Original research · annual
The UK Azure Cost Benchmark.
First edition: 2026.
An annual, anonymised study of what UK organisations actually spend — and waste — on Azure and Azure AI. Not vendor estimates, not survey vibes: banded, verified numbers from real estates. Data collection for the first edition is open now.
- Anonymised & banded
- Real estates, not surveys
- Published free
Azure AI Foundry specialists
FinOps cost engineering
Fixed-price foundations
UK · US · Canada
Why this exists
Everyone quotes waste figures. Nobody shows UK data.
Cloud-waste statistics get repeated endlessly, but almost none of them are UK-specific, recent, or broken down by organisation size — and none of them cover AI workloads, where the next wave of bill shock is already forming. The UK Azure Cost Benchmark exists to put real, citable numbers behind the conversation. When the first edition publishes, every figure on this page will come from verified, anonymised data — never estimates.
What it measures
Six questions, answered with data.
- —Azure spend by organisation size and sector (anonymised, banded)
- —The share of spend that is avoidable waste — idle resources, over-provisioning, wrong pricing models
- —AI-specific spend: Azure OpenAI as a share of the bill, token vs PTU adoption, model mix
- —Reservation and savings-plan coverage vs pay-as-you-go drift
- —Tagging and cost-allocation maturity — can anyone say what each workload costs?
- —Time-to-detection for cost anomalies (invoice-time vs same-week)
Methodology
Anonymised, banded, verifiable.
Data comes from consenting participants' Azure Cost Management exports and cost reviews. Every contribution is anonymised at source, reported only in bands (spend ranges, percentage ranges, sector groups), and no participant is identifiable in any published figure. Participants receive the full findings, plus a private comparison of their own estate against the benchmark, before public release.
Participate
Add your estate to the first edition.
Participation takes under an hour, costs nothing, and gets you the private benchmark comparison of your own Azure spend. Email hello@northpeakcloud.comwith the subject “Benchmark” — or start with the free Azure OpenAI cost calculator to see your indicative AI number first.
Get in touch
Let’s get you AI-ready.
Tell us what you’re trying to do with AI on Azure — a couple of sentences is plenty. You’ll get a reply within one working day with clear next steps. No obligation, UK, US and Canada welcome.