• Optimize Azure costs or reduce spending
• Analyze Azure subscription for cost savings
• Generate cost optimization report
• Find orphaned or unused resources
• Rightsize Azure VMs, containers, or services
• Identify where they're overspending in Azure
• Optimize Redis costs specifically - See Azure Redis Cost Optimization for Redis-specific analysis

• Azure CLI installed and authenticated (

  az login

  )
• Azure CLI extensions:

  costmanagement

  ,

  resource-graph

• Azure Quick Review (azqr) installed - See Azure Quick Review for details

• Cost Management Reader role
• Monitoring Reader role
• Reader role on subscription/resource group

az --version
az account show
az extension show --name costmanagement
azqr version

• User mentions "Redis", "Azure Cache for Redis", or "Azure Managed Redis"
• Focus is on Redis resource optimization, not general subscription analysis
• User wants Redis-specific recommendations (SKU downgrade, failed caches, etc.)

• Interactive subscription filtering (prefix, ID, or "all subscriptions")
• Redis-specific optimization rules (failed caches, oversized tiers, missing tags)
• Pre-built report templates for Redis cost analysis
• Uses

  redis_list

  command

• Subscription-level Redis summary
• Detailed Redis cache analysis

Note: For general subscription-wide cost optimization (including Redis), continue with Step 2. For Redis-only focused analysis, follow the instructions in the Redis-specific reference document.

1. Specific Subscription ID - Analyze a single subscription
2. Subscription Name - Use display name instead of ID
3. Subscription Prefix - Analyze all subscriptions starting with a prefix (e.g., "CacheTeam")
4. All My Subscriptions - Scan all accessible subscriptions
5. Tenant-wide - Analyze entire organization

// Use Azure MCP extension_azqr tool
extension_azqr({
  subscription: "<SUBSCRIPTION_ID>",
  "resource-group": "<RESOURCE_GROUP>"  // optional
})

• Orphaned resources: unattached disks, unused NICs, idle NAT gateways
• Over-provisioned resources: excessive retention periods, oversized SKUs
• Missing cost tags: resources without proper cost allocation

Note: The Azure Quick Review reference document includes instructions for creating filter configurations, saving output to the

output/

folder, and interpreting results for cost optimization.

temp/cost-query.json

{
  "type": "ActualCost",
  "timeframe": "Custom",
  "timePeriod": {
    "from": "<START_DATE>",  
    "to": "<END_DATE>"
  },
  "dataset": {
    "granularity": "None",
    "aggregation": {
      "totalCost": {
        "name": "Cost",
        "function": "Sum"
      }
    },
    "grouping": [
      {
        "type": "Dimension",
        "name": "ResourceId"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Action Required: Calculate

<START_DATE>

(30 days ago) and

<END_DATE>

(today) in ISO 8601 format (e.g.,

2025-11-03T00:00:00Z

).

undefined

fetch_webpage

// Validate pricing for key services
fetch_webpage({
  urls: ["https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/container-apps/"],
  query: "pricing tiers and costs"
})

• Container Apps: https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/details/container-apps/
• Virtual Machines: https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/details/virtual-machines/
• App Service: https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/details/app-service/
• Log Analytics: https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/details/monitor/

Important: Check for free tier allowances - many Azure services have generous free limits that may explain $0 costs.

• Total Monthly Cost: $X (💰 ACTUAL DATA)
• Top Cost Drivers: [List top 3 resources with Azure Portal links]

• Resource name with Portal link - $X/month savings

• 💰 ACTUAL cost: $X/month
• 📊 ESTIMATED savings: $Y/month
• Commands to execute (with warnings)

• 💰 ACTUAL baseline: D4s_v5, $X/month
• 📈 ACTUAL metrics: CPU 8%, Memory 30%
• 💵 VALIDATED pricing: D4s_v5 $Y/hr, D2s_v5 $Z/hr
• 📊 ESTIMATED savings: $S/month
• Commands to execute

• Monthly: $X
• Annual: $Y

• Cost Query Results:

  output/cost-query-result<timestamp>.json

  • Raw cost data from Azure Cost Management API
  • Audit trail proving actual costs at report generation time
  • Keep for at least 12 months for historical comparison
  • Contains every resource's exact cost over the analysis period
• Pricing Sources: [Links to Azure pricing pages]
• Free Tier Allowances: [Applicable allowances]

Note: The

temp/cost-query.json

file (if present) is a temporary query template and can be safely deleted. All permanent audit data is in the

output/

folder.

**Portal Link Format:**

undefined

1. Cost Optimization Report (

   output/costoptimizereport<timestamp>.md

   )
   • Executive summary with total costs and top drivers
   • Detailed cost breakdown with Azure Portal links
   • Prioritized recommendations with actual data and estimated savings
   • Implementation commands with safety warnings
2. Cost Query Results (

   output/cost-query-result<timestamp>.json

   )
   • Audit trail of all cost queries and responses
   • Validation evidence for recommendations

• 💰 ACTUAL DATA = Retrieved from Azure Cost Management API
• 📈 ACTUAL METRICS = Retrieved from Azure Monitor
• 💵 VALIDATED PRICING = Retrieved from official Azure pricing pages
• 📊 ESTIMATED SAVINGS = Calculated based on actual data and validated pricing

• Always query actual costs first - never estimate or assume
• Validate pricing from official sources - account for free tiers
• Use REST API for cost queries (more reliable than

  az costmanagement query

  )
• Save audit trail - include all queries and responses
• Include Azure Portal links for all resources
• Use UTF-8 encoding when creating report files
• For costs < $10/month, emphasize operational improvements over financial savings
• Never execute destructive operations without explicit approval

• Assuming costs: Always query actual data from Cost Management API
• Ignoring free tiers: Many services have generous allowances (e.g., Container Apps: 180K vCPU-sec free/month)
• Using wrong date ranges: 30 days for costs, 14 days for utilization
• Broken Portal links: Verify tenant ID and resource ID format
• Cost query failures: Use

  az rest

  with JSON body, not

  az costmanagement query

• Get approval before deleting resources
• Test changes in non-production first
• Provide dry-run commands for validation
• Include rollback procedures
• Monitor impact after implementation