How do savings plans affect the scheduler savings

In this page we will look at how savings plans affect realized savings when using the Turbo360 Scheduler.

🧩 Key concept: Savings Plans discount spend, not VMs

A Savings Plan is a commitment to spend a fixed amount per hour
—for example:

✅ You commit to: $5/hour for 1 year

Azure will then discount any compute costs up to $5/hour.

But here's the important bit:

🚨 Turning off a VM does NOT automatically save you money

It only saves money if the VM was causing you to exceed the Savings Plan commitment.

Scenarios

Below are some example scenarios to explain this.

1️⃣ Scenario 1 — You are ABOVE the Savings Plan commitment before turning off the VM

Example:

• Savings Plan commitment: $5/hr

• Total compute before turning off the VM: $6/hr

• The VM costs $0.77/hr

After turning off the VM:

• New total compute = $5.23/hr

You are still above your commitment.

✔️ Realised savings = full $0.77/hr

Because the VM's usage was not covered by the Savings Plan — it was billed at PAYG.

2️⃣ Scenario 2 — You are AT the Savings Plan commitment before turning off the VM

Example:

• SP commitment: $5/hr

• Total compute = $5/hr

• VM uses $0.77/hr of that

When you turn it off:

• Compute drops to $4.23/hr

❌ Realised savings = 0

Because you still pay the full $5/hr commitment regardless of consumption.

The VM was being discounted under the Savings Plan.
Turning it off does not reduce the bill.

3️⃣ Scenario 3 — You are BELOW the Savings Plan commitment before turning off the VM

Example:

• SP commitment: $5/hr

• Total compute = $4/hr

Turn off VM (saving $0.77/hr):

• New compute = $3.23/hr

❌ Realised savings = 0

You were already under-consuming your commitment.

🎯 Summary

🔥 The golden rule of Savings Plans

Turning off a VM only saves money if doing so reduces your PAYG (non-discounted) consumption.

If the VM is inside the discounted portion of spend → no savings
If it is outside (above the commitment) → full savings