BLOG: Explaining Azure Local additions to licensing and hardware ecosystem - June 2026

Hey Karl-WE​. Thanks for adding. A couple of things: On the first iteration of the OEM version (AzL + WS2022) MS did offer an purchasable upgrade to WS2025 for the guest for customers who purchased the AzL + WS2022 version. I anticipate that when WS vNext is GA, MS will likely do something similar. It was a flat per-node charge regardless of cores, and was less than 7% of the total OEM AzL+WS2022 license cost for a 16 core license. Second, while WS Arc Management does appear to be an additional cost vs AHB, it may be useful to differentiate that the Azure Arc control plane IS included and what the differences are between that and WS Arc Management. Lastly, for Tier 2, the OEM sku can be used for disaggregated or external storage (L2) and this results in $10 per core reduction to the $20 subscription fee making it $10/core/month. It's a tiny footnote here in the fee table: 

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/azure-local/