect. An instance under 500 GB is about $10/month, an instance between 500 GB and 1 TB is about $20/month, and each additional 500 GB adds roughly another $10/month. That fee is separate from the backup storage itself. Backup storage is billed per GB-month of recovery-point data: Locally Redundant Storage is around $0.0224/GB-month, Geo-Redundant around $0.05/GB-month, and the archive tier is far cheaper for long-retention points. The redundancy choice and retention length together drive most of the storage bill.

Azure Site Recovery is priced per protected instance being replicated. Replicating a machine to Azure is about $25/month per instance, and replicating between customer-owned sites is about $16/month per instance. On top of that you pay for the storage holding the replica and, once you fail over, the compute for the recovered VMs. A large fleet configured for disaster recovery can therefore carry a significant standing cost even while everything is running normally in the primary region.

The cost-adjacent gotcha is soft-delete and retention. Vaults default to keeping deleted backups for 14 days, and generous retention policies keep daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly recovery points for years. Each retained point is billed storage. A policy that keeps 10 years of monthly backups on Geo-Redundant storage for a large database is a quietly enormous line item. Match retention to your actual compliance requirement, and use the archive tier for long-term points.

c3x flags azurerm_recovery_services_vault as free and attributes protected-instance fees, backup storage, and Site Recovery cost to the workloads registered to the vault.

Terraform example

A minimal but realistic configuration that C3X can estimate.

resource "azurerm_recovery_services_vault" "main" {
  name                = "prod-backup-vault"
  location            = "eastus"
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.main.name
  sku                 = "Standard"
  storage_mode_type   = "GeoRedundant"

  soft_delete_enabled = true
}

resource "azurerm_backup_policy_vm" "daily" {
  name                = "daily-30day"
  resource_group_name = azurerm_resource_group.main.name
  recovery_vault_name = azurerm_recovery_services_vault.main.name

  backup {
    frequency = "Daily"
    time      = "23:00"
  }

  retention_daily {
    count = 30
  }
}

Pricing dimensions

What you actually pay for when you provision azurerm_recovery_services_vault.

Dimension	Unit	What's being charged
Recovery Services vault	free	The vault container and its backup and replication policies carry no per-resource charge. $0 (free)
Protected instance (under 500 GB)	per month	Azure Backup per-instance fee for a protected workload up to 500 GB, separate from storage. about $10/month
Protected instance (500 GB to 1 TB)	per month	Per-instance fee for a larger workload, rising by roughly $10 per additional 500 GB. about $20/month
Backup storage (LRS)	per GB-month	Locally redundant storage for recovery points. Geo-redundant is roughly double. about $0.0224/GB-month (LRS)
Site Recovery to Azure	per month per instance	Azure Site Recovery replication fee per protected instance replicating to Azure. about $25/month per instance

Optimization tips

Common ways to reduce azurerm_recovery_services_vault cost without changing the workload.

Match retention to your real compliance requirement

Often 30 to 60% of backup storage

Every retained recovery point is billed storage. A policy keeping years of daily, weekly, and monthly points multiplies your storage cost. Trim retention to what compliance actually requires rather than the generous defaults.

Use the archive tier for long-term recovery points

Up to 80% on long-retention points

Recovery points you must keep for months or years but rarely restore belong in the archive tier, which is far cheaper per GB-month than the standard vault tier.

Choose LRS unless geo-redundancy is required

About 50% of backup storage

Geo-redundant backup storage is roughly double LRS. For workloads whose data can be rebuilt or is already replicated elsewhere, LRS halves the storage line.

Deregister stale protected instances

$10 to $20/month per stale instance

The per-instance fee keeps billing as long as a workload is registered, even for decommissioned machines. Audit protected items and stop protection on anything that no longer exists.

FAQ

Is the Recovery Services vault itself free?

Yes. The vault, its policies, and its configuration cost nothing. Billing starts only when a workload is actually protected, at which point you pay a per-instance fee plus backup storage.

How is Azure Backup priced?

Two parts. A protected-instance fee that scales with size (about $10/month under 500 GB, about $20/month for 500 GB to 1 TB, plus roughly $10 per additional 500 GB), and backup storage billed per GB-month based on the redundancy tier you pick.

What does Azure Site Recovery add?

Site Recovery bills about $25/month per instance replicating to Azure, or about $16/month per instance between customer sites, plus storage for the replica. After a failover you also pay compute for the recovered VMs.

Why is my backup storage growing over time?

Retention. Each daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly recovery point your policy keeps is stored and billed. Soft-delete also holds deleted backups for a period. Long retention on geo-redundant storage is the usual cause of an unexpectedly large backup bill.