--- title: "Understanding the savings on a schedule" slug: "understanding-the-savings-on-a-schedule" updated: 2026-09-03T11:07:41Z published: 2026-09-03T11:07:41Z canonical: "docs.turbo360.com/understanding-the-savings-on-a-schedule" --- > ## 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. # Understanding the savings on a schedule This article walks through a configured schedule example and explains how savings are calculated and realized. ## Top Level Schedule The table below defines the key columns at the schedule level. | Column | Description | More Info | | --- | --- | --- | | List Cost | This is the sum of the list price for resources within the schedule | - This is based on a 30 days cost | | Potential Savings | This is the sum of the potential savings at resource level | | | Amortized Cost | This is the sum of the amortized cost for the resources in the schedule | - This is based on the last 30 days - This will include any impact of savings plans and reservations or hybrid benefit | ## Schedule Time Settings The schedule defines the daily start and stop times for its resources. This equates to 50 hours of uptime and 118 hours of downtime. If the schedule is up for 50 hours and down for 118 hours then this means that for >70% of the time the resources will be in the down state and we will hope to see in the region of 70% savings compared to if the resources were in the up state for 100% of the time. ## Schedule Resources This schedule has 3 resources. Compared to the schedule-level totals in the Top Level Schedule section above: - List Cost: The schedule-level list cost is the sum of the resource-level list costs. An explanation of list cost is below. - Savings: The schedule-level savings is the sum of the resource-level savings shown above. - Amortized Cost: The schedule-level amortized cost is the sum of the resource-level amortized costs. An explanation of amortized cost is below. The resource configuration shows: | Row in Schedule | Schedule Action | Up Configuration | Down Configuration | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 - App Service Plan | Downsize out of hours | Scale up to P2V3 Premium | Scale down to P0V3 Premium | | 2 - VM | Turn off out of hours | On (Standard D4as V4 SKU) | Off | | 3 - VM | Downsize out of hours | Scale up to -> (Standard D32as V4) | Scale down to -> (Standard D2as V4) | The cost-related columns in the resource view show the following: | Column | Source | Description | More Info | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | List Cost | Azure list price for the sku | This is the Azure list price for the resource if it was in the up configuration for the entire 30 day period. | We use a 30 day period here so there is no confusion between months with different number of days. | | Savings | Estimated based on configuration in the schedule | This is the expected savings compared to the list price based on the number of up and down hours configured on the schedule. It is based on a 30 day comparison. | As an example, if the list price for the resource was $100 and you turn it off for 50% of the time we would expect the savings to be $50 | | Amortized Cost | Based on previous cost data we have collected | This is the amortized cost that you have paid for this resource for the last 30 days | The typical example should be, with a virtual machine on a pay as you go pricing with no savings plans or RIs and if the schedule was to turn the VM off for 50% of the time then the VM which costs $100 should have an amortized cost of $50. There are other factors that can come into play in some circumstances: 1. This will factor in any cost you have paid for any reservations, savings plans which may have been applied to the resource. 2. If you have a reservation partially applying to the resource for different amounts month over month then this may make the amortized cost for the resource change when you look at this value from 1 month to the next. 3. There may be cases where for the month you configure the schedule the Amortized cost is a lot lower than you might anticipate if you are increasing the size of the VM compared to normal | ### Points to note In my example above you may notice that the VM (3rd row) I will be downsizing has a smaller than you might expect amortized cost. This is because in reality this resource has been set as a Standard D2as v4 VM SKU for the last month. In the schedule I will be moving it to a bigger size than normal during working hours so users have more power available but in the evening I will be shrinking it back to the smallest size. In this sample schedule there are also reservations which apply to these resources quite often which can also affect the amortized cost which is why the amortized cost can look lower than the list cost before you start using the scheduler. In these Azure will attempt to reallocate your reservation to other azure resources provided there are resources which would be within the scope of the reservation. You need to be careful though if you are using a resource on a schedule that you intend to be picked up by a reservation, these are often competing optimization approaches and you need to check you don't end up with underutilized reservations. ## Calculation ### Resource level savings | Resource | If un scheduled | Scheduled Up | Scheduled Down | Savings | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 = App Service | - P2V3 Premium App Service - Region = West US 3, Linux - 168 hours per week - Cost Per Hour = $0.310 - Expected Cost per week = $52.08 - Expected cost for 30 days = $223.2 | - P2V3 Premium App Service - Region = West US 3, Linux - 50 hours per week - Cost Per Hour = $0.310 - Expected Cost per week = $15.50 - Expected Cost for 30 days = $66.42 | - P0V3 Premium App Service - Region = West US 3, Linux - 118 hours per week - Cost Per Hour = $0.078 - Expected Cost per week = $9.15 - Expected Cost for 30 days = $39.21 | - Unscheduled Cost = $223.2 - Scheduled Cost = $127.57 - Up = $66.42 - Down $39.21 - Savings = $95.63 | | 2 = VM to stop / start | - Standard D4as V4 - Region = Central US - State = On - 168 hours per week - Cost Per Hour = $0.217 - Expected Cost per week = $36.45 - Expected cost for 30 days = $156.24 | - Standard D4as V4 - Region = Central US - State = On - 50 hours per week - Cost Per Hour = $0.217 - Expected Cost per week = $10.85 - Expected cost for 30 days = $46.50 | - Standard D4as V4 - Region = Central US - State = Off - 118 hours per week - Cost Per Hour = 0 - Expected Cost per week = 0 - Expected cost for 30 days = 0 | - Unscheduled Cost = $156.24 - Scheduled Cost = $46.50 - Up = $46.50 - Down $0 - Savings = $109.74 | | 3 = VM to scale up/down | - Standard D16as V4 - Region = East US - State = On - 168 hours per week - Cost Per Hour = $0.768 - Expected Cost per week = $129.02 - Expected cost for 30 days = $552.96 | - Standard D16as V4 - Region = East US - State = On - 50 hours per week - Cost Per Hour = $0.768 - Expected Cost per week = $38.4 - Expected cost for 30 days = $164.57 | - Standard D2as V4 - Region = East US - State = On - 118 hours per week - Cost Per Hour = $0.096 - Expected Cost per week = $11.328 - Expected Cost for 30 days = $48.54 | - Unscheduled Cost = $552.96 - Scheduled Cost = $213.11 - Up = $164.57 - Down $48.54 - Savings = $339.85 - | ### Schedule level savings The total schedule-level savings is calculated by adding up the resource-level savings. In this case, Total Savings = $545.22