# Overprovisioned Azure App Service Plan | Cloud Efficiency Hub

Canonical: https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/overprovisioned-azure-app-service-plan

An App Service Plan is sized larger than required for the applications it hosts.

By: Aaran Bhambra

[Cloud Efficiency Hub](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub) 

The short version

An App Service Plan is sized larger than required for the applications it hosts.

[Aaran Bhambra](https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaran-bhambra/)

FinOps Engineer / DevOps Engineer @ WTW

Azure service

[Azure App Service Plans](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/azure-app-service-plans)

Category

[Compute](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/service-category/compute)

Reference

CER-0291

Type

Overprovisioned Resource

## Explanation

Why the waste happens and who it affects.

Plans are often provisioned conservatively to handle anticipated peak demand and are not revisited after workloads stabilize. Because pricing is tied to the plan's SKU rather than real-time usage, oversized plans continue to incur higher costs even when CPU and memory utilization remain consistently low.

## Billing model

The pricing dimensions that drive this cost.

Azure App Service Plans are billed based on the selected SKU and instance count, regardless of actual application utilization.

## How to detect

3 checks to find it in your estate.

- Review App Service Plans with sustained low utilization relative to their provisioned capacity

- Identify plans sized for historical or anticipated peaks that no longer occur

- Assess whether plan sizing has been revisited since initial deployment

## How to fix

3 ways to remove the waste.

- Resize App Service Plans to better align with observed workload needs

- Periodically reassess plan sizing as application traffic and performance requirements change

- Treat App Service Plan sizing as a recurring optimization activity, not a one-time decision

## Documentation

Vendor references for pricing and configuration.

- [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/overview-hosting-plans  learn.microsoft.com](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/overview-hosting-plans)

- [https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/details/app-service/windows/  azure.microsoft.com](https://azure.microsoft.com/pricing/details/app-service/windows/)

## Related inefficiencies

[Browse the library](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub)

- Azure App Service Plans  CER-0283

### [Mixing Production and Non-Production Applications in the Same App Service Plan](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/mixing-production-and-non-production-applications-in-the-same-app-service-plan)

Production and non-production applications are hosted within the same App Service Plan. Production workloads often require higher availability, performance, or scaling characteristics, driving the plan toward larger or higher-cost SKUs....

Compute

- Azure Functions  CER-0234

### [Oversized Hosting Plan for Azure Functions](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/oversized-hosting-plan-for-azure-functions)

Teams often choose the Premium or App Service Plan for Azure Functions to avoid cold start delays or enable VNET connectivity, especially early in a project when performance concerns dominate. However, these decisions are rarely...

Compute

- Azure Virtual Machines  CER-0045

### [Underutilized Azure Virtual Machine](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/underutilized-azure-virtual-machine)

Azure VMs are frequently provisioned with more vCPU and memory than needed, often based on template defaults or peak demand assumptions. When a VM operates well below its capacity for an extended period, it presents an opportunity to...

Compute

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