---
title: "Rightsizing recommendations"
slug: "rightsizing-recommendations"
updated: 2026-09-18T05:57:05Z
published: 2026-09-18T05:57:05Z
canonical: "docs.turbo360.com/rightsizing-recommendations"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.turbo360.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Rightsizing recommendations

## Overview

**Rightsizing recommendations** is a document type in Azure Documenter that provides recommendations for optimizing performance and cost by choosing the right SKUs for the resources in Azure subscriptions.

### Business value

Rightsizing recommendations helps teams eliminate over-provisioned or under-provisioned resources, improving performance where needed and cutting cost where capacity is unused.

## Prerequisites

### Required permissions

| Role | Permission level | Access |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Account owner, Owner, Contributor | - | Full access to the Documentation section |
| Custom role | Read | View documents generated under Documentation |
| Custom role | Manage | View, generate, and manage documents under Documentation |

## How it works

### Recommendation types

The document contains recommendations on which SKUs to use for Azure resources, organized into four categories:

**1. Upgrade**

A resource that often consumes the maximum capacity of its SKU receives this recommendation. Upgrading to a higher SKU improves performance.

**2. Downgrade**

A resource that does not utilize its maximum capacity receives this recommendation. Moving it to a lower SKU reduces cost.

**3. Idle**

This recommendation indicates that the resource has not been used for an extended period and can be deleted if no longer required.

**4. No change**

A resource that consistently utilizes the average capacity of its SKU receives this recommendation. No SKU change is required.

### Document structure

The document opens with a **Summary** table showing all selected subscriptions with their Current Cost (USD), Optimized Cost (USD), and total Recommendations count, giving an immediate cross-subscription view of potential savings.

For each subscription, the document provides:

- A **Subscription summary** with current cost, optimized cost, and total recommendation count
- A **Recommendations breakdown** by recommendation type (Idle, Upgrade, Downgrade, No change)
- For each recommendation type: a breakdown by resource type (e.g., Virtual Machine, SQL Database, App Service Plan)
- For each resource type: a detailed table

Per-resource table columns:

| Column | Description |
| --- | --- |
| Resource | The Azure resource name |
| Current Sku | The resource's current SKU |
| Current Cost (USD) | The resource's current monthly cost |
| Recommended Sku | The Azure Documenter-recommended SKU |
| Optimized Cost (USD) | The projected cost at the recommended SKU |

For SQL databases, the table also includes the **Server** name alongside the resource name. Supported resource types include Virtual Machine, Virtual Machine Scaleset, SQL Database, and App Service Plan.

## Steps

Use the following steps to generate a Rightsizing recommendations document. Navigate to **Azure Documenter** to get started.

1. Click **New configuration**. The **Configure your document** wizard opens.
2. In Step 1 (Basics), enter a configuration name. Under **Choose document type**, select **Rightsizing recommendations**. Configure the following options:
  - **Currency:** the currency in which cost data is displayed
  - **Evaluation duration:** the number of days of usage data to analyze (default: 30 days)
  - **Recommendations:** filters the output to a specific recommendation type: All, Idle, Upgrade, Downgrade, or No change
3. In Step 2 (Service principal), select the service principal and configure the subscription scope. Click **Next**.
4. Complete **Steps 3–6** (Branding, Publish settings, Schedule, Notifications) as required. Click **Next** after each step.
5. In Step 7 (Review), confirm your configuration and click **Finish**.

              Note:

              

By default, the **last 30 days of evaluation duration** is used to analyze and generate the Rightsizing recommendations document.

Once generation is complete, a **URL** is created for the document, and you can download it using the **Download** link.

## Example scenario

Contoso's platform team notices rising compute spend on their Development subscription. They generate a Rightsizing recommendations document, identify several idle and over-provisioned VMs flagged under **Downgrade** and **Idle**, and resize or remove them to cut costs.

## Troubleshooting

1. **Rightsizing recommendations document returns no recommendations** Cause: insufficient usage history exists for the selected evaluation duration, or all resources are already optimally sized. Fix: increase the evaluation duration in the configuration and regenerate, or verify that resources have been active during the evaluation period.
2. **Document generation fails or returns incomplete data** Cause: the service principal lacks the required permissions to access usage metrics for the selected subscriptions. Fix: verify the service principal has at least Reader access on all selected subscriptions, then regenerate.
3. **Evaluation duration change does not reflect in the generated document** Cause: the configuration was edited but the document was not regenerated after saving the change. Fix: after updating the evaluation duration, regenerate the document using the **Context menu ( ⋮ )** next to the configuration.

## FAQs

1. **Who can access the Documentation section by default?** Account owner, Owner, and Contributor roles have full access by default. No additional configuration is required.
2. **What's the difference between Read and Manage for Documentation?** Read lets a user view documents generated under Document Types. Manage lets a user view, generate, and manage them.
3. **What evaluation window is used to calculate the recommendations?** The last 30 days by default. You can change the evaluation duration from an existing configuration's **Advanced settings** section.

## Related articles

- [Reservation recommendations](https://docs.turbo360.com/docs/reservation-recommendations)
- [Cost comparison](https://docs.turbo360.com/docs/cost-comparison)
- [Resource details](https://docs.turbo360.com/docs/resource-details)