Starting February 1, 2027, Azure reservation exchanges will no longer be available for services covered by savings plans. This change aligns reservation exchange policy with the flexibility already offered by savings plans, and it gives you a clear, predictable framework for choosing the right commitment-based discount for each workload.
This post walks through what's changing, who's affected, what stays the same, and the actions you can take today to plan ahead.
What's changing
If a service supports Azure savings plans, the corresponding reservation for that service will no longer support exchanges as of February 1, 2027. This change excludes products or services that are deprecated and approaching end of life, as well as cloud environments that don't currently support savings plans.
The policy is forward-looking, as savings plan coverage expands, reservations for those services will follow the same policy and will not support exchanges.
Affected services
At the time of this announcement, the change applies to reservations for the following services:
Compute services
- Azure Virtual Machines — including exchanges between non-premium and premium storage
- Azure Dedicated Host
- Azure App Service
Database services
- Azure Database for PostgreSQL
- Azure Database for MySQL
- Azure DocumentDB
- Azure Cosmos DB
- Azure SQL Database
- Azure SQL Managed Instance
Important details to plan around
- One final exchange. Each active reservation for an impacted service, purchased before February 1, 2027, will retain the right to one final exchange after that date. Plan how and when you want to use it.
- New purchases. Reservations for impacted services purchased on or after February 1, 2027, will not support exchanges.
- Expanding scope. As savings plan eligibility grows, additional services will automatically fall under this policy.
What's not changing
Reservations remain the right choice for predictable, stable workloads, and you can continue to purchase them. Specifically:
- Instance size flexibility for virtual machines is not impacted by this change.
- The reservation cancellation policy is not impacted by this change.
Recommended action
If you need flexibility across services and regions, consider evaluating savings plans as a discount option for dynamic and evolving workloads. Savings plans can help provide cost savings on consistent spend across compute and database services, regardless of region. You can also trade in your existing reservations for a savings plan.
Alternatively, reservations remain the appropriate option for predictable, stable workloads, and you can continue to purchase them.
To compare your options, see decide between a savings plan and a reservation.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is changing?
Starting February 1, 2027, Azure reservation exchanges will no longer be available for services covered by Azure savings plans. Reservations for these services will continue to be available for purchase and renewal.
- Which services are affected?
At the time of this announcement, the policy applies to reservations for:
Compute services
- Azure Virtual Machines (including exchanges between non-premium and premium storage)
- Azure Dedicated Host
- Azure App Service
Database services
- Azure Database for PostgreSQL
- Azure Database for MySQL
- Azure DocumentDB
- Azure Cosmos DB
- Azure SQL Database
- Azure SQL Managed Instance
As Azure savings plan coverage expands, additional savings plan-eligible services may become subject to this policy.
- Does this apply to all Azure cloud environments?
No. This change applies only to cloud environments where Azure savings plans are available.
- Can I still exchange reservations before February 1, 2027?
Yes. Reservation exchanges will continue to be available under the current policy until February 1, 2027.
- Does this affect reservations I already own?
Active reservations for impacted services purchased before February 1, 2027, will retain the right to one final exchange after that date.
- What happens after I use my final exchange?
Once the final exchange is used, the resulting reservation cannot be exchanged again.
- Can I still purchase or renew reservations?
Yes. Reservations remain available and continue to be a valuable option for stable, predictable workloads.
- Is Azure retiring reservations?
No. Reservations remain an important commitment-based discount offering. This change affects exchangeability only.
- What is not changing?
The following capabilities remain available:
- VM instance size flexibility
- Reservation cancellations under existing policies
- Reservation-to-savings-plan trade-in
- Reservation purchases and renewals
- When should I choose a savings plan instead of a reservation?
Review our guidance on how to decide between a savings plan and a reservation.
- What should I do before February 1, 2027?
Review your reservation portfolio, evaluate future flexibility needs, consider Azure savings plans where appropriate, and plan how you want to use the one final exchange available to eligible active reservations.
- Where can I learn more?
For more information, see:
- Changes to the Azure reservation exchange policy
- Exchanges and refunds for Azure reservations
- Trade in reservations for a savings plan
- Azure savings plans
- Decide between a savings plan and a reservation.
Policy details are subject to change and may vary based on service eligibility and contractual terms.
Microsoft