When it comes to managing cloud spend, even the most well-run environments can experience creeping costs. Having worked with organisations of all sizes, I’ve seen firsthand how quickly Azure bills can climb, not because of major missteps, but due to a few recurring (and avoidable) oversights.
I’m Chris Thompson, one of our in-house Azure experts, and in this blog I’m sharing the top five mistakes I see most often - and more importantly, how to fix them.
Cloud costs can creep up faster than expected, even in well-managed environments. For many organisations, high Azure bills aren’t the result of major mistakes - they’re down to a few common oversights. The good news? They’re usually easy to fix once you know where to look.
Here are five of the most frequent (and avoidable) mistakes that can quietly inflate your Azure bill, plus simple ways to keep costs under control.
1. Unattached Disks
When you delete a virtual machine (VM), the storage disks aren’t automatically removed. These unused disks continue to generate charges in the background.
How to fix it:
Regularly check for unattached disks in the Azure portal. If a disk isn’t in use, either delete it or move it to lower-cost archive storage.
2. Oversized VMs
It’s easy to overestimate the power of your application needs and provision large VM sizes “just in case.” But if your apps don’t fully use the capacity, you’re wasting money.
How to fix it:
Use Azure Advisor to check for underutilised VMs, then scale them down to smaller sizes that match actual usage.
3. Using Premium Storage Unnecessarily
Premium SSDs are fast but expensive. They’re great for high-performance workloads, but many teams use them by default - even for basic tasks.
How to fix it:
Switch to standard SSDs or HDDs for test environments or low-priority systems. Reviewing your storage account types can also uncover quick savings.
4. Zombie Resources
These are leftover resources from old projects - things like unused IP addresses, public load balancers, backup snapshots, or old test VMs that were never cleaned up.
How to fix it:
Tag resources properly by project or owner to keep track of what’s active. Then use Azure Resource Graph or Cost Management to identify and clean up idle or unnecessary resources.
5. No Budgets or Alerts
If you’re not tracking spend or setting alerts, you’ll only notice problems once the invoice lands - and by then, it’s too late to react.
How to fix it:
Set up budgets and alerts in Azure Cost Management. Alerts at 80% or 100% of budget thresholds can give you the heads-up you need to act in time.
These small oversights might seem minor in isolation, but together they can add up to a significant chunk of your Azure spend. The good news is that they’re all fixable - with the right tools, regular reviews, and a bit of upfront attention. By staying on top of unused resources, right-sizing your environment, and setting budgets, you can bring your Azure bill under control - without sacrificing performance.
Ready to cut cost on your Cloud Environment?
If you’re unsure where to start or want to sense-check your current approach, we’re always happy to help. Our Azure well architected review helps uncover opportunities to cut costs, strengthen security, and maximise the cloud's potential.
